Forms

Patients often ask the doctor to fill out a form. Here are my policies concerning forms.

Some forms are best filled out when the patient is in the office face-to-face with the physician. Examples include:

• A physical exam form when the patient has not had a complete physical recently.
• A form attesting to the patient's fitness for some physical activity when the patient has not had a complete physical recently.
• Disability forms.
• Medication orders for assisted living providers. The doctor needs to ask the patient or care providers about intervening changes in the patient's health status.
• Prior authorization forms for medications involve asking the patient multiple questions about previous medication use. In many cases, the answers are required to be documented during an actual patient visit.

Some forms can be filled out when the patient is not present. These examples, however, are rare:

• The physician has just performed a complete physical exam, but the patient forgot to bring the form to the visit.
• A medication requires prior authorization, and the physician has already asked the patient all the insurance company's questions concerning prior medications tried.

When a form is filled out without the patient's presence in the office, a charge is billed to the patient for the service. When the patient is present, the office visit charge covers the filling out of forms.