PRACTICE POLICIES OF JAMES S. WELLS, JR., M.D. 1. Patient confidentiality is very important to me. One of the reasons I am not on any insurance panels is to avoid releasing to insurance companies information about my patients which is of a private nature. A patient, on the other hand, is free to talk with anyone about anything which transpires during the work with me. 2. Information disclosed to me or any of us at the Center For Creative Balance is released to other agencies or individuals only with the explicit permission of the patient except in life-threatening situations where I am ethically and legally responsible to disclose to authorities my knowledge of a particular, dangerous circumstance. 3. Since an appointment is the reservation of my time, it is customarily courteous to give, whenever possible, three working days notice of the need to change an appointment. Unless someone else requests the cancelled, reserved time, the patient will be charged for appointments cancelled within one working day of an appointment time (to avoid charge for a Monday appointment, it must be cancelled by the corresponding time on Friday). Insurance cannot be billed for a missed or late cancellation, so the patient will be responsible for the entire charge for the reserved time. 4. Every effort will be made to begin and end sessions on time. If I am necessarily late beginning a session, then where possible the session will be extended to allow for the full session time. If a patient is late for a session, then the session will usually have to end on time in order for me to be able to see others on time and also get the other things done which are required of me. 5. Fees are payable at each visit. Insurance will be filed through a claims filing service if requested. There is a $5 fee if CFCB arranges for insurance filing. There is no fee charged for filing Medicare claims. Reimbursement by insurance will usually be sent directly to the patient, but whenever it is sent to CFCB, the amount of the resulting overpayment will be refunded to the patient. In order for the claim filing service to accurately handle claims, a copy of the explanation of benefits (EOB) which is sent to the patient by the insurance company should be sent to CFCB. It may also be necessary from time to time for the claim filing service to contact a patient for clarification of insurance matters. 6. If for any reason an account balance has been accrued, the balance is due within 10 days of receiving a statement. Accounts which are not paid within 30 days will have a finance charge of 1.5% added monthly (18% per year). 7. Accounts which have not been paid within 90 days and about which arrangements for payment have not been made may be turned over to an attorney or collection agency for collection. 8. If for some reason payment is not received for as many as two sessions, then further services will be discontinued until all charges which are in arrears have been paid. In the case of an emergency, however, I will, as always, do what I can to see an established patient safely through a crisis. For anyone who currently has an outstanding account balance, I will expect full payment each visit for new sessions plus an agreed upon payment on the balance due. 9. Requests for prescription refills can be called into option “4” on our answering machine. Whenever possible, it is best for these requests to be made at least four days ahead of when they will be needed. Pharmacies will be phoned Monday through Thursday between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. Routine prescription-refill requests received after 3:00 p.m. will be phoned in to the pharmacy the following morning. 10. I try to be as available as possible to my patients and at the same time have private time for personal rest and relaxation. I prefer to receive phone calls during the work day before 3 p.m., though I will always try to deal with emergencies to whatever extent possible at any time. For an emergency, an urgent matter, or if you have phoned before and not heard back, I can usually be reached on my cellular phone at 919-971-7992. Whenever I am out of town or unavailable for a prolonged period of time, another mental health professional will cover my practice, and their number will be on my answering machine. There may be times when I may not be available when you would like to talk with me. At those times, someone will always be available through the emergency room nearest to you. In this area, psychiatry residents are always available for emergencies at the emergency rooms of Duke University Medical Center (919-684-8111) and The University of North Carolina Hospital (919-966-4131). My home telephone number is 919-967-0489. My wife’s emergency mobile number is 919-215-7284. These policies reflect my current best efforts to describe what I believe I can reasonably offer to someone seeking my help and what I expect from them. All of these policies are open to discussion with regard to their necessity and intent. I will try to be flexible wherever and whenever that is reasonably possible for me and therapeutically indicated for you in my estimation. I expect you to assume the responsibility for speaking up whenever you disagree with any of my approaches or feel you cannot comply with my policies. The Center For Creative Balance is dedicated to helping find balance in an unbalanced world.