Otis Chiropractic Neurology, Inc.

Office and Financial Policies

APPOINTMENT FEES

  1. Our initial intake appointment is $300 – $450 depending on complexity of your case. We’ll tell you in advance.
  2. Follow-up visits with Dr. Otis are $150.00 for 25 minute appointments, and $300 for 50-minute appointments. Please note that Dr. Otis spends considerable time researching and planning your case in addition to your face-to-face time.
  3. Phone consultations are pro-rated at $300 / hour.

PAYMENT OPTIONS

  1. We accept credit, debit and health savings account cards, as well as check or cash payments.

BILLING / INSURANCE

  1. Dr. Otis is not a contracted provider for any insurance plan because insurance companies do not adequately reimburse for the extended time it takes to provide Functional Neurology assessment and treatment.
  2. We will provide you with an itemized SuperBill receipt with traditional ICD-10 diagnosis codes and CPT procedure codes to submit to your health insurance plan or use as a receipt for your HSA or taxes.
  3. You can usually obtain claim submission forms on the website of your insurance company, and then include our SuperBill receipt when you submit your claim.
  4. If your insurance carrier requests more information about your service than is contained in a standard superbill, we will provide you with copies of your medical records that you can submit with your claim. We charge a pro-rated fee of $300 per hour to communicate directly with your insurance company.

MEDICARE

  1. Dr. Otis is not a Medicare provider, which means that you will be unable to bill Medicare for any portion of our services. Federal regulations require that you sign a Medicare Opt-Out contract to indicate your understanding of this policy.
  2. If you have a Supplemental or Secondary coverage plan, you are allowed to submit your claim to this carrier, and they will reimburse according to your policy.

SCHEDULING AN APPOINTMENT

  1. If you are new to our office, please call to schedule your initial visit or a complimentary 10-minute consultation to
    1. Discuss your concerns and your goals
    2. Find out if you are a good fit for our treatment approach
    3. Determine how we can best support you
  1. If you are already a patient with us, you can schedule an appointment on our website, https://jimotisdc.com/, (this is the best way to schedule your appointment) or you can email support@jimotisdc.com with a request for times that you would like to come in. We check email three times a day Monday – Friday, and we will respond within 24 hours or the next business day.

COMMUNICATING WITH OUR SUPPORT TEAM

  1. The easiest and quickest way to get a response for questions between visits is to send an email to support@jimotisdc.com. We check email three times a day Monday – Friday, and we will respond within 24 hours or the next business day.
  2. There is no fee for communication about general, non-medical questions.
  3. If you have a medical question that requires more than a brief clarification of your at-home therapy, we ask that you schedule an office visit or a phone consultation with Dr. Otis to discuss your questions and integrate them with your treatment plan.
  4. You can email questions in advance that you would like to discuss at your next appointment or phone consultation.
  5. We charge $50 for phone consultations up to 10 minutes, and calls over 10 minutes are billed on a pro-rated basis.
  6. We appreciate your understanding of these policies and charges! Dr. Otis has sometimes spent hours a day answering email and phone messages, and this is not sustainable.

CANCELLING OR RESCHEDULING AN APPOINTMENT

  1. We often can’t accommodate people for their preferred appointment times because those times are already taken.
  2. Please let us know as soon as possible if you need to cancel or reschedule so we can offer your appointment time to someone who wants it.
  3. We request a 48-hour notice if you would like to cancel or reschedule your appointment, and we charge a cancellation fee if you change or cancel your appointment with less than 48-hours notice.

LATE ARRIVAL APPOINTMENTS

  1. We do our best to be on time with patient appointments in order to prevent you from waiting. If you arrive late for your consult, we will need to end your appointment at the scheduled time, and you will be charged for the length of the originally scheduled visit.

SUPPLEMENTS

  1. Dr. Otis might recommend supplements as an adjunct to your treatment plan. These recommendations usually require a review of your chart and your laboratory results.
  2. We give you ordering codes to purchase supplements thru professional accounts that carry high quality supplements.
  3. We caution against purchasing nutritional supplements from Amazon or other on-line retailers, and most grocery and health food stores, because the supplements are frequently of remarkably poor quality.

LAB TESTING

  1. We use a variety of lab testing options, from conventional labs to state-of-the-art functional medicine testing to understand the underlying issues that are affecting your health. Dr. Otis will discuss the benefits and costs of each lab test he recommends.
  2. We negotiated a bundled discounted price for our patients for many of our basic laboratory tests with LabCorp. Because these are packages of many tests, we cannot provide a superbill with CPT codes and most insurance does not cover them. We will provide a receipt for your taxes or Health Savings Account.
  3. If you would like to try to get your lab tests thru Kaiser or one of your in-network providers, we will give you a list of our recommended tests.
  4. We charge $25 to review lab results. If you would like us to review lab results from another practitioner, please send the results as least two days before your appointment.
  5. Dr. Otis will review your labs and let you know if something requires immediate attention. You will however, need to schedule an appointment or phone consultation to discuss the non-urgent results with Dr. Otis so he can fit them into your treatment plan and make appropriate treatment recommendations.

REPORTS FOR EMPLOYERS, STATE AGENCIES, AND ATTORNEYS

  1. We charge a pro-rated rate of $300 per hour to prepare and complete reports for employers, state agencies, and attorneys.

COPIES OF MEDICAL RECORDS

  1. We respect your privacy. We only release your medical records or information about you with your written authorization.
  2. Let us know if you would like a copy of your medical record or billing statements and we will send an electronic copy at no charge.
  3. If you would like us to send your records to an insurance company or to another provider, we need your written authorization and directions about where to send the records. We charge a $35 fee to cover our staff time for preparing and sending the records.

OUT OF TOWN PATIENTS

  1. In order to establish a Doctor-Patient relationship and comply with California State Medical Board requirements we need to see you in person for the first visit. We are able to conduct follow-up appointments by phone after the initial appointment.
  2. Please let us know if you are coming from out-of-town and we can help with hotel recommendations. We are closest to the Oakland International Airport (OAK), but San Francisco (SFO) is also accessible, 50 minutes away. Downtown San Francisco is 25 minutes without commute traffic.

THANK YOU!

Thanks for reviewing these Policies! Please let us know if you have any questions.