• Patients are responsible for understanding their insurance plan and are expected to pay all co-pays, co-insurance, applicable deductibles, and past-due amounts at time of visit. Please contact your insurance carrier to ensure we are an "In-Network" provider prior to your first appointment. 
• If your insurance changes at any time, it is your responsibility to notify our office.
• If your visit requires a referral, it is ultimately the patient's responsibility to obtain it prior to your appointment. Our office will communicate with your physician’s office at least 3 days prior to your appointment to assist in this process. 
• Patients will be billed for services rendered if a referral is not received or is not considered valid by the insurance carrier or provider.
• Inarances we currently accept: Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Bright Health, CarePlus, Cigna, Humana, Molina, Multiplan, Sunshine Plan, Tricare, United Health

MISSED APPOINTMENT POLICY

• We understand that plans change and emergencies happen, but we kindly ask that you contact our office prior before to your scheduled appointment to reschedule or cancel if necessary. 
• We ask for 48 hour notice for new patients and 24 hours for follow-up appointments.  This is to allow another patient to take that appointment slot.  
• Our office will call you with an appointment reminder, however, it is still the responsibility of the patient to note the appointment at the time they originally schedule it. 
• We cannot be held responsible for being unable to reach you without accurate contact information provided to us.
• Patients who miss their scheduled appointment or do not contact our office in a timely fashion will be assessed a $25.00 no-show fee which will be applied to your account and due before any future visit

MEDICATION REFILL POLICY

• Please plan ahead for medication refills.  To obtain a refill, please call your pharmacy and request the refill (at least 48 hours) ahead of when you need it.  The pharmacy will then contact us to authorize the refill
• These requests will be processed during normal business hours (Monday-Friday)
• Please note, that routine followup appointments and bloodwork with us are required to obtain medication refills for safe management of your condition and monitoring of your medication.

CALL BACK PROCEDURE

• Please allow 1-2 business days for Oldsmar Rheumatology to return any non-urgent telephone call. We will make every attempt to resolve your issue in the same business day
• Lab results and radiologic results will be discussed at followup appointments unless there is a significant abnormality, in which case, you will receive a call from the provider or support staff.

AFTER HOURS CALLS

• If you have a medical emergency, please call 911 or go to emergency room
• Please make every attempt to resolve non urgent issues during work hours
• Please do not leave non-emergency messages such as prescription refills and appointment change requests on the after hours voicemail

REQUEST FOR RECORDS/COPIES/PRINTING

• We will forward any requested records 
• Cost for printing/copying apply

FOR PATIENTS REQUIRING AUTHORIZATION PRIOR TO VISIT

Notify your assigned PCP to authorize a referral to see Dr Thomas and fax this to our office: 813-475-6156

Additionally, notify your assigned PCP to also fax all pertinent medical records 

Once authorization for referral and records are received, we will contact you within 3 business days to make an appointment

Note, a proper authorizations for referral requires, 1 ) authorized cpt code, 2) authorized icd code, 3) date range you can be seen (or authorized number of visits), 4) and an authorization number (usually 10-12 digits).

It is patient or their proxy's responsibility to enable above information to reach us.  Our office  is unable to reach out to your PCP to facilitate proper processing of required documents. 

If followup is needed, and a new authorization is necessary, it is again patient responsibility to notify their PCP to process a proper authorization and fax to us