Q1: What is Urgent Medical Care?
Urgent care is the treatment of acute injuries and illness that require immediate medical care but may not be severe enough to warrant a costly and, at times, unpleasant visit to the emergency room. Urgent care medicine treats many of the same problems seen at a primary doctor’s office. However, some of the services that we perform are more involved and are generally not available in a primary MD’s office.
Additionally, we take emergency cases that may not be able to wait for an appointment at a doctor’s office. Urgent care offers the convenience of expanded hours and generally requires no appointments. Because of the wide variety skills Emergency/Urgent care providers have, almost anyone with a non-major immediate medical illness can be seen and treated. It is important to note that urgent care medicine is not emergency medicine and that anyone with a major illness such as a heart attack, stroke, or severe respiratory problem needs to go immediately to an emergency room.
Q2: Do I need a referral?
No referral is needed because urgent care medicine sees patients on an immediate and urgent base.
Q3: Do I need to make an appointment?
Appointments are not necessary and walk in patients are welcome.
Q4: What is the wait time at the Northern Urgent Care?
Because we operate as an urgent care center, we generally try to see patients as soon as possible. The usual wait time is less than 10 minutes but may be longer due to high patient numbers.
Q5: Do you accept my insurance?
At this point in time we are negotiating with many major insurance companies. Some of our current accepted insurances are…
1199
Aetna
Cigna
Empire/ Blue Cross Blue Shield
Fidelis
GHI
Health Net
HIP
Magnacare
Medicare
Neighborhood
Multiplan
Amerigroup
PHS
Elderplan
Oxford
Q6: What if I don’t have insurance?
We offer discounted prices off standard government insurance rates for our non-insured patients.
Q7: What is the payment policy?
All payments are expected at the time of service. This includes all co-payments. Credit cards and debit cards are accepted (we accept Visa and MasterCard). We do not accept personal checks unless they are preapproved.
