Office Information

Heritage Family Medicine would like to clarify the utilization of our office in emergency situations. While we understand your primary care provider (PCP) may know you best, there are some symptoms that can change rapidly and could represent potentially life-threatening emergencies.

In many of these situations, timing is critical. You may require immediate attention to prevent progressive damage to vital organs. The emergency department of the nearest hospital is where this care is best provided.

These symptoms/situations may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Chest pain – possible symptom of a heart attack. Other symptoms of a heart attack may include chest pressure, like an elephant standing on your chest, pain down one or both arms, pain radiating up the neck, sweating, nausea.
• "Significant" shortness of breath or trouble breathing – possible sign of a problem with your heart or your lungs.
• Severe abdominal pain – may require "stat" blood work, special diagnostic tests, or evaluation by a surgeon.
• Loss of movement or sensation in an arm or leg: difficult speaking – possible signs of a stroke.
• Severe bleeding/hemorrhage – requires immediate care to control the bleeding; surgery may be required.
• Allergic reaction/Anaphylaxis – swelling of the mouth, tongue or throat, difficulty swallowing, trouble breathing or feeling faint
• Certain traumatic injuries if concern about fracture or serious laceration which may require specialty care.

If you are uncertain of how to manage a particular situation, please do not hesitate to call our office. However, do not delay accessing emergency services while awaiting recommendations or a return call from our office.

Most importantly, if a life-threatening emergency arises, please CALL 911 immediately.

• Aetna/US Healthcare - Aetna Golden Choice
• AmeriHealth ++ (not AmeriHealth Administrators)
• Blue Shield (Premier Blue, Blue Chip, POS) FreedomBlue
• Capital Blue Cross/KHPC (all products including Medicare PPO)
• ChoiceCare/Humana
• Cigna
• First Health (part of Health America effective 2/1/08)
• Gateway ++
• Geisinger Health Plan
• Great-West
• HealthAmerica (Health Assurance CCPPO, Health Assurance PPO, Hershey Managed Care/Health Style) Advantra Freedom - Medicare Advantage plan ** Medicare Advantra product
• Intergroup
• Medicaid ++
• Medicare/Medicare Advantage PFFS Plans
• PHCS (Private Healthcare Systems)
• Prime Health Services
• PrimeSource Health Network
• Railroad Medicare
• Teamsters (Administered by HealthAmerica)
• Three Rivers ++
• Tricare/HealthNet Federal Services
• United Health Care/Oxford Health Plan - Not PAR with Empire UHC
• Unison aB ++ (former Adult Basic Plan) - No other Unison products accepted

++ Optional

** Please refer to your individual insurance plan for Diagnostic & Lab Study coverage.

NOTE: Insurances subject to change without notice.

At Your Office Visit:
We want our patients to take the correct medication and the correct dose. To ensure this we strongly suggest you keep a written record of your medications and bring it with you to every visit.

• Name of the medication
• Strength/dose of the medication
• Frequency of taking the medication
• Quantity – do you need a supply for one month (30-40 days), 90 day supply, 100 pills or some other need – for example, 14 until mail order arrives?
• Number of refills requested. For most routine medications our goal will be to be given a year supply of the medication to avoid having to handle refill requests more often. We will not refill medications for patients who have not been keeping regular appointments (at least one visit per year for the problem)
• Name and phone number of your pharmacy. Shopping at one pharmacy is safer;
many pharmacies run a drug interaction program at every refill – this is only as good as the list of drugs is complete (this includes herbs and over-the-counter medications).

Give the list of medications for which you need refills to the assistant as you enter the exam room.

We want you to obtain all refills at your regular office visit. This is most efficient for you and for us.

Check all your bottles for refills needed BEFORE your next regularly scheduled office visit (you know how often your physician usually sees you; make sure you will have refills to last that long). If you are unsure, you can bring your bottles of medications and check at each office visit.

Medication Refill Requests

We now have an easier, more efficient way to process your request for medication refills. Whether you are using a local pharmacy or a mail-order company, just follow these easy steps.

• Contact your pharmacy directly with your medication refill request(s) at least 3-5 days before your last pill. For mail order prescription refills you may contact your mail-order company by calling customer service or by using the internet (Call/email 2-3 weeks before your last pill).
• Have your prescription number available (this can be found on your bottle) or have the name of your medication, strength, dose and quantity needed.
• Your pharmacy/mail order company will contact us electronically to authorize your refill. This insures your medication accuracy.
• Medication refills will be processed 8 am – 5 pm Monday through Friday.

This service is offered for all routine maintenance medication. Exclusions include antibiotics and controlled substances, which include pain medications and Attention Deficit medications. These medications require a written prescription. Most written prescriptions will be available the following business day.

It is our strict policy NEVER to refill controlled substances (narcotics, etc) after-hours or on weekends. Plan ahead! Your regular provider will refill all controlled substances.

In order to process each patient referral, we must have at least three working days notice. This will ensure there is adequate time for your physician/CRNP to review your chart and the referral department to prepare your referral. It is the policy of both your insurance company and this office that paper referrals be hand carried to the specialist. Advance notification and timely pick-up of your referral form will maximize the efficiency of the referral process.

Please remember that most insurance companies require us to authorize all CT and MRI studies. Please ensure these authorizations have been obtained by the office who ordered your diagnostic study.

The referral desk is happy to answer any questions or assist you in any way between the hours of 9:00am and 4:30pm daily.

Our receptionists have been trained to ask the nature of your problem when you call. They will discuss your questions with one of the providers and relay the answers and instructions to you. Unless there is an emergency, our staff will not interrupt the providers while they are seeing patients.

ROUTINE calls for non-urgent scheduling, prescription refills, billing department, and referral department should be made between 9:00am -4:30pm Monday through Friday. *Please be aware Monday morning is a high-volume call day. If it is appropriate to call later in the week, please do so.

EVENING (Monday,Tuesday & Thursday 5:00pm – 8:00pm) phone calls should be limited to those issues which cannot wait until the following morning.

WEEKEND phone calls should be of an URGENT/EMERGENCY nature which cannot wait until Monday morning.