What to expect at your visit
If you are a new patient with Dr. Warner:
When you schedule your appointment as a new patient with Dr Warner, you will be sent an email from our staff. This email will confirm details of the time and date of your appointment, but more importantly, it includes the intake paperwork you’ll need to print, fill out completely and bring with you to your appointment. It will also include a link to an online lifestyle questionnaire; please also fill that out and send it back to us prior to your appointment. This will allow our health coaches and Dr Warner to learn more about how you’re living right now, and will save you some time in the office.
Each new patient will meet with both Dr Warner and one of our health coaches. The appointment with Dr Warner will last 75 minutes and the appointment with the coach will last an hour. They do not have to be done on the same day; we’ll try to have you see the coach prior to seeing Dr Warner.
We ask that you bring along any current labwork or other studies that are pertinent to your visit. This will help us avoid redundancy. Typically, after your appointment you’ll be asked to get more labs in order to make a full treatment plan.
Once that labwork is back—usually several weeks—you’ll have your follow up appointment with Dr Warner. This will last 45 minutes; subsequent visits will last 30-45 minutes.
It may be recommended –and you may choose— to have further visits with our health coaches. These will be arranged separately and will incur a separate charge.
It is important to your care that we are aware of all medications, supplements, herbals, over the counter medicines and recreational drugs that you take, so we can avoid interactions. That is why we consider it SO VITAL that you do your paperwork ahead of each visit and bring it along. If you hurriedly scribble something when you arrive, you’ll likely forget something. Also, even if you *think* nothing has changed since the last time you did paperwork, we appreciate your filling it out anyway. You’d be surprised how often things are different and people don’t realize it til they are asked.
If you are booking a GYN visit:
If you are new to the practice, an annual visit will be 60 minutes. During these visits, we will have time to review your medical history, review current meds/supplements, and perform an exam. If you have specific gynecologic concerns or problems, we suggest that you book your visit as a holistic consultation so we have more time. An exam might be performed at that time if deemed appropriate.
If you are an established patient and need your annual exam, the visit will be 30 minutes. We do offer the opportunity to get *routine* labs done ahead of time (since we know that many women don’t really see any provider other than their gyn!) and these can be briefly reviewed at the time of the visit. However, we strongly discourage booking an exam and discussion of ongoing medical concerns on the same day, as we would not have sufficient time to do both well. An exception to this is reviewing hormone replacement labwork, especially if you’re doing well.
Please understand that any appointment that you are booked for is a time slot, as with a therapist/counselor. If you arrive late, or arrive without completing your paperwork, that will cut into your time with the doctor. Dr Warner works very hard to stay on schedule and does not feel it appropriate to keep other patients waiting simply because you arrive late. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter.
Payment/Insurance
Payment for service is expected at the time of your office visit. While insurance may cover the care you receive in our office, we do not process insurance billing. Instead, we will provide you with a form to submit to your insurance company to collect allowable reimbursement costs under your personal plan. Generally, insurance plans do have coverage for out of network services once your deductible is met; exceptions to this are HMO plans and Medicare. Please check with the customer services representative of your plan for details about your own policy. Dr Warner has opted out of Medicare participation, which means that you will not be able to submit to Medicare, nor get coverage from a secondary insurance, as there can be no denial from Medicare.
As a matter of office policy, we will not compromise your care to accommodate insurance company guidelines. However, we will do our utmost to help you get reimbursed for services provided within the guidelines set by your insurance company.
Cancellation Policy
We require 24 hours prior notice, if you can not keep a scheduled office appointment. This allows us to accommodate other patients who have been waiting for a visit time. All patients who fail to cancel, or cancel appointments with fewer than 24 hours notice, will be subject to a minimum $30 cancellation fee. However, life is unpredictable. We realize that occasionally 24 hours notice is not possible, so we will consider a one-time cancellation with no fee incurred. Note that cancellation for a Monday appointment needs to happen on Friday, not over the weekend.