Question 1

New Patients

Accepted Answer

We are thrilled that you are considering us for care! We encourage you to check out our departments and services, billing and insurance information, and other important pieces of information to help get you acclimated to Associated Physicians. When you're ready to register and schedule, give us a call at 608-233-9746! If you have any general questions about our clinic, feel free to contact us HERE.

Question 2

Scheduling Appointments

Accepted Answer

Patients who want to schedule an appointment should call the clinic at 608-233-9746. There is currently no way to schedule appointments online. If you’ve had an appointment in clinic, please schedule your next appointment before leaving. This will help us serve you in a timely and efficient manner. If you need to reschedule or cancel an appointment, please contact us at least 24 hours in advance so that we may use your appointment time to accommodate other patients. If you are running late, please see our late policy below.

Question 3

Parking & Transportation

Accepted Answer

We know that all of our patients get to and from their appointments in many differents ways, and we are here to help! Our clinic has a parking ramp with ample parking for patients that commute with their own vehicle. Patients that use public transportation can map out their route HERE. If you need assistance getting to or from an appointment, let us know when scheduling!

Question 4

Late Arrival Policy

Accepted Answer

Late Arrival Policy
We appreciate you choosing Associated Physicians, LLP. We schedule our appointments, so each patient receives enough time with our providers and staff. That is why it is very important that you keep your scheduled appointment with us and arrive 15 minutes early to complete the check-in process.
As a courtesy, we attempt to provide each patient with a reminder (via text, phone, or email) to confirm their appointment one week prior to the appointment. A second reminder is sent the night before the appointment. To facilitate this communication, we ask that you update us of contact information changes.
If your schedule changes, or you are running late, please contact us at (608) 233-9746 to inform our staff of your late arrival. We cannot guarantee you will be seen if you arrive late for your appointment as we need to respect our other patients scheduled appointments which occur after yours.

The following protocol has been established when patients may be running late:
Pediatrics, OB/GYN, and Podiatry: Allows up to a 15-minute late arrival. If you arrive more than 15 minutes late, the front staff will call your provider’s care team to determine if you can be seen.

Internal Medicine: Allows up to a 7–15-minute late arrival, depending on the scheduled length of your appointment. If you arrive more than 7-15 minutes late, the front staff will check with your provider’s care team to determine if you can be seen.
As a courtesy to our office, and other patients, please call at least 24 hours before your scheduled appointment to cancel. 
We understand that unforeseen emergencies happen. If this happens prior to your appointment, please call the clinic at (608) 233-9746 to inform our staff as soon as you are aware of the impact on your appointment. 
We appreciate your understanding regarding this change to our practice. We enjoy caring for you and your family members.

Question 5

No-Show Policy

Accepted Answer

No-Show Clinical Guideline for Patients

We appreciate your choosing Associated Physicians, LLP for your health care needs. We schedule our appointments to ensure each patient receives a sufficient amount of time to be seen by our providers and staff. We are only able to do this when our patients keep their scheduled appointment with us and make sure to arrive 15 minutes early to complete the check-in process.

As a courtesy, we attempt to provide each patient with an appointment reminder (via text, phone, or email) to confirm their appointment one week prior to the appointment. A second appointment reminder is sent two days before the appointment. To facilitate this communication, we ask that you update us of any changes to your contact information as soon as they occur.

If your schedule changes, and you cannot keep your appointment, please contact us at (608) 233-9746 to reschedule your appointment as soon as possible; this allows us to accommodate patients who are waiting for an appointment. As a courtesy to our office, as well as the other patients who are waiting to schedule with our physicians, please call at least 24 hours before your scheduled appointment to cancel. If you cancel less than 24 hours before your scheduled appointment, you may be assessed a $25 "late cancel" service charge.

If you do not come to your scheduled appointment, we will assess a $25 "no-show" service charge to your account. This "no-show" service charge is not reimbursable by your insurance company. We also cannot guarantee that you will still be able to be seen as we must respect patients who are scheduled after your appointment.

If you do not come to your new patient/establish care visit, you may reschedule one more time with AP; however, you will not receive priority over other new patients that are already scheduled.
We understand that unforeseen emergencies occasionally happen. If one of these events occurs prior to your appointment, please call the clinic at (608) 233-9746 to inform our staff as soon as you are aware of the impact on your appointment. The fee may be waived for a single event.

