Payments/Insurance for Pediatric Services

We gladly accept phone calls throughout the day to answer any of your routine or emergency questions. For routine problems, the receptionist will take your number and a doctor will ALWAYS call you back by the end of the morning or afternoon sessions.

We are available 24 hours a day for emergencies. If an emergency arises after normal office hours, please call our office telephone number and our answering service will have the doctor on call paged. Most calls are returned within 20 minutes. In the event that we do not get back to you within 20 minutes, please try paging us again.

For after hours emergencies, we recommend that you first reach the doctor on call through our answering service. Our doctors are available 24/7. What may seem like an emergency to you, may not be an emergency at all! The doctor on call can offer advice and an appointment the following day in our office if necessary. If the emergency requires more immediate attention, the doctor on call will determine if it is appropriate for you to go to an urgent care center or to a hospital emergency room.

Please be sure to ALWAYS CALL US FIRST before taking your child to a hospital Emergency Department or an Urgent Care Center. Of course, do not hesitate to call 911 or go to the Emergency Department if you think you could put your child’s health at serious risk by delaying care.

Due to new NY state regulations, we require at least 48 hours notice before we can refill prescriptions for controlled substances, including ADD and ADHD medications. As always, we cannot provide medication refills on weekends or holidays. Due to the new state regulations, we will be unable to make exceptions to this policy.

If your child is ill, you will ALWAYS be given an appointment on the same day. This appointment may not be with your primary physician, but you will always be guaranteed an appointment with the first available physician. There are times of the year when there are many sick children and our office can become quite busy. We appreciate your patience under these circumstances as we will try to accommodate everyone.

NOTE: If your child is sick, we ask that you enter through the sick child entrance and wait in the sick child waiting area, which is separate from the well child waiting area.

It is best to schedule routine office visits well in advance so that you may choose a time that is convenient for you. Many patients will schedule their next well baby appointment upon departure from their current appointment.

Most insurance carriers allow well visits as per the guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Please be familiar with your specific insurance plan and schedule your visits accordingly.

FIRST VISIT is usually during the first week after hospital discharge. NOTE: It is IMPERATIVE to add your newborn to your insurance within the first 30 days of life. If you are remise in doing so within the prescribed 30 day period, you will be responsible for full payment during the well visit.

ONE month
TWO month
FOUR month
SIX month
NINE month
TWELVE month
FIFTEEN month
EIGHTEEN month

After age 2, most insurance carriers only allow ONE well exam every 12 months.
In the event that you fail to show up for a scheduled well exam visit, you will be charged a fee.

There will be a 24 hour notification policy for cancelled well appointments. If appointments are missed without cancellation, you will be responsible for a $40.00 cancellation fee.

NOTE: Please enter through the well child entrance and wait in the well child waiting area.

Westchester Park Pediatrics accepts the following insurance plans:

Aetna
Beech Street
BlueCross/Blue Shield
CIGNA
ConnectiCare
EmblemHealth (PPO)
GHI
Empire Plan
Health Plus Amerigroup
Hudson Health Plan/MDP
MultiPlan
Oxford
PHCS
POMCO
UnitedHealthcare

Patients must present their insurance card to the receptionist before EVERY visit. Please notify our office as soon as possible of any change to your insurance carrier.

Payments for services rendered are due at the time of your visit. If you have an insurance plan that we participate with, you must contact them prior to being seen, and arrange for us to be your Primary Care Physician (PCP). If you do not do so, then you will be responsible for the fee. Some insurance plans have deductibles and/or co-pays. It is required by these plans that payment be made at the time of your visit.

Please be prepared to pay that co-pay at the time of visit; it is not our policy to bill you later for it. If you do not present your co-pay at the time of visit, there will be a $20 service charge in addition to the co-pay. If your plan does not require a co-pay and we participate, we will accept the designated fee. You are responsible for any deductible and balance that your plan indicates on their explanation of benefits.

If we do not participate with your plan, payment is expected at the time of service. Your itemized receipt should be attached to your insurance form and sent by you to your carrier, who will reimburse you directly.

We appreciate timely payment of your account. For your convenience, we accept cash, checks, Master Card, Visa, and American Express. There will be a $25 charge for any returned checks.

In order to provide the best medical care, a complete medical record is essential. If you have been seen in another pediatric office, we will need to obtain a copy of your child’s record of treatment. There are federal regulations regarding the privacy of your medical record. This HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) law requires that we tell you what can and cannot be done with your medical information. There will be a HIPAA release form that you will need to sign when you come to our office for the first time. This is NOT a permission form. It is simply an acknowledgement that we have given you a copy of the HIPAA regulations.

You can always obtain a copy of your records. There will be a release form you will need to fill out, hopefully as far a head of time as possible, and we will have them prepared and ready within a 30 day period. There is an administrative fee of $.75 per page to obtain a copy of your child’s medical records.

If your insurance plan requires a referral form to be executed by our office in order for your child to see a subspecialist, or to have a special radiographic procedure (i.e. CAT scan, MRI, etc.), you must allow our office 48 hours advance notice to prepare this referral. Referrals will only be done with less notice under special circumstances (such as emergencies) and at the discretion of the doctor.