Our Office
When you visit our office for a consultation, you will always see a physician. We do not believe in allowing patients to be treated by anyone other than a medical doctor. For that reason, we do not hire physician assistants or nurse practitioners. Although non-physician practitioners (PAs and NPs) may have a place in the physician office, we do not believe that direct, unsupervised patient care is one of those places.
Our four physicians are here on Monday and Friday of every week. Dr. Moreno is off all day Tuesday; Dr. Guerra is off on Tuesday afternoon; Dr. Rivas is off all day Wednesday; and Dr. Barrera is off all day Thursday. This is our normal schedule but is subject to change at a doctor's discretion. At Valley Night Clinic, Dr. Moreno works every Monday and Tuesday night, Dr. Guerra works every Wednesday, Dr. Rivas works every Thursday and they each work every fourth weekend, except Dr. Moreno who works two weekends out of every month.
Our office shares all of our patients. What this means to you is that you can see any and all of doctors at any time. By national standards, a patient is a "new" patient when he/she has not been treated in three consecutive years by any physician in the same group. Therefore, you can be an established patient at Family Physicians Clinic but a new patient at Valley Night Clinic, and vice versa, regardless of what doctor you see. Some patients prefer to see all doctors so that the patient knows all of us and others prefer to see only one doctor and we respect whatever decision you make. Keep in mind, though, that you are always welcome to see whatever doctor is available.
Our office does not accept Medicaid or CHIP as a form of payment. We accept most health insurance PPO plans. Payment is expected at the time of service and payment arrangements are not available at the present time. For our uninsured patients, we do offer a prompt payment discount, which is a percentage off your bill when it is paid in full at the time of service. The standard discount is 20%. This discount does not apply to patients who pay in full because they have been involved in a liability case, for example, a car accident, slip & fall, etc. We do not deal with letters of protection from attorneys or any type of PIP insurance or guarantee-of-payment arrangements from other sources.
All doctors see workers' compensation injuries, except for Dr. Rivas. All injuries are verified by the insurance prior to being seen and we participate in several workers' compensation networks, but not all of them. It is the responsibility of the patient and employer to determine if we participate in their insurance company's network.
Divorced parents need to pay whatever balance is due at the time of service and then work that out with the other spouse. We do not have the capability of collecting ½ and billing the other party for ½.
Minor children (under 18) must always be accompanied by a parent. An older sibling cannot bring a child to see the doctor. If a parent is out of town or unable to bring his child, he can have a note granting permission for a grandparent or other adult relative to bring the child in. That note will then become a part of the child's permanent record.
Our billing policies are based on family billing and we keep all members of a family in one account until the child reaches eighteen. Spouses are also on the same account and every adult in an account is responsible for the entire account, regardless of who is being seen. In some instances, spouses will have separate accounts, but that does not alleviate the financial responsibility for payment of the account.