To our patients and families—

Partners in Pediatrics has always been committed to providing our patients and families access to quality care every day and every hour of the year. In addition to the usual weekday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. clinic hours, we also offer urgent care service at our Maple Grove clinic Monday through Thursday evenings and weekend mornings throughout the year.

After-hours phone management of your urgent medical problems is provided by an answering service staffed by pediatric registered nurses with additional access to the doctor on call when needed.

Your providers at Partners in Pediatrics, along with the AAP and other pediatricians in our community, believe we can improve quality and your access to care, with appropriate telephone management.

Many conditions can be managed effectively over the telephone, however physician time for these services is significant, so we must begin charging for this service. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports charging for telephone care when advice is given in place of an office visit.

As of March 1, 2005, we may bill your health plan for specific types of phone call encounters only with your health care provider (doctor, PNP or PA), if it is to provide care in place of an office visit. A phone call may save you the time and inconvenience of having to bring your child into the office. We will not bill for advice given to you by our medical support staff—nurses and medical assistants.

We still encourage you to make necessary phone calls for medical advice. We know there are many situations that occur when a simple call to the office can solve a medical problem or help you with home care.

We also encourage you to rely on the educational material we provide you, such as the PIP infant care book, preventive visit handouts, newsletters and our website, www. pipstop. com.
These re-sources can help you solve
problems on your own, rather than call during the day or the night.

You always have the option to make a clinic appointment rather than relying on phone management.

Health plan benefits for phone management are highly variable and you may be responsible for some or all of these charges. Some health plans may pay for this service, but may require a co-pay from you. If your plan determines that a charge is not a covered benefit, we are required to bill you for this service.

We encourage you to contact your health plan to find out how provider phone call services are reimbursed.

To discuss a bill please call our business office at (763) 278-0800.

We look forward to continuing our relationship with you and your family. Our goal is always to provide you with high quality, accessible care.

Thank you,

Partners in Pediatrics, Ltd.