Listed below are the clinic policies of Joint Medical Specialists.
FEES
All accounts are payable in full at the time of consultation, with 40-90% of fees rebatable from Medicare with a valid referral.
Consultation fees are advised at the time of making your booking, and take into account a comprehensive assessment, treatment plan and ongoing care requirements such as timely communication with your referrer and monitoring your progress. Payment options include cash, eftpos or credit card. With a valid referral, 40-90% of the consultation fees will be rebatable from Medicare. Joint injections are performed at additional cost. Third Party fees relating to pathology, radiology or allied health (e.g. physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry) are not determined by the practice but every care is made to provide options where these exist.
A/Prof Thakkar does see worker’s compensation cases. You will need to arrange or provide a valid authorisation from the insurance company at the time of making the appointment.
RESULTS
Results are only provided during consultations. Results are not provided over the phone.
This is because results require careful interpretation and explanation, and are used to make treatment decisions that are clearly communicated with you and your local doctor. For these reasons, results are not provided over the phone. Please make an appointment to go through your results. If required, you are most welcome to discuss interim results with your local doctor.
CANCELLATION
Patients who cancel within 48 hours, or simply do not attend may not be provided with further appointments.
We understand at times that urgent circumstances require the cancellation and rescheduling of appointments. We ask that you provide at least 48 hours cancellation notice so that we can allocate your appointment to the next patient on the waiting list.
PRESCRIPTIONS
As we promote safe prescribing practices, phone requests for prescriptions cannot be provided.
Any treatment recommendations relating to your rheumatology issues will be provided during your consultation, including prescriptions. For non-rheumatology care and scripts, you will need to see your local doctor who is managing your health.
PHONE CONSULTATIONS
Phone consultations are not provided.
You are encouraged to make appointments to discuss your health problems. Phone communication does not enable a proper consultation that involves a medical practitioner derived history, examination and investigations. Please make an appointment if you require a consultation.
LOST FORMS
Please take care of the forms provided to you in your consultation.
In the event that you lose your forms, a fee will be applicable to rewrite these that covers the costs associated with reviewing your medical records to enable new forms to be issued.
SPECIAL REPORTS
Special reports (eg workers compensation, insurance, motor vehicle authorities, solicitors, Centrelink etc ) are not provided as a part of the standard consultation, and incur additional fees that cover the time take to prepare, produce and distribute these reports.
After every consultation, a detailed report is provided to your referring doctor/team, and this is included in consultation fees.