Dear New Patient,

We are extending a warm welcome to you and hope that you will find us open and receptive to your needs.

Until recently it was our policy to accept new patients regardless of insurance but: because of recent staff changes we are no longer able to do so. We are currently not accepting new patients with Medicaid insurance into our adult practice, but hope to be back to our open-door policy by April 2007 and will be happy to assist you with your health care concerns at that time.

For routine appointments we allow 15 minutes, for brief physicals 30 minutes and 45 minutes for more complex physicals. We are flexible, of course, when dealing with acute, more complicated illnesses which may require more time. We are making a special effort to see our sick patients the same day. This may cause a delay for our regularly scheduled patients. We will try to keep you informed, but if you feel you have waited too long, please contact the front desk to discuss whether to reschedule. When you call for an appointment the receptionist will try to schedule you with the practitioner of your choice. If it is an urgent problem, though, this may not always be an option and you may have to see someone else.

New patient appointments are usually for 30 minutes. Please notify your previous doctor's office that you are transferring your records to us. It would be helpful, and save time, if you bring the completed registration form and the 4-page Health Database to your first appointment. These forms are available for downloading. Otherwise give yourself plenty of time to fill these out before you are scheduled to be seen.

Also, if your insurance company requires a primary care doctor, please notify them of the change.

If you need to refill a narcotic prescription, please schedule your appointment well ahead of the time when your prescription runs out. We do not give automatic refills.

For further information on our practice please review "About our Practice", "Our Financial Policy" and "Insurance Information" We hope that you will find our website helpful and informative.

With best wishes to you from all our staff,
           
         Hilke Breder, M.D.
         10/24/2006