A Guide for New Primary Care Patients

As your patient-centered medical home, we pledge to do our best to provide you with quality healthcare that is patient-centered and satisfying. The best way to accomplish this is to work closely together. Our approach seeks to improve healthcare by focusing on the patient-doctor relationship and to strengthen this partnership through a comprehensive approach to medical care and active patient involvement. We are a patient’s primary trusted medical provider – a single "home" from which to base your healthcare.

Patients who come to our practice are seeking ongoing primary care. Some have recently moved to the area or have new health insurance. Others are young adults leaving their pediatric office. No matter how you happen to become our patient, be assured that your health matters to us and you are important to us. We offer a full range of primary care internal medicine services which include the following:

  • Preventive medicine – we offer periodic preventive exams for the encouragement of healthy lifestyles and early detection of diseases through appropriate screening evaluations – most insurances cover yearly preventive exams
  • Management of chronic medical illnesses
  • Urgent care for the evaluation and treatment of new medical problems
  • Diagnostic services on-site including x-rays, bone density testing, electrocardiograms, spirometry to assess lung function, arterial brachial indexes to assess peripheral circulation
  • Vaccine administration – we offer flu, tetanus, pneumonia and shingles vaccines
  • Referral for specialty care – when specialty care is requested by you or your physician, the care team will personally manage, facilitate and coordinate the care with appropriate qualified professionals. As an independent medical practice, we can refer you to the most qualified physician, hospital, or other community health resource for your particular healthcare needs without the restriction of having to refer only within a single medical system.

Not all of our physicians are accepting new patients, please contact our office for more information.

Appointments

Our office hours are from 8 AM to 5:30 PM, Monday through Thursday and from 8 AM to 5 PM on Friday. To make an appointment, call 616.957.9237. Phones lines are open from 8 AM to 5:00 PM. If you are unable to keep your appointment, please notify the office as soon as possible. Failure to notify us may result in a charge, East Paris Internal Medicine's no show policy can be seen here.

If you are a new patient, please arrive 15 minutes early, to give us time to make certain your records contain accurate and complete information. Please bring all your medications with you. Do not be afraid to be candid.

Phone Calls

Our phone system is automated. Proper instruction on the system’s use is available day or night by calling the main number, 616.957.9237.

There are several options, so please listen carefully and follow the instructions. The system will allow your call to be handled efficiently and effectively. During off hours, there is always a physician on call for urgent medical situations. All emergency medical situations should be handled by calling 911 or going to the nearest emergency room.

Prescription Refills

Please make requests for prescription refills prior to 4 PM Monday through Friday. Requests called in after 4 PM will be received the following business day. Please allow up to 48 hours for your prescription request to be processed. Our automated phone system will guide you as to how to leave a message for your physician.

For your convenience, we suggest that you call well before your medication runs out.

Insurance

Our physicians participate with Medicare, which means we accept the Medicare fee schedule for patient care. The patient, however, is still responsible for the annual deductible, co-payments associated with the program and non-covered services.

We participate with most major insurance plans including Aetna, Blue Care Network, Blue Cross Blue Shield, CIGNA, Humana, Medicare, Priority Health, United Healthcare and most commercial plans. All managed care that we participate with will be processed. Our practice participates in CPC+, the nation’s largest-ever program to improve primary care. Through CPC+, our insurers give our practice additional resources to help us better manage your care.

We expect all co-pays to be paid at the time of service, as well as the patient responsibility portions for all non-covered services. If you have any questions regarding insurance plan coverage, please call our office at 616.957.9237.

Patients are responsible for providing accurate, up-to-date insurance information for billing purposes, to recognize that your insurance coverage is a contract between you and your insurance company, and to understand that you are ultimately responsible for the payment of your account.

Please call our billing department if you cannot pay your bill in full. We are here to help, and can set up payment arrangements to assist you. If you have any questions, call 616.957.9237.