Office Policy

Appointments

All new patients must have a referral submitted to the office for review before an appointment can be made. For established patients to schedule an appointment, please call our office as far in advance as possible or stop by the reception desk following your office visit.

We recognize that everyone's time is valuable, so we make every effort to maintain the scheduled appointment times, but urgent situations sometimes disrupt the schedule. We ask for your understanding and patience during these delays. We will make every effort to keep your waiting time to a minimum.

If you are unable to keep your appointment, please call. Late arrival may necessitate rescheduling your appointment. If a patient fails to keep a second appointment or does not call within 24 hours to cancel, a $25.00 charge will be applied.

Emergencies and After-Hours Calls

When the office is closed and it’s a medical emergency you should call 911. You can reach our answering service by calling our office and pressing option 9 regardless of the hour. The answering service will ask your name, telephone number, and the reason for your call. This information will be relayed to the doctor on call regardless of the hour. For routine questions and refill requests, we ask that you please call the office on the next business day or leave a message on the phone.

Our Financial Policy

You will be asked to provide your insurance card(s) at every visit. This is to ensure that the information we have is correct, and that your plan is current and one in which we participate. Out of date cards with incorrect information or the wrong insurance cards can cause unnecessary delays in the payment of your claim.

Frequently, small changes (for example, a group number change or plan change) may not be considered significant by patients, but insurers will not process claims that are not 100% accurate.

All office co-pays are to be paid at the time of service. If the co-pay cannot be made at the time of service, your appointment will be rescheduled to a later date when you have the funds available to accommodate your co-pay. This is also an insurance company policy. We accept checks, credit cards, or cash.

We will submit insurance claims for our patients. However, the agreement of the insurance carrier to pay for medical care is a contract between you and the carrier. You should direct any questions and/or complaints regarding coverage to your insurance carrier, your employer (if in a group plan), or to your agent.

Insurances vary in their coverage, and it is the patient's responsibility to understand his/her medical benefits. There may be limitations and exclusions to coverage. The patient portion is set by the insurance company. Patients are responsible for any co-insurance, deductibles, and any other non-covered billable services.

Payments

Balances are due within 30 days of when the bill is issued. Bills will be issued after the insurance carrier pays its portion of the bill. We accept checks, cash, and credit cards. In addition to paying through the mail, credit card information may also be called to the billing office during business hours at 770-2380. Any patient whose personal check comes back with insufficient funds will be charged a fee of $20 in addition to the original bill.

Summary of Notice of Privacy Procedures

This is a summary of the Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) for Grant Searles, MD, FACS. Please refer to the Notice of Privacy Practices for complete information concerning the protection of your health information.

We are required by law to protect the privacy of health information that may reveal your identity and provide you with a copy of our notice that describes the health information privacy practices at our office, the staff and our Business Associates. A copy of our current notice summary will always be posted in our reception area and the NPP is available below. You can also obtain your own copy of the NPP by taking one at the time of your next visit.

If you have any questions about the Notice of Privacy Practices or would like further information, please contact our office's Privacy Officer at (907)277-1197

“The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) requires a health care provider to provide patients with a Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) that; explains the purposes for which the provider may use and disclose the patient’s Protected Health Information (PHI) without the patient’s authorization, informs the patient of their privacy rights and, explains the provider’s legal duties under federal privacy laws and regulations.”

WHO WILL FOLLOW THIS NOTICE?

The privacy practices described in this notice will be followed by: any health care professional that treats you in our office, all employees, trainees, students or volunteers in our office.

WHAT HEALTH INFORMATION IS PROTECTED

We are committed to protecting the privacy of information we gather about you while providing health-related services. Some examples of protected health information are:

Information indicating that you are a patient of our office or receiving treatment or other health-related services from our office;

Information about your health condition (such as a disease you may have);
Information about health care products or services you have received or may receive in the future (such as an operation); or
Information about your health care benefits under an insurance plan (such as whether a procedure is covered);
Demographic information (such as your name, address, or insurance status);
Unique numbers that may identify you (such as your social security number, your phone number, or your driver’s license number); and
Other types of information that may identify who you are.

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

We will generally obtain your written authorization before using your health information or sharing it with others outside the hospital. You may also initiate the transfer of your records to another person by completing a written authorization form. If you provide us with written authorization, you may revoke that written authorization at any time, except to the extent that we have already relied upon it. There are some situations when we do not need your written authorization before using your health information or sharing it with others. They are exceptions for:

Treatment, payment and business operations;
Disclosure to family and friends involved in your care;
Complying with the law or to meet important public needs;

Disclosure of completely or partially de-identified information: Incidental disclosure that may occur during or as an unavoidable result of our otherwise permissible uses or disclosures of your health information.

YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

You generally have the right to inspect and copy your health information.
You have the right to request that we amend your health information if you believe it is inaccurate or incomplete.
You have the right to receive an “accounting of disclosures”, which identifies certain persons or organizations to whom we have disclosed your health information in accordance with the protections described in our Notice of Privacy Practices.
You have the right to request further restrictions on the way we use your health information or share it with others.
You have the right to request we contact you in a way that is more confidential for you, such as at home instead of at work. We will try to accommodate all reasonable requests.
You have the right to name a personal representative who may act on your behalf to control the privacy of your health information. Parents and guardians will generally have the right to control the privacy of health information of minors unless the minors are permitted by law to act on their own behalf.
There are special privacy protections that apply to HIV – related information, alcohol and substance abuse treatment information, mental health information and genetic information. If your treatment involves this information, you will be provided with separate notices, upon request explaining how the information will be protected.

HOW TO FILE A COMPLAINT

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with our office or with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Ave, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201. (See the Office for Civil Rights website, for more information.) To file a complaint with us, contact our office manager at 1200 Airport Heights Drive Bldg. E, Suite 350, Anchorage, AK 99508. All complaints must be submitted in writing and should be submitted within 180 days of when you knew or should have known that the alleged violation occurred. You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.

To open the full Notice of Privacy Procedures click here.