Important Notice Concerning United Healthcare And Oxford Lab Testing
Effective January 1, 2007 United Healthcare and Oxford plans no longer reimburse for testing done through Quest Diagnostics. Patients must use approved labs to assure appropriate insurance coverage. Locally, you may use Greenwich Hospital Laboratory which has drawing stations in Westport and Norwalk. Please notify us if you if you have already made testing plans or are to schedule testing and are covered under these plans.
The Physicians of Internal Medicine Associates of Westport
Termination of inpatient hospital care
To Our Patients:
We are writing to let you know about a few significant changes that are taking place in our practice. We believe these changes will ultimately enhance the services we provide and improve your access to timely medical care.
As you are aware, the practice of medicine has been changing throughout the United States. Technological advances have accelerated at a breathtaking pace. As a result, the specialty of Internal Medicine has split into two sectors of care: "outpatient" and "inpatient". Historically, IMAW has taken care of patients in both sectors - we would see you in the office and then follow you in the hospital. This is going to change.
Instead, an extremely well-qualified group of hospital-based Internal Medicine physicians (known as "hospitalists") will take care of our patients while they are admitted to Norwalk Hospital. We believe this change will benefit our patients' care because the hospitalists work full-time at the hospital and possess specific expertise with the ever-changing technology of hospital medicine. We think that using hospitalists will both improve and shorten any hospital stay you may have. We will speak regularly to your hospital physicians during your inpatient stay, and will have all the information we need to resume your medical care after your discharge. Our practice has actually already been using this system for Dr. Denowitz's and Dr. Karol's patients for the past 7 years and patient feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Since we will no longer be going to the hospital, as of January 2, 2007 we have increased the number of routine physical exams we do every day, and we anticipate that this will reduce waiting-time for these appointments.
We thank you for your understanding during this time of change. We believe the end results will benefit you with increased accessibility in our office, and more expeditious hospital care.
The Physicians of Internal Medicine Associates of Westport
