Policies

Our providers work hard to not overuse antibiotics.

We educate families on appropriate use of antibiotics, but follow evidence-based guidelines and don’t automatically treat ear pain or a green snotty nose with antibiotics.

We do not routinely prescribe antibiotics over the phone as we do not believe that is good medicine. We will prescribe an antibiotic when we believe it is an appropriate treatment.

Everyone's Time is Equally Valuable.

We ask that you arrive 5 minutes before your scheduled appointment time. We understand sometimes things happen beyond your control that may cause you to be late. However, we reserve the right to ask you to reschedule if you arrive more than 15 minutes late for your appointment.

Our practice makes every effort to run on time with appointments, as we believe everyone’s time is equally valuable.

Upcoming Appointment reminders are sent via text message and email.

Missed Appointments: Broken appointments represent a cost to us, to you, and to other patients who could have been seen in the time set aside for you. We reserve the right to charge a fee for canceled or missed appointments. We request 24 hours notice for cancellation of appointments.

A fee may be charged for a second missed appointment. The third consecutive missed appointment could result in discharge from the practice.

For new patients, a fee may be charged if the FIRST appointment is missed.

This fee must be paid prior to making another appointment.

PAYMENT:

Payment is required at the time services are rendered. This includes:

Copayments for participating insurances. Our contract with your insurance company states that we will collect a copay every time a patient presents to the office. If you disagree with this, please contact your insurance company for verification.

NON-COVERED SERVICES:

Not all services are a covered benefit in all contracts. If you have a question regarding benefits you will need to call your insurance company and check your benefits. This is not a responsibility of the physician's office.

An additional fee of $30.00 will be applied to Evening and Saturday appointments.

SELF-PAY PATIENT AGREEMENT:

Self-Pay patients will be responsible for all charges related to services provided by Pediatric Care North. The charges presented at the time of service are due in full with a 20% discount on office visit charge only on the day of service unless arrangements have been made in advance with our billing/collections department. All other services such as lab (throat cultures, urine cultures, etc.) and x-rays are NOT included in your charges. You will be billed separately for these services. Our office will be requiring a credit card to remain on file for all Self-Pay patients to ensure all visit charges are collected at the time of service.

Pediatric Care North accepts cash, personal checks, credit cards (Visa, Master Card, Discover and American Express). We are not a lending institution, and it is not our policy to extend credit. Patients with an outstanding balance more than 90 days overdue MUST make arrangements for payment PRIOR to scheduling appointments. We realize that financial difficulty is a reality, therefore our Billing Department is available to assist you Monday through Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm at (816) 587-3341.

Accounts become past due after 60 days. We reserve the right to send an account to an outside collection agency if the balance is not paid in full after 60 days. An additional collection fee may also be required. After an account has been sent to the collection agency balances MUST be paid in full before scheduling any future appointments. No payment arrangements will be made once an account has been sent to collections.

If your visit is due to a Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA), those services are expected to be paid within 30 days. It is not the physician's responsibility to get involved with MVAs. Our office cannot wait on MVA settlements.

Know that the responsibility of payment for services rendered to any dependent children whose parents are divorced rests with the parent who seeks treatment. Our office will NOT get involved in court decisions.

MISSED APPOINTMENT CHARGE:

Your appointment time is important to you, your doctor, and to others who are in need of medical care. We reserve the right to charge for missed appointments. You will be personally responsible for this charge. This charge will not be billed to, nor paid for, by your insurance company. As always, emergencies and unforeseen circumstances are taken into consideration.

At Pediatric Care North we are required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information and to provide you with this notice of privacy practices. We also are required to abide by the privacy policies and practices that are outlined in this notice. As permitted by law, we reserve the right to amend or modify our privacy policies and practices. These changes in our policies and practices may be required by changes in federal and state law regulations. Whatever the reason for the revisions, we will provide you with a revised notice on your next office visit. The revised policies and practices will be applied to all protected health information that we maintain.

A. We may use and disclose your health information in the following ways:

1. Treatment: your health information may be used by staff members or disclosed to other healthcare professionals for the purpose of evaluating your health, diagnosing medical conditions, and providing treatment. For example, results of laboratory tests and procedures will be available in your medical record to all health professionals who may provide treatment or who may be consulted by staff members.

