New Patient Registration

New patients:

Please complete and bring to the appointment the completed new patient medical history form.

Make sure you bring the following to your appointment:

• The patient’s Social Security Number as well as the Guarantor on the account (if different from the patient).
• The patient’s insurance card(s) or Medi-Cal card.
• Your co-pay or share of cost.

If the patient is a minor, please be sure a legal guardian is present and has their photo ID with them.

If the parent or legal guardian cannot accompany the patient to the appointment, the accompanying adult must complete a Caregivers Authorization Affidavit, which can be completed at our office at the time of the appointment.

Although patients can be seen by self-referral, many health plans require prior authorization from your primary care physician. We must have a copy of this prior authorization before making your appointment. If possible, please forward or bring with you any previous records and reports that pertain to your visit. In addition, bring a written list of all current medications, or bring your bottles of medications.

At the initial consultation, a detailed history of the patient’s medical condition, including duration, severity, medications, family history, and environmental and dietary factors will be obtained. A physical examination will be performed with special emphasis on systems affected by the symptoms. A decision will then be made as to whether further assessments, including skin tests, x-rays, labs or lung function tests should be performed (x-ray and lab work is not done at our facility). For further information and specific details on testing an other procedures please see our medical information page.

Additional items to bring to your initial visit:

Bring to the visit all of the prescriptions, over the counter medications, and herbal medications in their original containers, that the patient takes at home – or list them neatly on the new patient history form.

Be sure to bring any pertinent other medical information to the clinic, including lab results and/or radiology reports. You may have your referring physician fax them to 858-268-5145 prior to your visit.

Length of visit:

The initial appointment in the allergy/asthma clinic is usually 1 ½ to 2 hours due to the allergy testing and education provided. However, the visit can be shorter depending on the circumstances.

Medications:

The patient should refrain from taking ANY oral antihistamines for five (5) days prior to the new patient appointment or any skin testing appointment, to allow for skin testing to be done at that visit. Please contact your pharmacist if you have any questions about whether the oral medications the patient takes contains an antihistamine, or see our list of medications containing antihistamines to clarify any questions you may have.

The patient should refrain from taking ATARAX (Hydroxizine) for (7) days prior to any skin testing visit.

If the patient is taking a nasal spray antihistamine (e.g. Astelin, Patanase, Dymista), or an antihistamine eye drop (e.g Patanol, Pataday, Bepreve, Optivar, Elestat, Zaditor), this medication should be stopped 2 days before the visit.

Medications that DO NOT need to be discontinued include:

• nasal steroid sprays (e.g. fluticasone, Flonase, Nasonex, Nasacort, Rhinocort, Veramyst, QNasl, Zettona)
• oral steroid (e.g. prednisone, Medrol), plain decongestant (e.g. Sudafed, pseudoephedrine, Afrin nose spray)
• other medication such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, Tylenol, Aleve, or Advil.

For a detailed description, please see our office Policy for Withholding Antihistamines page.

Summary:

After all tests are complete the provider will go over the results of the testing and how to proceed. Medications may be needed, or environmental changes or some patients that have a more extreme allergic situation may require immunotherapy also known as allergy injections. Each option would be discussed as to what would be appropriate for individual patient.

Cost for the new patient exam and testing:

For questions about the cost of a visit, or for questions regarding to a bill, please contact the billing department at Rady Children’s Hospital at (858) 309-6290.

HIPAA:

Our Notice of Privacy Practices or HIPAA can be found at the top right corner of our website for your review.

Cancellations and missed appointments:

If you need to cancel or change your appointment, please be sure to give at least 24 hours notice. Call (858) 966 – 4900 opt 1.

Notice to Patients:

Our physicians are licensed and regulated by the Medical Board of California (www.mbc.ca.gov ; 800-633-2322)