We schedule well visits or non-urgent sick visits up to three months in advance. Please call well in advance of your desired appointment date. Children beyond the age of two years old should be seen annually for health maintenance exams.

Sick Appointments are usually made on the day of the phone call. We have significant capacity to see sick children usually within several hours of the phone call. Please call first before coming in so that we may give you an exact time and so that we may get your child's record ready for the visit.

We now also have a "tickler file." You may now fill out a postcard specifying your appointment requests regarding preferred doctor and time. When the schedule for the month comes out, your request will be honored and the postcard will be sent to you in the mail.

Any calls outside of these hours will be referred to our answering service. Please call our main phone number (632-8050) for instructions. Your call will be returned within an hour by an Amherst Pediatrics M.D. or by a trained triage nurse.

If your child has an extremely urgent illness or injury, it may be necessary to call 911 or to proceed directly to the Emergency Room.

Usually, a signed authorization from a custodial parent is required before records may be released in either direction.

Our business office has authorization forms for medical record transfer.

There may be a fee for some forms of record transfer.

If you have any questions, please call the business office at 632-2729.

Insurance
Our practice participates in health plans with the following insurance companies:

• Aetna
• Blue Cross/Blue Shield
• Community Blue/Community Care
• Child Health Plus/Family Health Plus
• Fidelis
• Independent Health/Medisource/Nova
• MVP/Preferred Care
• Tricare
• United Health Care
• Univera/Excellus

Participation in these plans may change without notice. If you do not see your insurance plan listed, please call our business office for updated information at 632-2297.

If your child has not had a well physical exam in our office in the past 12 months, please set one up as soon as possible.

College physicals are the exception to the above advice. For a college physical, we do require specific school forms and do require a special college physical visit to be scheduled with the office.

Some insurance companies require that your primary care doctor approves any request for referral. Please refer to your insurance contract.

Camp Forms
Camp forms are very similar to school forms. If your child has had a well visit within the 12 months prior to camp, we can fill out the form. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope when you give us the form. If your child has not been seen for a well visit in the year before camp, you will need to set up an appointment. Please set up appointments as soon as possible prior to camp.

Medical Questions
The trained Amherst Pediatric medical staff can answer most of your medical questions. When you call our office, our staff answers the phone during our office hours. If the nurse cannot answer your question, you will have the opportunity to speak to a doctor or have a doctor return your call.

If you call the office after office hours, you will be instructed to call the office during office hours. However, if your question is of an urgent nature, your call will be returned by an Amherst Pediatric doctor or by a trained triage nurse.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has excellent publications for parent education. All publications may be ordered on-line at http://www.aap.org/family. Please see our useful links section.