Policies

You may request an appointment through our Patient Portal or call our office directly at (301) 374-2666.

To help provide timely service to our patients, we prefer to schedule all visits. If you are later than 15 minutes for your appointment, we will try to work you back into the schedule, or perhaps offer an appointment to you with another provider.

You may send us an appointment request through the portal if our phone line is busy especially if your child needs a sick visit. 

We accept walk-ins only for sick patients between 8.30am and 9.30am on Monday, Wednessday, Thursday and Friday.

Out of courtesy to our other patients, we may be forced to ask you to reschedule your appointment.

If an emergency should arise, please call 911.

Emergencies are considered to be those conditions that are life-threatening: loss of consciousness, severe bleeding, seizure, etc. In the case of minor emergencies (lacerations, cuts, mild fractures, sprains), please call our office first for instructions.

Please save routine questions (mild illness, appointments, prescription refills) for the morning or email us through the web portal.

We encourage you to refer to our website first, when practical, before calling the office. In case of emergencies, please call 911.

You may call the 24hr Nurse line at the back of your card for mild urgent health related questions. For all other urgent questions you may leave a message for our on-call provider on the After hour number.

• We firmly believe that all children and young adults should receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP).
• We firmly believe, based on all available literature, evidence, and current studies, that vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities.
• We firmly believe that vaccinating children and young adults may be the single most important health promoting intervention we perform as health care providers, and that you can support as parents/caregivers.

The recommended vaccines and the schedule of administration are the results of years and years of scientific study and data-gathering on millions of children by thousands of our brightest scientists and physicians.

Over the past several years, many people in Europe have chosen not to vaccinate their children with the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine after publication of an unfounded suspicion (later retracted) that the vaccine caused autism. As a result of under-immunization, there have been small outbreaks of measles and several deaths from complications of measles in Europe over the past several years. The United States experienced a record number of measles cases during 2019, with 1282 cases from 31 states reported to CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases(NCIRD). This is the greatest number of cases since measles elimination was documented in the U.S. in 2000.

As medical professionals, we feel very strongly that vaccinating children on schedule with currently available vaccines is absolutely the right thing to do for all children and young adults. We are making you aware of these facts not to scare you or coerce you, but to emphasize the importance of vaccinating your child. We are more than willing to discuss any questions you may have about vaccines, but do advice all patients at our practice to adhere to the vaccination schedule endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP).

As a courtesy to our customers, we can send claims to your insurance company on your behalf. If you would like us to do this:

Requirements for us to send claims on your behalf:

• You must assign the payments to our office so that payments will be made directly to us.
• Co-payments are always your responsibility (not the insurance company’s) and are due at the time of your appointment.
• If you cannot bring exact change, please be prepared to give us a credit/debit card at the time of your visit. If the insurance company does not pay for the service, you become responsible for the cost of the service (this applies to all insurances).
• We incur a cost when we submit claims to the insurance company on your behalf; therefore if the insurance company does not reimburse us for the service after we submit the claim we will resubmit the claim only one more time.
• We require a copy of insurance, and responsible party ID card at each visit.

Failure to disclose proper primary, secondary or Medicaid coverage may affect your claim payment and a $100 fee will be charged for rebilling your claim. All claims not paid by your insurance within 60 (sixty) days will be posted to the patient. CHCC reserves the right to turn over any past due balances beyond 60 (sixty) days to a collections agency and that you will be responsible for any collection costs, attorney fees and the outstanding balance within the law of Maryland.