After Hours/Urgent Care & Emergency Care

Phone Advise During and After Hours

Our doctors and medical assistants provide phone advice to their patients throughout day. We make every effort to return telephone calls as soon as possible. We will help you determine whether your child needs to be seen immediately or whether you can treat your child at home. If there is an urgent matter, please let our receptionist know so that we may better assist you.

Appointments

For same day appointments call our main number 650-365-1109. For future appointments use the SCHEDULE/CONFIRM tab on this site or call 650-365-6138 our non-urgent confidential voicemail.

Expected Parents Visits

We welcome expectant parents to visit our practice and meet our physicians and staff and have all your questions answered. We will supply you with a lot of fundamental information to make you feel comfortable during the first few days at home. Prenatal visits with our physicians are free of charge.

CANCELLATIONS

As a courtesy to other patients, if you must cancel an appointment, please call us as soon as possible. Well child exams or consultations cancelled less than 24 hours before appointment time may result in a charge that is not covered by your insurance. You may cancel on this site in the contact us box, or under the appointment tab. There is a box to add your cancellations information as well as request a new appointment. You may also call 24 hours a day our non-urgent voicemail 650-365-6138.

Prescriptions

PRESCRIPTION REFILLS: Please call your pharmacy with any refill requests. Your pharmacy will contact us by fax for authorization of the refill. Please allow 24 hours for your request to be processed. Our fax number is 650-365-7720. For triplicate medications we require 48-72 hours notice.

School Forms

School forms require 48 hours to complete. We ask for this time so that we do not impose a fee for completing these.

Insurance and Billing

Our practice has staff members dedicated to helping you with all of your insurance and billing questions.

It is extremely important that you provide your keep your insurance information on file up to date at all times. We also encourage you to read your insurance company's Explanation of Benefits (EOB), which you should receive after we bill them. This EOB will explain the covered services and your responsibility for your child’s visit.

If your insurance requires a co-payment, it is due at the time of the visit. We accept cash, personal checks, Visa or MasterCard. We do not bill for co-payments. If your child comes alone or is accompanied by someone other than a parent, please make sure that your child's insurance card and co-payment accompanies them.

If you do not have a current insurance card at the time of your child's visit, you will be asked to pay for this visit.  Once you are able to provide coverage we will then bill your insurance company and credit you less the applicable copay/patient responsibility.

It is our goal not to increase our fees. We will ask for balances due and outstanding balances at the time of service.

Please rely on our experienced staff to assist you will your billing/insurance needs.

We do not bill secondary insurances.

Accepted Insurance Carriers

PPO: We accept all major insurance companies.

Helpful hints for our PPO patients:

We participate in several PPO insurance plans. In order to bill your insurance, we must have a current insurance card. We will bill you for any services your insurance denies or does not cover in full. The amount we bill you will match exactly to the explanation you receive at home from your insurance company. If you have any questions regarding your bill, call our billing office at 650-365-1109 Monday thru Friday 8:30 am to noon, 1:45 to 4:30pm, or 650-365-6138 any time, 24 hours a day.

HMO: We are affiliated with Sequoia Physician Network (SPN). Visit www.SequoiaDoctors.org for more information. We also accept Cigna HMO, thru Cigna directly.

We are with Sequoia Physicians Network. There website is easily accessible at www.sequoiadoctors.org. We accept the following HMO plans: Aetna, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Health Net and Pacificare through Sequoia Physicians Network. We are also directly contracted with Cigna HMO.

Helpful hints for our HMO patients:

The name of your child's primary care physician in our office must appear on his/her card. If the name of a physician who is not in our practice is on your card, your insurance will not pay for your visit in our office. If you wish your child to be seen in our office, you must call your insurance company and request the change prior to the appointment.

In order to see a specialist, you must notify our office so that a referral can be done in our computer system that is directly linked to Sequoia Physicians Network. You will then receive a confirmation approval in the US Mail. This process for non-urgent referrals can take 5-7 business days. Follow up appointments are don by the specialist.

For Cigna HMO patients we will send a handwritten referral to the specialist. These must be done prior to being seen by the specialist.

If you have a newborn, in the case of HMOs, the baby is usually covered for the first 30 days under the mother's insurance. If the mother's primary care physician is not part of Sequoia Physicians Network, you must call your insurance to see how they will handle your baby's first visit. Some insurance companies will allow you to add the baby to Sequoia Physicians Network back to date of birth and others require you to see a pediatrician in the mother’s network until the first of the next month. This will affect whether or not your insurance will pay for the first visits to our office.

Newborns:

Newborns must be enrolled by the parents within 30 days of birth for coverage to go back to DOB. (see HMO exception above). If both parents enroll the child on their plan then whomever’s birthday of the parents comes first in the calendar year must serve as the primary (Ca State Law).

Privacy Policies:

It is the policy of our practice that all physicians and staff preserve the integrity and the confidentiality of protected health information (PHI) pertaining to our patients. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that our practice and its physicians and staff have the necessary medical information to provide the highest quality medical care possible while protecting the confidentiality of the PHI of our patients to the highest degree possible.

Copies of the HIPPA Privacy information is available at www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa

Payment Options

We accept cash, checks, VISA, MasterCard, DISCOVER, debit, and HSA cards. Payments are due at time of visit. Copayments and balances will be expected at the time of service. It is our goal to keep our fees from increasing. Outstanding balances will have a surcharge applied.

Symptom Checker

Please visit our Symptom Checker page and explore the line of tabs for health and wellness issues as well as a links to the Healthy Children Bookstore. There are also many direct links on the parents resource page as well as on the home page on the right lower corner.

• Safety and Prevention
• Family Life
• Health Issues
• News
• Tips and Tools

At Pediatric Associates of Redwood City we and our friendly staff offer all aspects of pediatrics medical services:

• Well child exams from birth to age 18
• Sports and camp physicals
• Pre-op physicals
• Immunizations
• School and behavioral issues
• Acute and chronic illnesses

What is a Pediatrician?

A pediatrician is a physician whose specific specialty is caring for children from birth to 18 years of age. Pediatricians address acute and chronic illnesses, learning disabilities, behavioral issues and the growth and development of children. Our goal is to help ensure that children grow into mentally and physical healthy, productive and happy adults.