No Show Fee Policy and No Lab Fee Policy

No Show Fee Policy

Our goal here at Houston Thyroid and Endocrine, PLLC is to provide quality service to all of our clients in a timely manner. Failure to keep scheduled appointments (“no-show”) is costly to the clinic and you. Patients who are unable to keep their appointments are requested to give more than 1 business day notice prior to their appointments. We realize this is not always possible and the practice will consider each individual case. Providing such notice allows the clinic time to offer other persons the opportunity to see our providers, thus using the time more efficiently. Please also try not to be late to your appointment.

• If an established patient fails to provide notice of a cancellation of their appointment, a $50 fee will be billed to his/her account for each missed appointment

• If a new patient fails to show twice, it will result in discharge from the entire clinic.

No Lab Fee Policy

If a patient completes imaging and/ or blood orders under the doctor's name, then a follow up tele-visit or office visit appointment is required to obtain an interpretation of the results. The doctor is liable for all results and will only interpret them with a patient directly unless specifically told to the patient at a visit that a schedule paid-portal-message is made (very rare). The doctor will NOT give an interpretation of results via patient portal, phone call, or via a medical assistant.

If the doctor asks you to schedule a follow up visit in the future they may request you complete blood work to be done 10 days prior to the scheduled visit. These labs are called "Pre-clinic labs". It is very important to have completed the labs ahead of time so that the doctor can give you advice based on those results at the follow up clinic visit. Failure to complete these pre-clinic labs ("no-lab") greatly reduces the value of the clinic visit to the patient.

• If a patient does not complete their assigned pre-clinic labs 10-15  days prior to their scheduled appointment we will have you return in a week after the labs are completed. 

• Patient will be charged for the current visit and for the upcoming visit once labs are available. 

• We are not responsible for obtaining lab results ordered by a different office. If they are not in your chart at the time of your visit then you will be responsible to obtain them for our clinic

Important Notes/FAQ on lab orders

1. Do you need a lab order paper?: We would have provided you with the lab order form at your previous visit in most cases. It is best to have the lab order slip in-hand, but you do not necessarily need the paper slip if you are using Labcorp or Quest.

2. Where do I go for labs?: Use this link to locate the closest laboratory to where you live or work. If your order slip was for Labcorp or Quest then the order is also sent electronically to their systems so that you do not need the lab order slip if it was created within the last 6 months; You should go to one of their lab patient service centers without the lab paper slip since their staff should be able to find your order by your name and date of birth and doctor name if the order was created within 6 months. If you use any other company than Labcorp or Quest you will need a paper copy of the lab order slip in hand when you go have labs done. We usually use Labcorp but if you have Aetna insurance your usually must use Quest.

3. If you are trying to figure out at which lab your tests are ordered (Quest, Labcorp,other) please check the "Visit Summary" in your patient portal (click "medical records" on the left and then click "Visit Summary". You should be able to see where you should do your future labs.

4. Is your lab order Out-Of Date?: If your lab order was created more than 6 months ago then it will be expunged from the lab systems so you will need to have a copy of the lab order in hand. You will need to contact our office to "refresh your lab orders" and/or get a copy of the lab slip (e)mailed to you

5. Are your labs done under another doctors name?: If you ask another doctor outside of Houston Thyroid and Endocrine to do your labs then we will not receive a copy of the results. It will be your responsibility to make sure we have received those lab results prior to your visit. 

6. Do all patients need to do labs?: If you are post operative patient getting labs within 30 days of your surgery we usually do not require labs prior to the visit. In some other instances we may have instructed you to come to a visit without completing labs prior to a visit as they are not needed or were recently done.