Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is Family Medicine and how does it differ from Internal Medicine and Pediatrics.
In Family Medicine, we provide care to adults and children and have the advantage of knowing the entire family. In many cases, we are indeed only providing healthcare to one member of a family, but our orientation continues to view you as a whole person and not a constellation of diseases.
Appointments
Scheduling Appointments – When scheduling an appointment, please describe your needs to our staff so that an appropriate length of time can be reserved for you. We make every effort to have patients seen by their primary provider each visit. However, it may be necessary to see one of your provider’s associates for same day or emergency appointments.
Sick/Urgent Appointments – It is our policy to see patients who are acutely ill on the same day they call for an appointment.
Routine Appointments – A routine care appointment (generally 15 minutes) is designated for patients who require a non-urgent visit with their provider for a new healthcare problem or follow-up of an existing condition. Depending on the provider, we will be able to find a convenient time within 2 to 4 weeks.
Physical Exam Appointments – Appointments for adult exams are 45 minutes in length and for children are 30 minutes in length.
Canceling an Appointment – If you are unable to keep your appointment, please call us as soon as possible. Appointments cancelled, missed, or rescheduled without 24 hour notice may be subject to a fee. Fees for missed appointments are $50 for 20 minute appointments, $75 for 30 minutes, and $100 for 40 minutes or longer appointments. Late arrivals may require rescheduling your appointment.
Chronic Late Reschedule and No-Shows – Patients who repeatedly do not show for their appointments and/or reschedule with less than 24 hour notice, will be subject to our “same day appointment” policy. These patients may not schedule appointments ahead of time. They may only call on day of desired appointment to see if there is an available opening for a practitioner to see them.
After Hours Emergency Care
If you have an urgent medical situation during non-office hours, call our office and the answering service message will provide the number of the on-call physician. For routine questions and refill requests, we ask you please call the office on the next business day or leave a message.
Telephone Calls
Messages left for the providers will usually be returned during lunch or after the last patient appointment of the day. Please make sure you leave a number where you can be reached at these times.
Prescription Requests
Please provide us with the name, dose, quantity, and route (oral or by inhaler, for example) of the medication; when you take it; how many refills you usually receive; and the name and phone number of your pharmacy. Non-urgent requests received by Davis Square Family Practice before noon, will be called in or ready for pick up by 6pm the following business day. We suggest you call your pharmacy before picking up to make sure that your prescription is ready.
We discourage prescribing new medications over the phone as an accurate diagnosis is usually possible only with an office visit.
Controlled Substance Prescriptions – We are not accepting new patients who are currently taking daily controlled substances (e.g. medications requiring a paper prescription.) Established patients on controlled substance medications are required to keep MONTHLY visits and to sign a Controlled Substance Agreement.
Please be aware controlled substance refills may take up to 72 HOURS to process, so please plan accordingly. Your refill request may be denied should you fail to comply with your signed Controlled Substance Agreement.
Referrals
We hope you have chosen Davis Square Family Practice because you trust us to give you quality health care. Part of that trust involves allowing us to determine when to call in a specialist. We refer patients only after we have had a chance to evaluate your condition. If your case requires special treatment, we will then refer you.
Davis Square Family Practice has recently expanded its referral network. While continuing our relationship with Mount Auburn Hospital, we have also become an affiliate of the New England Quality Care Alliance (NEQCA) which includes providers on the North Shore. NEQCA is partnered with Tufts Medical Center and Floating Hospital for Children. This change is good news. You can remain with your current healthcare providers, and you now have a larger group of specialists to choose from.
Therefore, if you need to see a specialist, we will refer you to a physician within these networks. Although the specialist you wish to see may take your insurance, we cannot refer to them unless they are in our practice association networks. Only in rare cases do we refer to a specialist outside our network. By referring you to a specialist within our network, we can work together to ensure that you receive high quality, timely, and effective care.
If you are enrolled in a managed care insurance plan (HMO), you will need to obtain a referral from our office BEFORE seeing a specialist. Please allow up to 5 business days for your referral to be processed. Please have the following information available when requesting your referral:
- Your name
- Your date of birth
- The number we can best reach you at
- Your insurance company name and ID number
- The specialist’s name, NPI, phone number, and fax number
- The reason you are seeing the specialist.
- The date of your first appointment
We only process referrals for patients currently under our care. If you are not an established patient, we will be unable to give you a referral. Assigning Davis Square Family Practice as your primary care physician does not mean you are a patient in our practice. You become a patient after you have been evaluated in person by one of our providers.
Insurances Accepted
We accept most major commercial health insurance plans including:
- Aetna
- BMC Healthnet*
- Blue Shield
- Cigna
- Commonwealth Care Plan
- Fallon Community Health Plan*
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
- Medicaid of Massachusetts PCC Plan*
- Medicare
- Neighborhood Health Plan*
- Tufts Network Health*
- Tufts Health Plan
- Tufts Medicare Preferred
- Tufts Medicare Preferred Senior Care Options
- United Healthcare (We do not take AARP Medicare Complete)
*For existing patients and their relatives only – Call us if you have questions.
If your health insurance company is not listed above, please confirm with your insurance company that your visit with us will be covered
Financial Policy
We will submit insurance claims for our patients. However the agreement of the insurance carrier to pay for medical care is a contract between you and the carrier. You should direct any questions and/or complaints regarding coverage to your insurance carrier, your employer (if in a group plan) or to your agent.
Insurances vary in their coverage, and it is the patient’s responsibility to understand his/her medical benefits. There may be limitations and exclusions to coverage. The patient portion is set by the insurance company. Patients are responsible for any co-insurance, deductibles, and any non-covered billable services. All office co-pays are to be paid at the time of the service. This is an insurance company policy.
Parking
There is metered parking all around Davis Square with a metered parking lot located behind our office at the corner of Day and Herbert Streets. Meters are in effect 8am to 8pm.