General Information

Neurotherapeutics LLC is a holistic outpatient psychiatric and psychotherapeutic practice. Our clinicians offer services in the office and via telehealth. In the event that psychiatric hospitalization becomes necessary as part of your treatment, you will be referred to an in-network, inpatient psychiatric hospital for admission with plans for you to resume outpatient visits after your discharge. 

When your clinician is out of the office for a planned vacation or business, you will receive adequate prior notice and can make arrangements to put in a request for your refills or reschedule appointments as needed. In case of an emergency please call the local crisis and information center 502-589-4313 for assistance from a trained provider/volunteer 24/7.

If you are already established with a psychologist, psychotherapist, or psychiatrist in the local community, please notify that provider of your intent to schedule an appointment in this office. Please allow 45 – 60 minutes for an initial psychiatric assessment, 15 – 30 minutes for a psychiatric follow up session and 45 – 60 minutes for a psychotherapy session.

This office provides care for patients who are age 12 and older. To avoid any conflict of interest, we need permission from immediate relatives if they are established patients before acceptance of their referrals of treatment for additional family members. However, privacy, and confidentiality will be maintained for each patient based on the HIPAA guidelines and consent for release of information protocols.    

Patient Compliance

This office reserves the right to terminate services with patients who do not comply with recommended treatment plans.

Services NOT provided

This office does not provide disability evaluation or disability ratings. This office does not provide DUI assessments, anger management classes, or court ordered psychiatric services. If your psychiatric illness or behavioral health care needs requires the experience of a psychiatric, or other specialist with expertise in that area, you will be given a referral for those services or resource information on how to access those services. 

Appointments

Patients are to be seen by appointment. Walk-ins are not permitted. Appointments should be made in advance at the time of checkout or via our online portal or telephonically by calling/texting.

Your scheduled appointment time represents the time you are to be seen by your provider. Due to our check-in process and required paperwork during each visit, you are asked to arrive in advance to your scheduled appointment time. You are asked to arrive a minimum of 30 minutes prior to your first appointment and a minimum of 10 minutes in advance for your follow-up appointments. If you do not arrive prior to your scheduled appointment time or if you are late for your visit, you may be asked to reschedule.

We make every effort to stay on time for our patients. There is a possibility that emergent issues may arise in the office beyond the provider’s control. If this occurs and the provider is running late, the office will do its best to notify you of any delays. If the provider is running behind, and you cannot wait, please notify our front desk staff so that you may be rescheduled.

No Shows and Cancellations

The office requests that appointment cancellations be made by phone at least 24 hours in advance of any scheduled visit. Missing 3 appointments, either by no show or late cancellation, prior to establishing care with our office may result in our right to refer you to another provider for your care and terminate your care at our practice. Missing 5 appointments, either by no show or late cancellation, as an established patient with our office may result in our right to refer you to another provider for your care.

Inclement Weather

If you are unsure about the weather conditions for safe travel, please call the office or email. If the office must be closed due to inclement weather, a voice recording will be posted on the clinic’s voicemail notifying patients of clinic closings. Please do not put yourself at risk by trying to make it to your in-person appointment in inclement weather. You may be offered the option of doing a telehealth visit in lieu of the in-person appointment, however last-minute cancellations for inclement weather will not be counted as no-shows. If the weather in your area causes you to cancel your scheduled appointment, please be courteous and let us know that you need to reschedule so that we are not waiting on you.

Telephone Calls and Emails

If you need to call during our business hours, the staff will take a message. We will do our best to return calls within 24 hours.

Our office must have written consent from you to be able to speak with anyone who may call on your behalf requesting information or requesting to speak with your provider.     

Depending on the complexity and nature of your call, you may be asked to schedule a face-to-face appointment or HIPAA-compliant telehealth appointment to discuss concerns rather than discussing issues on the phone. Please note that medication changes and psychotherapy will not be provided over the phone.

Prescription Refills

The office will work with your pharmacy for prescription refills. You are requested to have your pharmacy send us your refill requests. Please allow up to 5 business days for refill requests to be received and processed by our office.

Refills for certain medications cannot be called in to the pharmacies without seeing the patient at regular intervals. These prescriptions will need to be arranged at scheduled in-person/telehealth appointments. If you frequently cancel or no-show for your appointments, you will not receive authorized refills until you are seen for a recheck. Specifically, if you have not been seen in our office or via telehealth in the last 90 days. Refill requests may be refused pending your face-to-face reassessment with your psychiatrist/psychiatric nurse practitioner.

Refills will not be called in when the office is closed after hours, over weekends or during holidays. You are asked to plan ahead to avoid running out of your prescribed medications. The practice reserves the right to refuse refills for patients for any reason.

Controlled Medications

Patients who receive controlled prescriptions are asked to sign a non-narcotic controlled substance contract with this office.

Early refills of controlled medications will not be provided. If you are issued a prescription for a 30-day supply with 2 refills, you are responsible to make those prescriptions last 90 days, regardless of whether the pharmacy allowed you to refill them early.

The office will be monitoring the non-narcotic controlled substance reporting system for patients who are prescribed non-narcotic controlled medications by this office.

Controlled medications or prescriptions that are lost or stolen will not be automatically refilled. You will be asked to provide proof of having reported to the police any stolen medications in order to receive future refills from this office.

This practice also reserves the right to refuse controlled medications to patients for any reason. This practice does not prescribe opioid narcotics.