2. Payment: your health information may be used to seek payment from your health plan, from other sources or coverage such as an automobile insurer. For example, your health plan may request and receive information on dates of service, the services provided, and the medical condition being treated. You are required to provide this practice with all insurance (primary and secondary) coverage information, health, auto, and worker's compensation (if applicable), or discuss and provide an alternative method for providing payment for services to this practice.

3. Health care operations: your health information may be used as necessary to support the day-to-day activities and management of this practice. For example: measuring and improving quality of health care.

4. Law enforcement: your health information may be disclosed to law enforcement agencies, without your permission, to support government audits and inspections to facilitate law-enforcement investigations and to comply with government mandated reporting.

5. Victims of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence: we are required by law to disclose medical information to appropriate authority if there is a possibility of child abuse, neglect or domestic violence.

6. Public health reporting: your health information may be disclosed to public health agencies as required by law. For example, we are required to report certain communicable diseases to the state's health department.

7. Other uses and disclosures require your authorization: disclosure of your health information or its use for any purpose other than those listed above requires your specific written authorization. If you change your mind after authorizing a use or disclosure of your information you may submit a written revocation of the authorization. However, your decision to revoke the authorization will not affect or undo any use or disclosure of information that occurred before you notified us of your decision.

8. Appointment reminder: your health information may be used to send you appointment reminders.

9. Information about treatments: your health information may be used to send you information on the treatment and management of your medical condition that you may find to be of interest.

B. Your rights under the federal privacy standards:

• The right to request restrictions on the use and disclosure of your protected health information
• The right to receive confidential communications concerning your medical condition and treatment
• The right to inspect and copy your protected health information
• The right to amend or submit corrections of your protected health information
• The right to receive an accounting of how and to whom your protected health information has been disclosed other than treatment, payment and health care operations.
• The right to receive a printed copy of this notice
• The right to file a complaint. If you would like to submit a comment or complaint about our privacy practices, or suspect violation, you may do so by letter, outlining your concerns. Please address this correspondence to our privacy officer (Jennifer Mueller, at 8781 North Platte Purchase Drive, Kansas City, MO 64155)

To obtain a copy of your protected health information, please complete a request to copy protected health information form from our office.

Efficiency through the use of technology

You will be encouraged to consult our website, register for and use our patient portal, and effectively use automated reminders for appointments and for routine care/immunizations that are due.

As medical professionals, we at Pediatric Care North feel very strongly that vaccinating children on schedule with currently available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do for all children and young adults. We believe that in the past 100 years, along with effective hand washing and a clean water supply, vaccines are the top reason that children have a life expectancy greater than infancy. Unvaccinated children put other infants and immunocompromised children in our office at risk of developing these preventable illnesses, as these diseases can spread through coughing, sneezing, or even by being in the same room with an infected person. We are making you aware of these facts not to scare you or coerce you, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child.  As pediatric health providers, it is our responsibility to promote the safest possible environment for all of our patients.

• We firmly believe in the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent serious illness and to save lives.
• We firmly believe in the safety of our vaccines.
• We firmly believe that all children and young adults should receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
• We firmly believe, based on all available literature, evidence, and current studies, that vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.
• We firmly believe that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health promoting intervention we perform as health care providers, and that you can support as parents/caregivers.

The recommended vaccines and the schedule of administration are the results of years and years of scientific study and data-gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists and physicians.

We are more than willing to discuss any questions you may have about vaccines, but do require all patients of our practice to receive all vaccines protecting them from HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS diseases. This includes DTaP (whooping cough), MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), Varicella (chicken pox), PCV (pneumococcal disease), Hib (bacterial meningitis), and IPV (polio). This policy does not include the HPV, Hep B, or Hep A vaccines. However, we do strongly recommend these immunizations as well.

• Children must be up to date with their primary vaccine series by 2 years of age.
• Children must receive their boosters of MMR, Varicella, DTaP and IPV before starting kindergarten (at 4, 5, or 6 years of age).
• Children over the age of 11 will need to be up to date with their Tdap and Meningitis vaccines per CDC/AAP guidelines.

The immunization schedule that we recommend is outlined by the CDC and the AAP. This standard schedule has been studied and is safe and effective in protecting your child. 

Spreading out the vaccine schedule has not been shown to be safer, in fact it delays the time it takes for your child to be protected from these illnesses. It is therefore against our medical advice as professionals at Pediatric Care North. If you should decline to vaccinate your child, we will ask you to find another health care provider who shares your views.