For seamless healthcare management at Nw Family Medicine, understanding our prescription and appointment policies is essential. We aim to provide the best possible care, and these guidelines help us ensure efficiency and patient well-being.
Prescription refills are routinely managed during scheduled office visits. We prescribe medication to last until your next appointment, ensuring continuous care. Running out of medication may indicate it’s time to schedule your next visit. For routine medication refills, we require annual appointments to properly monitor your health and medication needs.
If your insurance necessitates prior authorization for any medication, please obtain the Prior Authorization Form from your insurance provider for our physician to complete. While our team at NW Family Medicine is dedicated to assisting patients in maximizing their prescription benefits, it’s important to remember that insurance plans, including drug coverage, are agreements between you and your insurance company.
Should you need to switch pharmacies, including to mail-order services, Ohio law allows for the transfer of valid prescriptions to a new pharmacy without any charges or interruptions. However, some mail-order pharmacies may require a new prescription. If you prefer to change pharmacies before your next routine visit, you have options: you can schedule an appointment for prescription refills, wait until your next scheduled visit, or request a prescription rewrite for a fee, which will be available for office pickup after your physician reviews your records. Please note, lost prescriptions for controlled substances like pain or sleep medication cannot be replaced.
To ensure the appropriateness of your medication and the condition it treats, we discourage prescription refills over the phone. This practice prevents proper evaluation and follow-up. Similarly, NW Family Medicine does not accept refill requests directly from pharmacies. We always prefer to communicate directly with our patients regarding their prescriptions.
Appointment Arrival, Cancellation, and No-Show Guidelines
Arriving more than 15 minutes after your scheduled appointment time is considered a no-show, and you will need to reschedule. Appointments cancelled with less than two hours’ notice on the same day, or less than 24 hours’ notice for other appointments, including failure to attend, will incur a $35 fee. Appointment reminder calls or texts are a courtesy service and not guaranteed. Failure to receive a reminder does not waive the $35 charge for late cancellations or no-shows.
Consistent last-minute cancellations or no-show appointments, specifically more than three instances, may lead to the termination of our physician-patient relationship at NW Family Medicine. These policies are in place to respect our physicians’ time and ensure we can provide timely care to all our patients.