Fees/Insurance/Billing

Neurotherapeutics LLC has a mix of providers some of whom are self-pay only and those who accept insurance, we will file insurance for patients for the providers that accept insurance. You are strongly encouraged to check with your insurance provider in advance of your appointment to review your mental/behavioral health benefits, deductible and to ensure that this practice is in-network with your insurance provider.

Co-payments are due in full at the time of service. If you cannot pay your copay for any reason on the date of your appointment, you will be asked to reschedule your appointment for a later date.

For patients who do not wish to file with their insurance providers or for uninsured patients, all associated charges for the visit must be paid in full before your appointment. This office accepts cash, check, debit, or credit cards as forms of payment.

Please note that this office reserves the right not to reschedule appointments or refill prescriptions for patients who do not make reasonable efforts to pay their office bills.

A $100 fee will be collected prior to completion of any patient forms. This includes FMLA paperwork, short/long term disability forms, or any other requested letters needed for school, work, or jury duty etc.

Confidentiality and Medical Records

You have the right to have access to your records and can receive a copy when you provide this office with a written request to obtain your records.

This office will NOT release ANY information to any person or agency unless you give the office specific, written permission to do so. Your written permission is needed to release information regarding your psychiatric diagnosis, medication, prognosis, and treatment plans to insurance companies, employers, worker’s compensation, attorney offices, case managers, or for disability claims. Please be aware that this office cannot discuss anything in person, over the phone or in writing with your spouse or family without your explicit written authorization. Please make your family aware of this privacy policy.

This office cannot confirm nor deny that any person is a patient in this office without a release of information.

Your medical records and personal information will remain confidential. Neurotherapeutics LLC staff will have access to necessary medical and logistical information on a “need to know basis” for billing, collections, prescription refills and scheduling issues. There will be times when a consultation with another healthcare professional is clinically indicated. Additionally, coordination of care with your primary care physician or referring provider is encouraged. You will be asked for consent to coordinate care with any consulting or referring provider.

Privacy Exceptions

Please understand that there are some important and necessary exceptions to the rules of confidentiality. These exceptions include but are not limited to the following:

1. This office is required by law to report any suspected child or elder abuse/neglect or any suspected abuse/neglect of an incompetent adult.
2. If during treatment, you make any direct threat to a specific person or entity, this office has a legal duty to warn that individual/entity of your intent and plan. The office is also required to inform local law enforcement of the threat.
3. If a patient is believed to be a danger to themselves and/or others, the office must take the appropriate steps to prevent harm from occurring. On occasion, this may mean disclosing information if the situation is urgent and if it is believed that the patient or someone else is in imminent risk of harm.
4. On occasion, the office may need to share specific information about your medications with your pharmacist to ensure safe prescribing. Additionally, your insurance provider may require a diagnosis or description of symptoms for certain medications to be authorized or approved.
5. The office may be required by court order from a judge to release your records. If you do not want your psychiatric records released, this office will do its best to attempt to appeal the request, however we may have to release the information if we are legally bound to do so.

Crisis Issues

If you are an established patient and you have an urgent issue during weekday business hours, you may contact the office and we will do our best to schedule you for a same-day work-in appointment either telephonically or in-person. However please note that the same day work-in appointment may not be with your regular provider.

If you are an established patient and you have an urgent issue after business hours, on a weekend or during a holiday, you may contact your provider via the telehealth portal or email as directed by your provider or head out to the nearest psychiatric inpatient facility in your area for an in-person intake consultation and subsequent treatment. Please understand that after hours contact must not be made for medication refill requests or non-urgent issues.

In the event of a crisis, you should call 911 for immediate assistance.

The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is 988.

Neurotherapeutics LLC requests that you retain this set of practice policies for your personal reference. We also request that you sign the Acknowledgement of Practice Policies form in your intake packet confirming your receipt and understanding of these policies.

Adjunct Policies for Dr. Hammerbeck’s Patients

• To schedule a new patient appointment, a $200 deposit is required.  It will be applied against the charge for the initial appointment.  If the patient no-shows, this fee is forfeited.  Also, a late cancellation fee of $75 will be charged for less than 24 hours’ notice.
• Patients wishing to return to the practice after an absence of greater than 2 years will be charged for new patient diagnostic/assessment appointments.
• There is an associated fee for prescriptions sent in between appointments. Every effort will be made at your appointment to write refills to carry you through to your next appointment.  Unfortunately, this is not an option with stimulants.  If you miss your appointment, you may only receive partial prescriptions to last until your rescheduled appointment.
• As a rule, any patient receiving controlled substances will be required to be seen at least every 3 to 4 months.
• We require payment for appointments be made prior to being seen. We will keep an encrypted copy of your credit or debit card on file to be charged for appointments and prescription fees.
• Currently, we are only in the office on Wednesdays from 10 am to 6 pm.  Our new EMR will allow you to communicate via email which will be checked daily on business days.  It will not be checked on weekends or holidays.
• We do not file insurance (commercial) and are not accepting any new Medicare patients.  We do not accept Medicaid.  If you have out-of-network benefits, you may be able to file for reimbursement with your carrier on your own with the receipt provided for your visit.
• Kindly note that these are not all-inclusive policies and there might be additional protocols in place depending on your personal needs. So, when in doubt you are requested to please clarify your concerns by calling the office directly in advance.