Our Policies

• To schedule or reschedule an appointment, patients should call 305-559-9732 during normal business hours (M-F: 9:00 am-5:00 pm; Sat: 9:00 am-12:00 pm).
• It is the patient’s responsibility to notify this office of any changes in address, phone and/or insurance and if this updated information is not provided, the patient will be responsible for any charges incurred.
• The patient is responsible for attending on time any appointment scheduled with his/her knowledge. Patients arriving more than 5 minutes late for an appointment will be rescheduled at the next available time slot.
• While this office makes every effort to make confirmation phone calls 1 day before a scheduled appointment, it is the patient’s responsibility to make note of and attend any appointment scheduled with his/her knowledge.
• If a patient has an emergency situation outside of business hours, or significant adverse reactions to medications, the patient will need to call 911 or report to the nearest ER. Urgent messages may be left with the answering service and will be answered at the on-call doctor’s discretion or answered by the office staff during business hours if the doctor determines it is not urgent. It is highly recommended that patients keep track of the medication they have on hand and call for refills during business hours (the earlier in the day, the better) as running out of medication under normal circumstances is not considered by this office to be an urgent message that will be responded to outside of business hours. Misrepresentation of a patient’s situation to the answering service in order to be transferred to the doctor will be grounds for termination of treatment at this office.
• Medication refill requests will not be honored unless it is time for the prescription to be refilled (i.e. medication has been taken in amounts prescribed by the doctor). The charge for a requested controlled substance prescription that is not picked up within 21 days of request is $5 (except for Medicaid patients who will be subject to termination after failing to claim 2 such prescriptions).
• Prescription refill requests will not be honored if the patient has not seen the doctor within one month (unless the doctor has requested follow up beyond one month) as attendance at follow ups is as important to the treatment plan as medications.
• The doctor does not prescribe pain medications and all patients requiring such medications will be referred to a pain specialist.
• The doctor reserves the right to terminate patient care upon verbal or written notice. Upon termination, the patient will be provided with urgent care and refills on recommended medications only for a period of 30 days from notice of termination, allowing adequate time for the patient to seek establishment with another psychiatrist. Although termination is rare, reasons for termination include, but are not limited to, misrepresentation, misuse/abuse of medications, repeated noncompliance with doctor’s recommendations, threatening behavior, conflicts of interests, violation of this office’s policies and violation of the doctor-patient relationship.
• Patients moving out of area will be required to transfer care to a doctor in their new area of residence.
• Regular office visits must be maintained in order to continue care in this office. Patients who have not had an appointment in three months and who do not have an appointment scheduled are subject to closure of chart due to inactivity. Charts closed due to inactivity are not re-opened and no further appointments or medications will be provided.
• Patients who have two checks returned due to insufficient funds will be unable to pay by check in the future. In these cases, money order or cash will be required.