OFFICE POLICIES
1. Insurance
--If you are using insurance, please get our staff a copy of both sides of your insurance card so they can bill your insurance for you. If we don't have your card for an appointment, you will be responsible for the visit fees. If you change insurance, our staff will need a copy of the new card. Check with your insurance company to make sure your clinician is covered by their panel--insurance companies get more varied every year in how they work. If you use two insurance companies, make sure you let our staff know which is primary.
--Insurance panels we are on: Aetna, BCBS-KC, BCBS-KS, BCBS-Federal, BCBS-HMO, Cigna, and United HealthCare.
--Insurance panels we are not on: Humana, Tricare, KS Medicaid (Kancare), MO Medicaid, and Medicare.
--If you use Medicare insurance of any sort (eg, regular Medicare, Medicare C, Medicare Choice Plus, Medicare HMO, or Medicare Advantage), you will need to sign a "Medicare Contract" with your clinician since they are "opted out"--this means that neither you nor our office can bill Medicare for your services with Dr. L'Ecuyer or with Rachael..
2. Non-insurance (cash) Patients
--If you are not using insurance, your fees will be discounted by 25% if you pay within 24 hours and keep your balance at zero. This is the same type of discount that patients using insurance get by our contract with their insurance company. This discount applies to scheduled appointments only. The minimum appointment time charged for scheduled follow-ups (required at the frequency your clinician specifies) is 20 minutes.
3. Timeliness of Payments
--Payment (including copays and co-insurance) is due at the time of the session. We accept Mastercard, Visa, and Discover. If your appointment is by telemed (video or phone), please call the office the next business day after your visit to make your payment. If our staff have to call you for payment instead, we expect you to answer or return their call the same day. Our staff are our representatives.
--If you get behind on your balance, please talk with our staff, make the payment you can, and work out a payment plan with them. If you don't do this, you will start a billing cascade that starts with a paper bill the first month, progressing to a stamped warning the 2nd month, then a 10-day warning letter the 3rd month, followed by a termination letter the 4th month with a referral elsewhere for continuing your treatment and notice of your account going to collections. You can avoid all that unpleasantness by taking responsibility for the charges you incur and talking with our staff.
4. Missed Appointments
--If you are ill or have an emergency where you cannot make your appointment, please call the office and let our staff know as early as you know--there is no fee under these circumstances.
--Missing a follow-up appointment without cancelling 24 business hours in advance will result in you being charged $50-100 (depending on the length of the time scheduled), which your insurance will not pay. For a new patient visit, the missed-appointment fee is $300 if you want to try rescheduling one time. Other patients are missing out on an opportunity to get help if this happens, so please be courteous and responsible with the appointment times you set.
5. Services Not Covered By Insurance
--There is no charge for an email (preferred) or an unscheduled phone call that involves a brief request or communication (eg, for a non-controlled medicine refill, or a quick question about a medicine). There are fees when a longer email or unscheduled phone call is needed::
11-20 minutes__$75
--While we want to be available to you, we also have personal lives and need for rest. Please make every effort to conduct all business during your scheduled appointments (eg, requesting refills, discussing medicine changes, FMLA form completion).
--You will also be responsible for "Services Not Covered By Insurance," "non-authorized services," "services exceeding yearly maximum," or "services considered not medically necessary" by your insurance company. You will need to be your own advocate to know the limits of your insurance company.
6. Medication Refills
--We send prescriptions electronically to your pharmacy of choice. If you are out of refills in between appointments in spite of your best efforts, please allow 72 hours for us to get your refill sent in.
--We encourage the use of weekly pill boxes to help remember taking of medicines and also knowing that you have enough for the next week.
--There is no charge for non-controlled medicine refills, but please help us by getting these done during a regularly scheduled appointment.
--There is a $20 charge for controlled medicine refills in between appointments. These take more work on your clinician's part to prescribe. Sometimes your pharmacy will send us an electronic or fax refill request and we will do our best to consider your interests whether we fill these or contact you about it first. Again, please do your best to have all refills of any sort done during your scheduled appointments.
--In the following circumstances, please remind us with each refill request:
(a) when you use more than one pharmacy, remind us each time where to send that particular medicine; and,
(b) when you prefer (or your insurance requires) a Brand medication, remind us of this each time you request a refill of that medicine.
----(Dr. L'Ecuyer's patients only) -- Because of the ER (extended release capsules) shortage of ADD medicines, it has become too cumbersome to accommodate patients telling us what ER medicine for ADD they need at what pharmacy location by email on a monthly basis. For patients that are still wanting to use ER medicine for ADD, please schedule monthly appointments for the day your rx is due to be re-filled. Call your pharmacy on the morning before your monthly appointment and make sure that they have the ER medicine you need--if they don't have it, call around to different pharmacies and see if you can locate it, then tell us during your appointment later that day where to send the ER prescription for the month. Re-fills for ADD medication will only be done during an appointment now, so please plan ahead accordingly by setting up the appointments you need.
--There is currently much better pharmacy availability of IR (immediate release tablets) medicine for ADD, so patients using IR medicine for ADD can continue scheduling every 3 months to get their refills done during the appointment.
7. Medical Records Requests
--For records requests for G.R. Wurster, MD (deceased), Zak Hugo, MD (retired), Judy Martin, MD (retired), Joan Collison, MD, and John L'Ecuyer, MD--please mail a signed authorization (see "Forms") to the office or email it to [email protected].
--For records requests for Rachael James, ARNP, PMHNP-BA--please mail a signed authorization by to the office or email it to [email protected]
--For records requests for Richard R. Brewington, MD--please email a signed authorization to [email protected]. His fax number is (816) 574-4193.
