Pediatrician charges after hours? Is this common?

[ThePalindromicOne]

Calling all STM and those that picked pediatricians!  I spent today researching pediatricians, and the group that I like has this on their website:

"Beginning November 1, 2011, North XXX Pediatrics will bill your insurance company for calls made after hours and on the weekends. Most insurance companies will cover a portion or the entire fee; however you will be responsible for any remaining balances."

Is this common practice?

[silv3rlining]

I've heard of it before but my ped (as far as I'm aware) does not have that policy. I think it's hit or miss. Quite frankly I (personally) wouldn't go to one that has that policy.

[sordidvolition]

Ours does. Not sure how common it is. It's $25

[Widget123]

I've never had a reason to call after hours or on weekends although our pedi is open for a few hours on weekends. Maybe I should consider myself lucky?

ETA I looked at my peds website and I don't see anything on there about such a charge.

[erbear]

The one we chose has a free 24-hour line for an on call pedi.

[trixi282]

Where we used to live one of the peds I looked into had an answering service after hours and on weekends that charged, and I know a handful of other friends who have something similar.

The one we chose had a free on-call nurse line for questions, and if the nurse deemed it important enough they had an on-call doc from one of the two locations call you back. It's ultimately why i chose them over the other.

Our new ped doesn't have a charge policy, but it's a big health organization that has everything under one roof (Urgent Care included) so it's a little different, and they have some weekend hours, but they're limited.

[brennaz]

Our pedi doesn't charge, but they also don't answer after hours, it's just voicemail. But after hours I usually either an just remembering to call in for a refill or some other task after I'm off work...if DS needs something our insurance has a nurse hotline, urgent care, etc.

[billyhorrible]

My pediatrician does extended hours on Tuesday/Thursdays, but otherwise isn't open after hours or on weekends. We usually go to Urgent Care for that - they have a special pediatric urgent care. And there's a 24-hour on call nurse (which DH used almost weekly at first.) All covered by my insurance.

[bendherova]

DS1's first pediatrician and his current are employees at clinics affiliated with big university hospitals. (forced to be per our insurance provided by the same hospital). They have Saturday hours for sick patients, and someone is alw on call at night/weekends. It may not be someone within the specific clinic we go to, but it will be a pediatrician who can advise er vs wait and see.

[alayne926]

Our pedi has Saturday sick hours and also an after hours line we can call but they do not charge extra for that. We've only had to use it twice-once when we were in a car accident when he was 3 weeks old on a Sunday and then when he had croup, I was concerned about his breathing.

[dmoney]

The Pedi that we are looking at has an after hours hotline that we can call and Saturday and Sunday hours for emergencies. I am almost 100% certain that they dont charge for it... I dont think many doctors in my area do.

[missk0411]

I would not be psyched about that--between ear infections and daycare illnesses, we had a lot of calls and sick visits early on. Ours has standard, same cost, sick visits every evening until 8, and Saturday sick from 8-12. There is a nurse line that you can call for free, and they'll triage or have the on call doc call you back, but there's no charge. We are part of a large university practice though, so there's a lot of people and resources to spread the work around.

[belle0720]

We have Kaiser and can call to speak to an advice nurse any time we need to (not specific to Pediatric Care, it's one general number for Adult Medicine, Women's Health, etc).

[noeliav]

Ours has an after-hours nurses line, and there is a fee for calling it. But, my insurance has a free 24-hour nurses line, so I call that if there are any urgent questions

[PurpleIris]

Our ped has someone on call after hours, no charge. I've called once or twice, because naturally things have to get worse at night (croup), but I try not to abuse it.

[mabillon]

Our ped is part of a local "chain" and basically provides 7 day/week coverage so we can reach a nurse or doctor any day (though early closure on weekends). We used them more than a few times and if they weren't open, I think compensating them for the time is more than fair. Can you check whether your specific insurance covers it!

[ThePalindromicOne]

Thanks everyone for your experiences! Fortunately this group had great weekday hours including Saturday sick kid hours - I'm not sure I'm that deterred by it.

[trixi282]

Apr 14, 2015 21:54:51 GMT -5 ThePalindromicOne said:

Thanks everyone for your experiences! Fortunately this group had great weekday hours including Saturday sick kid hours - I'm not sure I'm that deterred by it.

If you really like the practice, its just a personal preference if you're willing to pay extra fees. You could call your insurance to fins out if/how much they will cover if you ever do use the call service.

Every child and mommy is different. In 2+ years, I used our after hours service once, on a Sunday afternoon because of a bad rash and fever... She ended up having a Hand Foot Mouth (coxsackie virus).

Other people I know needed their after hours line a lot more... But many times a call can probably wait until morning when the office opens.