When the office is closed and your child is sick, an after-hours nurse can be reached by calling our answering service at (409) 839-0850. Please make sure you do not have anonymous call block on your phone, or our office nurse will be unable to return your call. We are normally able to return all phone calls within 30 - 45 minutes unless it is an extremely busy time.
If you wait longer than 45 minutes for a return call, please call the service again as sometimes problems with pagers occur. We encourage you to refer to our website first, when practical, before calling the after-hours nurse.
Phones are answered daily from 8 am - 4:30 pm. Please call during regular business hours for appointment issues or to speak to the staff regarding non urgent issues.
If an emergency should arise, please call 911.
Emergencies are considered to be those conditions that are life-threatening: loss of consciousness, severe bleeding, seizure, etc. In the case of minor emergencies (lacerations, cuts, mild fractures, sprains), please call our office first for instructions.
The following is a list of guidelines that are necessary in order to provide high quality care and make your visit as pleasant as possible.
1. We ask that you present your insurance card at each visit. It is your responsibility to provide us with the correct information to bill your insurance.
2. If you have a change of address, telephone numbers(s), or employer, please notify the receptionist and we will provide you a form to update.
3. We will collect your deductible, co-payment or charge for non-covered services at the time of your visit. If you have a balance after an insurance payment from a previous service, we will also ask for that payment. For your convenience, we accept cash, checks, Visa and MasterCard.
4. If we do not participate with your insurance, we will file your claims as a courtesy and payment will be due at the time of service.
5. If your insurance denies our charges, or does not pay us in a timely manner, you will be billed for the entire balance. You will be expected to pay your balance in full within 60 days or call our billing office to make payment arrangements. If you do not pay in a timely manner, your account may be referred to a collection agency and reported to the credit bureau.
6. HMO/PPO Patients: If we participate with your plan we will bill your insurance for you as a courtesy. Your co-payment will be collected at the time of service, no exceptions. The person bringing the child in for the visit is responsible for payment. If your co-payment is not paid at the time of service, there will be a $5 billing fee added to your account. If your plan requires you to choose a primary care physician, it is your responsibility to make sure your insurance company has the physician you are seeing in our office as your PCP. If your plan requires you to have an authorization to see a specialist, you will need to contact our referral coordinator 24hours prior to your appointment with the specialist. NO RETROACTIVE REFERRALS WILL BE GIVEN (exception will be emergency room/minor care visits).
If we are not the primary care physician of record with your insurance carrier, we will be unable to obtain an authorization to see a specialist or admit to the hospital and will require payment in full at the time of service.
7. Patients that do not have insurance or proof of insurance (card or enrollment form) will be expected to pay in full at the time of service. Patients unable to pay in full will make payment arrangements with the billing department prior to their appointment or immediately after seeing the physician.
8. No-Show or Missed Appointments: When an appointment is not cancelled in advance, and the patient no-shows it affects other patients. Another patient that needed to be seen was not because the time slot was already taken and not cancelled. We understand there may be times when you are unable to keep an appointment, but we ask the courtesy of a phone call to cancel your appointment. Our office reserves the right to charge $25 for appointments not cancelled. If three appointments are missed without cancellation you will be asked to find another physician for your child/children.
9. If you are in the waiting room more that 30 minutes, please let the receptionist know so we can check on the wait for you. Our providers try their best to run on time, however, we do have emergencies and some patients require extra time for their illness. Please be patient, as we will provide you with the best possible care when we see your child/children.
Please remember whether you do or do not have insurance, you are ultimately financially responsible for payment of your charges. If you have any questions regarding our financial policy, please inform the receptionist and a representative from the billing office will help you.
Our office is normally closed in observance of the following holidays so our physicians and staff can spend time with their families:
- New Years Day
- Good Friday
- Memorial Day
- July 4th
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day and Friday After
- Christmas (2 days depending on when Christmas falls)
- We firmly believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives.
- We firmly believe in the safety of our vaccines.
- We firmly believe that all children and young adults should receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
- We firmly believe, based on all available literature, evidence, and current studies, that vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.
- We firmly believe that thimerosal, a preservative that has been in vaccines for decades and remains in some vaccines, does not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.
- We firmly believe that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health promoting intervention we perform as health care providers, and that you can support as parents/caregivers.
The recommended vaccines and the schedule of administration are the results of years and years of scientific study and data-gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists and physicians.
The vaccine campaign is truly a victim of its own success. It is precisely because vaccines are so effective at preventing illness that we are even discussing whether or not they should be given. Because of vaccines, many of you have never seen a child with polio, tetanus, whooping cough, bacterial meningitis, or even chickenpox, or known a friend or family member whose child died of one of these diseases. Such success can make us complacent or even lazy about vaccinating. But such an attitude, if it becomes widespread, can only lead to tragic results.
Over the past several years, many people in Europe have chosen not to vaccinate their children with the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine after publication of an unfounded suspicion (later retracted) that the vaccine caused autism. As a result of under-immunization, there have been small outbreaks of measles and several deaths from complications of measles in Europe over the past several years. The United States experienced a record number of measles cases during 2019, with 1282 cases from 31 states reported to CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). This is the greatest number of cases since measles elimination was documented in the U.S. in 2000.
Furthermore, we firmly believe that by not vaccinating your child, you are taking selfish advantage of thousands of others who do vaccinate their children, which decreases the likelihood that a child will contract one of these diseases. We feel such an attitude to be self-centered and unacceptable. Even delaying or “breaking up the vaccines” to give one or two at a time over additional visits goes against expert recommendations, is not supported by any scientific data, can lead to unnecessary delays and errors, and can put your child, other children, and adults at risk for serious illness (or even death). It is therefore against our medical advice as professionals at Beaumont Pediatric Center.
As medical professionals, we feel very strongly that vaccinating children on schedule with currently available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do for all children and young adults. We are making you aware of these facts not to scare you or coerce you, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child. We are more than willing to discuss any questions you may have about vaccines, but do require all new patients to our practice to adhere to the vaccination schedule endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).