--If you are using insurance, please get our staff a copy of both sides of your insurance card so they can bill your insurance for you. If we don't have your card for an appointment, you will be responsible for the visit fees. If you change insurance, our staff will need a copy of the new card. Check with your insurance company to make sure your clinician is covered by their panel--insurance companies get more varied every year in how they work. If you use two insurance companies, make sure you let our staff know which is primary.
--Insurance panels we are on: Aetna, BCBS-KC, BCBS-KS, BCBS-Federal, BCBS-HMO, Cigna, and United HealthCare.
--Insurance panels we are not on: Humana, Tricare, KS Medicaid (Kancare), MO Medicaid, and Medicare.
--If you use Medicare insurance of any sort (eg, regular Medicare, Medicare C, Medicare Choice Plus, Medicare HMO, or Medicare Advantage), you will need to sign a "Medicare Contract" with your clinician since they are "opted out"--this means that neither you nor our office can bill Medicare for your services with Dr. L'Ecuyer or with Rachael..
2. Non-insurance (cash) Patients
--If you are not using insurance, your fees will be discounted by 25% if you pay within 24 hours and keep your balance at zero. This is the same type of discount that patients using insurance get by our contract with their insurance company. This discount applies to scheduled appointments only. The minimum appointment time charged for scheduled follow-ups (required at the frequency your clinician specifies) is 20 minutes.
3. Timeliness of Payments
--Payment (including copays and co-insurance) is due at the time of the session. We accept Mastercard, Visa, and Discover. If your appointment is by telemed (video or phone), please call the office the next business day after your visit to make your payment. If our staff have to call you for payment instead, we expect you to answer or return their call the same day. Our staff are our representatives.
--If you get behind on your balance, please talk with our staff, make the payment you can, and work out a payment plan with them. If you don't do this, you will start a billing cascade that starts with a paper bill the first month, progressing to a stamped warning the 2nd month, then a 10-day warning letter the 3rd month, followed by a termination letter the 4th month with a referral elsewhere for continuing your treatment and notice of your account going to collections. You can avoid all that unpleasantness by taking responsibility for the charges you incur and talking with our staff.
4. Missed Appointments
--If you are ill or have an emergency where you cannot make your appointment, please call the office and let our staff know as early as you know--there is no fee under these circumstances.
--Missing a follow-up appointment without cancelling 24 business hours in advance will result in you being charged $50-100 (depending on the length of the time scheduled), which your insurance will not pay. For a new patient visit, the missed-appointment fee is $300 if you want to try rescheduling one time. Other patients are missing out on an opportunity to get help if this happens, so please be courteous and responsible with the appointment times you set.
5. Services Not Covered By Insurance
--There is no charge for an email (preferred) or an unscheduled phone call that involves a brief request or communication (eg, for a non-controlled medicine refill, or a quick question about a medicine). There are fees when a longer email or unscheduled phone call is needed::
11-20 minutes__$75
--While we want to be available to you, we also have personal lives and need for rest. Please make every effort to conduct all business during your scheduled appointments (eg, requesting refills, discussing medicine changes, FMLA form completion).
--You will also be responsible for "Services Not Covered By Insurance," "non-authorized services," "services exceeding yearly maximum," or "services considered not medically necessary" by your insurance company. You will need to be your own advocate to know the limits of your insurance company.
6. Medication Refills
--We send prescriptions electronically to your pharmacy of choice. If you are out of refills in between appointments in spite of your best efforts, please allow 72 hours for us to get your refill sent in.
--We encourage the use of weekly pill boxes to help remember taking of medicines and also knowing that you have enough for the next week.
--There is no charge for non-controlled medicine refills, but please help us by getting these done during a regularly scheduled appointment.
--There is a $20 charge for controlled medicine refills in between appointments. These take more work on your clinician's part to prescribe. Sometimes your pharmacy will send us an electronic or fax refill request and we will do our best to consider your interests whether we fill these or contact you about it first. Again, please do your best to have all refills of any sort done during your scheduled appointments.
--In the following circumstances, please remind us with each refill request:
(a) when you use more than one pharmacy, remind us each time where to send that particular medicine; and,
(b) when you prefer (or your insurance requires) a Brand medication, remind us of this each time you request a refill of that medicine.
----(Dr. L'Ecuyer's patients only) -- Because of the ER (extended release capsules) shortage of ADD medicines, it has become too cumbersome to accommodate patients telling us what ER medicine for ADD they need at what pharmacy location by email on a monthly basis. For patients that are still wanting to use ER medicine for ADD, please schedule monthly appointments for the day your rx is due to be re-filled. Call your pharmacy on the morning before your monthly appointment and make sure that they have the ER medicine you need--if they don't have it, call around to different pharmacies and see if you can locate it, then tell us during your appointment later that day where to send the ER prescription for the month. Re-fills for ADD medication will only be done during an appointment now, so please plan ahead accordingly by setting up the appointments you need.
--There is currently much better pharmacy availability of IR (immediate release tablets) medicine for ADD, so patients using IR medicine for ADD can continue scheduling every 3 months to get their refills done during the appointment.
7. Medical Records Requests
--For records requests for G.R. Wurster, MD (deceased), Zak Hugo, MD (retired), Judy Martin, MD (retired), Joan Collison, MD, and John L'Ecuyer, MD--please mail a signed authorization (see "Forms") to the office or email it to [email protected].
--For records requests for Rachael James, ARNP, PMHNP-BA--please mail a signed authorization by to the office or email it to [email protected]
--For records requests for Richard R. Brewington, MD--please email a signed authorization to [email protected]. His fax number is (816) 574-4193.
