West Front Primary Care

Your Family Health Destination

What is Family Practice?

Family practice combines general medicine, pediatrics, minor surgery, gynecology, and social and behavioral sciences.

Family practice physicians establish lifelong relationships with patients. Their specialty is treatment of families and individuals at every stage of life and in many circumstances. These relationships provide physicians and nurse practitioners with a basis for decisions in each patient’s lifelong care, fostering a partnership between the healthcare provider and patients.

Nurse practitioners approach health care from a nursing perspective that is also holistic. Nurse practitioners are Masters-prepared RNs with advanced skills in physical assessment. They are qualified to diagnose and treat acute minor illnesses; manage stable, chronic diseases; and educate and counsel patients. Their collaborative relationship with physicians allows them to provide many of the same services provided by physicians.

The health-care providers at West Front Primary Care emphasize disease prevention and health maintenance. We provide services that begin in infancy with newborn and well-baby care, and continue into the senior years of life.

Inpatient Care

Primary care physicians on Munson’s medical staff currently have the option of caring for their hospitalized patients or delegating that care to Hospitalists of Northwest Michigan, a large internal-medicine group. Inpatient care by the Munson Medical Center Hospitalists allows our primary care physicians to focus more attention on their office practice. The collegial relationship between the MMC Hospitalists and West Front Primary Care physicians allows for improved continuity of care.

Services We Provide

· Preventative medicine for children and adults

· Routine physical examinations

· Women’s health care

· Health screening tests such as blood analysis, urinalysis, E.K.G., Bone Density, spirometry, and Holter monitor

· FREE immunizations for qualifying children

· Office surgical procedures such as skin biopsies, excisions, wart removal, vasectomy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, colposcopy, endometrial biopsy and joint injections

· Consultations for patients traveling outside the United States including recommended vaccines. (not covered by any insurance)

· Osteopathic manipulation

Illnesses and Injuries We Treat

· Acute illnesses, such as infections

· Sprains and fractures

· Lacerations

· Sports-related and occupational injuries

· Chronic illnesses, such as asthma, arthritis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and depression

· Skin diseases

Our Providers

(This will be a new list based on the Bios we get from staff physicians)

Referrals

Referrals are made to specialty physicians when we believe their expertise is essential. However, most health problems can be treated by our staff. Your West Front Primary Care provider must evaluate your condition before a referral is considered, especially if you belong to an HMO. This system is more expeditious, more cost effective and gives you continuity of care in a familiar environment.

Payment for Services

We expect payment in full for services on the day they are received, unless we contract with your insurance company. All elective surgeries must be paid in full prior to the procedure. We accept Visa and MasterCard.

West Front Primary Care has contracts with several insurance carriers. We bill these carriers for you and payment is typically made directly to West Front Primary Care. Any co-pay, deductible or co-insurance amount must be paid on the date of service.

If we do not have a contract with your insurance carrier, we will courtesy bill your insurance company as long as the visit is prepaid in full on the date of service. Every insurance plan has a different coverage policy and changes in coverage happen regularly, it is your responsibility to know what services are and are not covered within your plan. In the event your insurance plan determines a service to be ‘not a covered benefit,’ you will be responsible for the complete charge. Payment is due upon receipt of a statement from our office.

Insurances we participate with:

Aetna

ASR (Grand Rapids only)

BCBS of Michigan

BCBS FEP

BCBS PPO Community Blue

BCBS PPO

Blue Care Network

Blue Choice Point of Service

Cofinity (formerly PPOM)

Medicare –including most Medicare Plans

Travelers Medicare (Railroad Medicare)

Priority Health

Please direct any questions regarding your account to (231) 935-8983.

Office Hours

Monday – Friday: 8:00am to 8:00pm

Saturday: 9:00am to 3:00pm

Scheduling Appointments

Appointments may be arranged by calling the office at (231) 935-8930.

Try to schedule appointments for physical exams, checkups and follow-up visits for ongoing problems well in advance, so that patients with urgent problems can be seen in a timely manner.

Missed Appointments

If you cannot keep an appointment, we ask that you call to cancel it as soon as possible. We request cancellation notification at least 24 hours in advance to allow scheduling another patient during that appointment time.

Same Day Care

Should an acute problem arise and you need to be seen that day, we will try to schedule an appointment with your own West Front Primary Care physician or nurse practitioner.

When this is not possible, our Same Day Care practitioner will see you instead. The Same Day Care clinic is open 12:00pm to 8:00pm Monday through Friday and 9:00am to 3:00pm on Saturdays. Appointments are still required. Hours subject to change.

Prescription Renewals

There is an optimal time for prescriptions to be re-written: At a scheduled office visit, before your prescriptions run out. This allows your doctor or nurse practitioner to monitor the clinical and laboratory effects of your prescription medications, and adjust the dose in a timely fashion. Please make your follow-up appointment in plenty of time before your prescription has run out. If this is impossible, please call (231) 935-8945, and follow the instructions given, allowing 48 hours for your prescription to be filled. No controlled substance renewals will be made on weekends.

In Office Pharmacy

West Front Primary Care has a limited number of low-cost generic medications available for sale for our patient’s convenience. These medications are dispensed on a cash basis only, and will not be billed to insurance.

Preparing for Your Office Visit

In order to make the best use of your appointment time, please bring a current list of all your medications, including name, dosage and frequency, or bring the medications themselves. If you record your blood pressure or blood sugars, bring that information with you as well. You should also write down all the questions and concerns you would like to address during your office visit. If you are a brand new patient, a detailed medical and surgical history and a list of your allergies is always helpful.

Emergencies

In a severe, life-threatening emergency, you should always call 911 first.

But, during the hours when our office is open, you should never have to visit an urgent care center or emergency room for non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries. Our office is open until 8:00pm on weekdays and until 3:00pm on Saturdays.

If an emergency arises when the office is closed, our answering machine will direct you to call the Munson Hospital switchboard at (231) 935-5000 to page our on-call staff physician.

West Front Primary Care, P.L.L.C.

3537 West Front Street, Suite E and Suite B

Traverse City, MI 49684

Tel: (231) 935-8930

Fax: (231) 935-8811