About our office...
Appointments
All visits are
by appointment only. Please call us to schedule both routine and urgent
appointments. There is time reserved each day for sick patients that need same
day appointments.
Because of
COVID, in order to keep everyone safe, appointments
always start with televisits (either phone or video
per patient choice). During the televisit, you and the doctor will determine whether an
in-person visit is needed or if the televisit was
sufficient.
Office
Hours
We are open
Monday through Thursday from
After
Hours
Our office
voicemail has instructions about how to contact us for after
hours emergencies. Dr. Tsung or
Dr. Virmani (or occasionally, another covering physician) will be on call. If
it is a life-threatening emergency dial 911 or go immediately to the Emergency
Room at the closest hospital.
General
Payment Policy
Since we would
like to focus on the care of our patients and not on the business of medicine,
we do not have contracts with any insurance companies.
We have opted
out of the Medicare program so cannot bill the Medicare program. We are considered "out-of-network
providers" for all our PPO patients.
Our patients pay at the time of service.
There is no
monthly “concierge practice fee.” We
charge an hourly fee for the time that the doctor personally spends with you or
on your behalf. This includes
appointments (televisits or in-person appointments),
phone calls, reviewing records, coordinating with your specialists, researching
specific topics for you, speaking with your insurance to get special
authorization for tests/medications, filling out forms, and writing letters on
your behalf. We wait to group charges so
there may be a gap in time before the charge appears on your credit card. The hourly rate changes modestly each
year.
Since the
pandemic, we have converted to a credit card only system to keep payments
contactless. Our patients have credit
cards on file stored securely by our credit card processing company. Your credit card will be charged for time the
doctor spends on your care. There are no
charges when no work needs to be done.
Medicare
patients cannot submit claims to Medicare but may try to send a claim to
secondary insurances that are not Medigap
(Medicare secondary) plans. Patients with PPO insurance may request a
completed insurance form which may be submitted to the insurance for possible
reimbursement. Please be sure to check
your health insurance policy carefully regarding "out of network"
benefits if you have questions.
Missed
Appointments
The office may
elect to charge the full fee of the visit if you cancel a physical or new
patient appointment without 1 week notice or cancel a follow up appointment
without 48 hours notice unless there is an
unavoidable emergency. Please call us
early to reschedule your visits in order to avoid a charge for your missed
visit.
Returned
Checks
The fee for a
returned check is $50.00 in addition to the original amount of the check.
Hospitalization
All hospitals have
hospitalists (hospital only physicians) who care for patients that are admitted
to the hospital. The hospitalists will
assume primary responsibility for your treatment in the hospital. You may request that your regular doctor (Dr.
Virmani or Dr. Tsung) consult about your hospitalization if you or your family
so desire. We can view all hospital
records online at Stanford and limited records at a number of the other nearby
hospitals.
Prescription
Refills
Please contact
your pharmacy request a refill from our office. Please allow 72 hours for us to
process the refill and plan ahead accordingly. If you are unable to refill
directly with the pharmacy, call us with the name of the medication, the
strength, the dosage, and your pharmacy's name and phone number.
If your
medication requires a “prior authorization,” this means that your insurance
will not pay for it unless we try get special approval from your
insurance. This means that we have to
fill out forms, submit to your insurance, and wait to see if it is
approved. This process can take 1 to 2
weeks. Often, the insurance will still
deny the medication even after this process since insurance companies want to
save money for the company. If you want
brand name medication just out of preference, insurances usually deny it.
Pharmacies and
insurances make it sound like the prior authorization process is just approval
from your doctor but this is not the case.
Your prescription is valid as it stands.
The issue is whether your insurance will pay for your medication. Many of our patients decide to pay for the
prescription if the prescription is urgent and cannot wait 1-2 weeks for
possible approval.
www.goodrx.com is a
medication pricing website that will tell you the price of the medication
(generic and brand) at nearby pharmacies and also has
discount coupons. A particular
medication may be less expensive at one pharmacy versus another. If you are looking for a brand name
medication, you can also look for the official manufacturer website for coupons
and other savings programs. Some
companies also have websites that help you buy authorized generics as
well.
Records
If possible, please
gather any pertinent tests and records of importance from your previous
physician's office prior to your first appointment with us. In the forms section of this web page, there
is a consent form that you may send to your previous clinic or physician if
needed. If your previous records are at
Stanford or Palo Alto Medical Foundation, we can usually access those records
online. After your first appointment,
the doctor will help decide if you need to forward any other records to our
office.
If you need a
full copy of our records to be sent to another physician for transfer of care,
please fill out our medical records release form. There is a fee (depending on the number of
pages that you are requesting) that will be collected prior to scanning and
mailing the records CD. Your chart will
be scanned onto a CD. Please allow at
least 14 days.
How to send
us information
Mailing/Office
Address:
Tsung
& Virmani Medical Group Inc.
1900 El Camino Real, Suite #119
Menlo Park, CA 94027
Office Fax
Number: 650-327-3180
If
you do not have access to a fax machine, you use www.faxzero.com
Once you are an
established patient you will have access to secure texting.