Office Policies

Office Hours:

Monday through Friday: 9AM - 1PM and 2PM - 4:30PM (this is when our phones are live, we do schedule urgent same day visits after 4:30pm if needed)

Saturday, Sunday and holidays: 9AM - 12PM (urgent visits by appointment only)

      • We have hours EVERY Saturday and Sunday and MOST holidays - we kindly ask that you wait until 9AM on these days to call to book appointments rather than paging the on call doctor prior to office hours. 

      • We do occasionally have another practice (Wayland Pediatrics) cover our weekend/holiday urgent hours and calls. If they are covering for our office, that information will be on our URGENT voicemail (and no one will be answering the phone or returning non-urgent voicemails)

Late for appointments and no shows

If you are more than 10-15 minutes late for a well visit, we will likely have to reschedule your visit for another day. If you are late for a sick or urgent visit, we will do our best to work you into the schedule. We strive to ensure that we have enough time to complete our visits in depth, but to run on time and not have patients and parents waiting for extended periods. 

Three same day cancellations or 3 no shows to appointments may result in dismissal from the practice

Newborn Home Visits

We offer an in home visit for your first visit post hospital discharge after your child’s birth. You may choose to decline the home visit and have :in office visit if that is your preference. Please be aware that we may not be able to accommodate a home visit if you live more than 20-25 minutes away from our office.

Telemedicine

We do offer the option of telemedicine visits for certain types of issues. The patient must be located in the state of Massachusetts for us to provide telemedicine services. As insurance benefits may differ between plans, please check with your insurance company directly if you have any questions related to coverage.

Well Child Visits vs. Urgent/Sick Visits

Well child visits are meant to discuss growth, development and preventative care. They are not meant to discuss new concerns or issues. If time permits, we are willing to discuss a new issue or concern, but might need to document and bill this as an office visit in addition to the well child visit.

Vaccination:

    • We believe strongly in the benefits of childhood vaccination; therefore, we will not accept any families who have no intention of vaccinating their children. 

    • We strive to vaccinate our patients on time according to the CDC vaccination schedule. 

    • We are happy to have discussions with families who have any questions or concerns about vaccines and vaccine schedules.

Home Birth Policy:

    • We require all expecting parents delivering their newborn babies at home to contact our office within the next business day after delivery, to notify us of the birth and to schedule the first visit within 24hrs. While we will do our best to arrange a home visit for this first visit, there may be times when that is not possible due to short-notice scheduling conflicts.

    • Please be advised that all recommended preventive medical visits must be conducted by your child’s pediatrician (or available physician in our office). While we look forward to coordinating care with your mid-wife, our physicians need to be able to assess and care for your child during hands-on appointments as well. An appointment with a mid-wife is not a replacement for a visit with your pediatrician.

Financial Policies

  • Checks and Payments: All checks and payments must be made payable to Giving Tree Pediatrics, PC. We appreciate your efforts to mail any payments due to our office at 218 N. Main St, Natick, MA 01760.

  • Insurance: We participate in most insurance plans, with some limited exceptions. We must obtain a copy of your current card in order to bill insurance on your behalf. If you fail to provide us with the correct and current insurance information, you will be responsible for all charges. It is your responsibility to know the coverage and benefits of your insurance policy. Please contact your insurance company directly with any questions you may have regarding your coverage.

  • Co-Payments. All Co-Payments are due at the time of service. This arrangement is part of your contract with your insurance company.

  • Referrals and Authorizations. We refer patients to a wide range of medical specialists and specialty services. If your insurance policy requires a referral from your Primary Care Physician (PCP) for these services, it is your responsibility to obtain one prior to the appointment. If a valid referral is not on file, the specialist may require payment in full at the time of service. It is your responsibility to verify that your PCP is listed correctly with your insurance company. If your child’s PCP is not correct at the time of service, and your claim is denied by your insurance, you will be responsible to pay for the services rendered.

  • Non-payment of patient balances. Our billing company is responsible for sending bills to you for any balances due on your account. We appreciate prompt payment of balances. If several notices have been sent to you and your account is still past due, we may refer your account to a collection agency.

  • Non-covered Services. Please be aware that some of the healthcare services that your children receive may not be covered by your insurance. Any balance for this reason would, therefore, be billed to the subscriber of the insurance. It is your responsibility to be aware of the inclusions and exclusions of your insurance coverage. 

  • Returned Checks. Checks returned by the bank for insufficient funds will be assessed a $25.00 processing fee, plus the original amount of the returned check. These charges will be your responsibility and billed directly to you. Repeated returned checks will result in acceptance of cash or credit cards only at the time of all future visits.

After Hours Calls:

A doctor is available for urgent issues that cannot wait for regular office hours. You can reach the doctor on call by calling our main office phone number (508-647-4955) and selecting the urgent option. You will leave a message and receive a call back from the doctor on call.

We have chosen to take calls ourselves so that we ensure you are getting advice we agree with. Therefore, we kindly ask that you do consult our common issues in pediatrics portion of the website to see if your question can be answered there prior to paging the doctor on call.

We reserve the right to document and bill a telephone encounter to insurance if our phone advice becomes detailed or we determine that the concern cannot be answered simply and quickly.

Patient gateway/getting in touch with the office:

    • By signing up for Patient Gateway, you will be able to:

      • Print out or download your child’s most recent health form for daycare, school, sports or camp

      • Access your lab results

      • Request specialist referrals and medication refills

      • Update any changes in personal information, such as address, phone number or insurance coverage

      • Get e-mail notifications of upcoming appointments or new results

      • Send secure messages to the staff with non-urgent concerns - these messages may be answered by our nurses if they are able to provide an answer; otherwise, they will forward the message to your doctor. We ask that you allow 24-48 hours for response time.

    • * a note about Patient Gateway for ages 13-17 years: due to adolescent confidentiality purposes, what can be accessed via Patient Gateway becomes limited for both the teen and guardian proxy.

    • We encourage you to call the office during our regular hours with any urgent concerns. 

    • You may also leave a non-urgent voicemail after hours and you will receive a phone call once staff is in the office the next morning.