Policies

Appointments Policy (including office hours)

Office consultations and visits are by appointment only. Nominal office hours are 9-5, Monday through Thursday.

Because of demand, and days set aside for surgery, new appointments for routine conditions may require 2-3 weeks—or longer at some times of the year.

Urgent situations are accommodated as appropriate, usually within a day or two.

We can almost always manage emergency situations within a few hours, assuming surgeon availability.

Privacy Policy

Please see HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.

Payment Policy

Because we no longer participate with insurance plans, we generally expect payment for office services at the time of the visit; we will then produce and submit an insurance form for the applicable plan, indicating that the bill has been paid. The patient will thus be reimbursed by her/his plan according to the stipulations of the contract—deductibles and copayments may be applied by the insurer.

For Medicare, fees for covered services are submitted in accordance with plan requirements; balance billing is also per Medicare stipulations.

For larger surgeries we are often able to negotiate an arrangement in advance with the covering insurance plan—provided an out-of-network option is available.

Payment for non-covered office services is expected at the time of the visit. For non-covered services, usually no insurance submission is involved.

Our cosmetic surgery fees generally follow a preset schedule of prices which we update from time to time; it is compiled with input from practice expenses, national average charges amassed by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and from surveys of prices in the New York tri-state area. Fee quotations will be honored for 6 months from the date of the consultation.

Cosmetic Surgery fee payment is due two weeks prior to surgery.

Arranging surgery involves the schedules of multiple professional people (surgeon, anesthesiologist, nurse, assistant) and an operating facility. To date we have avoided the approach—which many other plastic surgery practices take—of requiring a non-refundable deposit to schedule surgery. Instead, we trust patients to get their payments to us by two weeks prior to surgery. However, if full payment and any required laboratory results are not received by one week prior to surgery, the surgery will be postponed in order to open the operating room schedule and professional schedules to other waiting patients.