Referral Suggestions
For Providers
We are excited to become a part of your comprehensive care team!
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Feel free to use your own referral form
We want to keep the process simple, and are happy to use what you already may have. Simply fax or e-mail your forms, and we’ll be on the lookout for your consultation request!
Prefer to use our Referral Template?
We are proud to offer direct referrals for home sleep studies for your patients with high clinical suspicion of obstructive sleep apnea, as well. The home test will be read and interpreted by Dr. Patel, a fellowship-trained and Board Certified Sleep Physician, and the results made available along with detailed recommendations.
Fax forms to: (360) 230-4780
E-mail records to: [email protected]
02
Direct patients to self-schedule online
While we await the records, you can have your patients navigate to our website and book an appointment themselves. This will help them get a convenient spot, as well as get them set up with their online patient portal access.
03
Let our team do the rest!
We will connect with the patient once we know they’re looking for us (either after your referral comes through or the patient has booked an appointment online). If we need anything else, we will reach back out to you!
Insurance questions
We are thrilled to accept most major insurances and Medicare!
At this time, we are still finalizing other government-backed reassignment of benefits (including Medicaid). (Please see our FAQs for more information).
Prior to the visit, we will request the most current insurance information directly from the patient so that we may check eligibility, however, we ask that patients ensure we are within their plans’ coverage and fulfill any referral requirements before scheduling.
We will also collect at least 2 forms of payment prior to the appointment (e.g. insurance, as well as a credit card) to ensure timely billing.
We are happy to generate a superbill for patients to submit by themselves to their own insurance company for direct reimbursement if they choose. In this circumstance, please note that they will be responsible for the full amount of our billed charge at the time of the visit. Our superbills conform to standard coding practices to maximize a patient’s likelihood of receiving payment. The patient may be reimbursed at an “out of network” rate.
We are constantly working on ways to help improve this experience for patients, and look forward to implementing beneficial changes regularly! Please check back for updates!
"Extra" tests/study results
We are always hopeful that you might send any information you deem pertinent on behalf of your patient. In some cases, we may seek more results. We will assess this on a case-by-case basis and make the specific requests as needed.
Some examples of tests and results we may seek are:
- Cardiac testing (such as echocardiograms and/or short- or long-term rhythm monitoring)
- Endocrine testing (such as A1c, adrenal function tests, and/or thyroid panels)
- Hematological testing (such as hemoglobin level and/or iron panels)
- Neurologic testing (such as EEGs and/or MRIs)
- Neuropsychiatric/Cognitive testing (such as behavioral or mood screens, and/or Mental State evaluations)
- Pulmonary testing (such as blood gases, CT scans and results, and/or pulmonary function tests (PFTs))
Our role
We believe sleep to be fundamental to overall health, and as more evidence comes to light, the science supports the need for high quality sleep evaluation and management.
With our background, we have expertise in some of the more subtle associations that are often overlooked. Barring any emergent issue, we will do our best to defer back to your expertise and history with the patient to make adjustments, and we are always open to direct discussion to reach an adequate compromise.
Although we know sleep apnea to be most common, we are also respectful of the vast complexity and presence of other sleep disorders that can have equally profound impacts on patients’ well-being. For patients whom you feel have a high clinical suspicion for sleep apnea, we are happy to offer a direct referral for diagnostic testing. However, in general, we prefer to receive patients for a comprehensive initial consultation before consideration of diagnostic testing as the diversity and presentation of sleep disorders can be quite nuanced and may demonstrate lesser need to test in the first place!
Results and reports from our diagnostic tests are made available upon interpretation to the patient, and, if requested, to you as the referring provider. The interpretation includes detailed recommendations for any findings, which may also have suggestions for further specialist referrals or other diagnostic testing. As a professional courtesy, we will only make these referrals ourselves, or order further testing ourselves, in emergent cases.
Similarly, if findings from our consultations necessitate changes in therapies that we have not prescribed (e.g. medication changes, dose timings, etc.), we will make note and communicate those to you for your reference, unless there is some emergent concern.
For sleep-specific therapies, we will do our best to work within your therapeutic goals as we can discern from your referral, and ensure safe optimization of sleep without detriment to the management of other comorbidities.