Preparing for Your Visit
Please arrive ten minutes before your appointment time to check in with our front desk. Please bring your current insurance card and photo identification. Bring all medications (prescription and non-prescription, herbs, vitamins and supplements) with you.
If you are a new patient to us, please make sure you have requested records from your previous physician to be sent to Latham Medical Group prior to your visit.
Waiting Times
Your provider makes every effort to see you on time. Occasionally your provider may be delayed. If so, it is because the health condition of other patients has required more time than your provider anticipated. Providers will afford each patient the time that is needed to attend to the health problems at hand. You will be provided the same service.
If you have not been called from the reception area within 15 minutes after your scheduled appointment, please return to the check in desk.
Prescription Information
Please contact your pharmacy for any refills you need. Your pharmacy will send us an electronic request.
All medications dispensed in New York State, including controlled substances, must be transmitted electronically to the pharmacy via a certified e-prescribing or electronic health record (EHR) tool. Please allow 72 hours for your prescription to be ready at your pharmacy.
Community Care physicians are not permitted to provide prescriptions for controlled substances by telephone when they are on-call.
Referrals
Your provider may recommend that you be evaluated and treated by subspecialty physicians if your medical condition warrants. We have a referral office that is focused on handling this process.
Community Care Physicians includes a number of excellent sub-specialty physicians, all of which share electronic health records and imaging studies allowing your records to be immediately accessed by the providers administering you care. We are happy to refer you to any of these Community Care specialists when needed or to any appropriate sub-specialist whom you prefer.
Please allow 5 days to process non-urgent referrals.
Co-payments and Account Balances
Payment is expected at the time of service. If your insurance requires that you pay a co-payment, they require us to collect it. For your convenience we accept cash, checks, and most major credit cards.
Confidentiality Privacy & HIPAA
Your personal health information is strictly confidential and will not be divulged to anyone without your written permission except to other physicians involved in your care, to your insurer for billing and quality assurance, or by court order.
When you arrive for your appointment, you will be provided with a copy of our Notice of Privacy Practices. You will be asked to sign an acknowledgment that you received it for our records.
If you would like to see a copy of our full privacy policy, click this link: Community Care Physicians Official Notice of Privacy Practices
Advanced Directives
It is prudent to designate a trusted person to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are incapacitated and unable to decide for yourself. This individual is called a “health care proxy.”
If you have particular instructions with regard to the type of treatment you wish (or do not wish) under certain circumstances, you should inform your health care proxy and you may state your wishes on the form.
Forms for designating a health care proxy are produced by New York State, and may be obtained from our office or by downloading the PDF file from the New York State Department of Health – Health Care Proxy page.