Refills

Prescriptions are best refilled at the time of your office visit; please come prepared with any needed prescriptions.  If you are in need of a refill between visits, please call during business hours and allow a turnaround time of 48 hours.  Alternatively, you can alert your pharmacy and they will send us a request either electronically or by fax.

It is best to call your pharmacy before going to pick up your medicine to be sure it is ready; we unfortunately don’t have the resources to let all of our patients know when we have completed their requests.

The best medical care occurs when you are seen regularly. If you have not been seen for a while for an ongoing issue that requires a chronic medicine, we may insist on an office visit before we can give long-term refills. This allows us the opportunity to ensure the medicine is working well for you and that any lab monitoring required for the medicine is completed. In these instances we can often provide a short-term refill until the appointment.

If you are requesting a prescription for a new problem or a recurring problem that has not been an issue for awhile, we will likely request an office visit first. We cannot effectively, or in some cases safely, prescribe treatment over the phone.

Lab and test results

Galbraith Family Medicine, LLC, offers laboratory services for our patients through collaboration with NorDx, a local laboratory. We are only able to draw blood for labs ordered by our own providers. For patients who prefer to have their labs drawn elsewhere, we are happy to provide a written order to a lab of your choice.

Regardless of where you choose to have your labs or tests done, we typically receive the results within a week to 10 days of the test being completed, and most of the time we will contact you with your test results in that time-frame. We have found that having an appointment to discuss your lab results with you allows for the best opportunity to collaborate on your care and come up with a solid treatment plan, but we recognize that that is not always practical. If, in this case, you have not heard the results of your test within 2 weeks, please call us to inform you of the results.

Referrals

Many insurance companies require you to have a referral to see specialists or obtain certain tests. You as the patient bear the responsibility to know if a referral is needed and whether the specialist is in your insurance network. It is in your best interest to be sure that any needed referrals are completed before you visit with the specialist or have the test done; a lack of proper referral means the bill for services is yours.

In most cases you will be required to schedule an appointment with us before any referral is made so we can evaluate your needs and facilitate the referral process. This is often true even if another provider such as an emergency room physician or specialist has recommended the referral. Please allow as much time as possible for us to see you, determine your referral needs, and work through the often time-consuming process of obtaining an insurance referral.

Sometimes referrals are needed to go to an emergency room, ambulatory care clinic or urgent care facility. Because it is important and in your best interest for us to be involved in your medical care, we will not, in most cases, provide referrals for non-urgent visits to ambulatory care facilities or emergency rooms unless we have directed you to go there or it is clear that after-hours care was needed and could not wait for us.If you are seen in one of those facilities, it is important to contact us to update us and see if and when a follow-up appointment with us is needed.

Financial Responsabilities

Please bring your insurance card to every appointment and make us aware of any changes in your insurance coverage or personal information such as address or phone numbers. If you are using your insurance, we submit a claim for the office visit to your insurance company and await reimbursement, usually processed within 30 days. Depending on the terms of your insurance contract, we have the right to bill you directly for any eligible balance unpaid by your insurance. Failure to pay your balance may result in collection action and may put at risk our ability to serve as your primary care provider for the long-term.

Please be aware that co-payments are collected prior to your office visit and are expected at the time of service. For your convenience we accept MasterCard and Visa as well as personal checks and cash.

If you do not have insurance, payment is expected at the time of service. For those without insurance or who prefer to avoid submitting an insurance claim, we offer a 40% discount if full payment is received on the day of the visit.

We work with a local Maine company to manage our insurance claims submissions and help track patient accounts. They are friendly and helpful; please call them with any billing questions at (207) 846-8722.

For more details about our payment policies as well as miscellaneous charges that may apply, please click on the items below:

Payment Policy                    Miscellaneous Charges Policy

After hours Coverage

We partner with several area practices to provide 24/7 medical availability to our patients.  During our office hours, we are here to take care of your needs, both routine and pressing.  After-hours calls, however, are for urgent matters that cannot wait for the next business day.
 For life threatening emergencies or situations, dial 911 or proceed to the nearest emergency room.  You can reach the on-call provider by calling our office number, 793-9586, and you will be assisted by our answering service who can put you in touch with the provider on-call. 

Hospital Care

Galbraith Family Medicine, LLC, is an independent practice that is not part of a particular hospital network.  This means that if you require hospitalization you can choose to go to any hospital you like.  Although we can’t be with you while you are in the hospital, we work closely with all of the area hospitals so that important information we have about your health can be communicated to the doctors caring for you at the hospital.  These physicians are called “hospitalists” and will provide you with comprehensive medical care and treatment during your hospital stay and then send us a summary of your care and follow-up needs so that we can return to managing your care through recovery and beyond.

When you come back to see us after being hospitalized, please bring any discharge paperwork you were given and any new medications that were begun. Let us know if you have been discharged with services such as home health nursing or if you have follow up appointments with other specialists so that we can collaborate with them on your care.