If you are an established patient and have three consecutive no-shows to your appointment, our practice may terminate its relationship with you. If you are new patient to our practice, we will reschedule your appointment only once. After the second no-show, we may determine that terminating the clinic / patient relationship may be the best course of action.

While most patients will never see this fee, it is important that everyone understands the importance of attending all of your appointments and maybe most importantly, communicating with us in a timely manner.

We appreciate your understanding regarding this change to our practice, as we enjoy caring for you and your family members greatly. We look forward to cotinuing to provide the best care for you and yours into the future.

Thank you,
The Providers and Staff at Associated Physicians

Question 6

Insurance/Information Changes

Accepted Answer

If you have a change of insurance, address, or other information, please call the clinic at 608-233-9746 as soon as possible so that your claims are processed correctly. If you wish to update your demographic or insurance information at the time of an appointment, please arrive 15 minutes early to make the necessary changes.

Please note, while we are contracted with several insurance carriers, as a provider we unfortunately cannot always guarantee that a particular insurance plan will cover any specific care received at our clinic. If there are questions, we ask that patients reach out to their insurance carrier to ensure network status, and coverage of our services. Other details can be found HERE. We also like to note that if your insurance card says “Health EOS” or “MultiPlan” your plan is discount only and does not make the insurance carrier part of our contracted network. Plan holders will receive in-network rates, but services will be applied to out-of-network benefits.

Question 7

After Hours Care

Accepted Answer

Yes! In the event of a medical emergency, please dial 9-1-1. If you need care after hours (Monday-Friday, 5:00 PM-7:00 AM), and on weekends, call the clinic at (608) 233-9746, and you’ll be connected to a qualified triage nurse who will assess your situation and get the care process started. Certain situations may still involve speaking with the on-call physician and these situations may result in a billable service to your insurance provider. Deductibles and copays may apply depending on your benefits package.

CLICK HERE to learn more about our after hours triage nurse service.

Question 8

Using Care Anywhere and Pivotal

Accepted Answer

We know that some of our patients use an online care service called Care Anywhere and a home visit care service called Pivotal. These are run by medical professionals, and we have no problem with you using their services, but to save you some headaches, we wanted you to be aware of a few things:

Continuity of Care

We provide an after-hours nurse triage service for you to receive care 24/7. These nurses use protocols designed by our doctors to provide care, and, afterwards, send us reports so our in-house nursing staff can access them for follow-up care as needed.

Unfortunately, we don’t have access to Care Anywhere’s protocols or documentation of their visits, so we cannot safely provide care based on their recommendations alone. We would need to see you in clinic before we could refill/change any medications prescribed or give any other health advice.

Access to Information

When you speak to one of our after-hours triage nurses, the details of your call are put into your electronic medical record for us to access. Should you go to the E.R. or urgent care, the details of your visit also end up in your electronic medical record for us to access and follow-up with you.

Unfortunately, Care Anywhere uses an electronic health record that cannot be linked to ours, so we are unaware that a visit has taken place. This means that we are unable to access any visit details or, more importantly, check in on you.

We are able to see the details of your visits with Pivotal through a network that connects our electronic medical record systems. When your Pivotal healthcare team documents the details of your visit, your AP healthcare team will have access to those details. One thing to note is that we don’t receive a notification about your Pivotal visits.  It will be important to let us know that you had a visit so that your AP healthcare team can review what took place.

Cost
There are no added costs or fees to use our after-hours triage nurse line. However, should your situation require the on-call physician, this may result in a billable service to your insurance. Deductibles and copays may apply depending on your benefits package.

Care Anywhere and Pivotal do not offer a free after-hour triage nurse line, so if you use their services after-hours, you will be required to pay their standard fees. The amount you owe may depend on your insurance benefits. Please contact your insurance carrier with coverage questions.

Patients who receive their insurance through any form of Medicaid (straight Badgercare, or an HMO) cannot fill prescriptions from out of state doctors, and, thusly, would be unable to fill prescriptions from Care Anywhere.

Question 9

Patient Status After 3+ Years Without an Appointment

Accepted Answer

We know that life gets busy, insurance plans change, and so much more, so we want you to be aware that we, along with most health insurance carriers, have a policy regarding patient status and time between appointments.

What does this mean?

If you haven’t seen a provider (physician or nurse practitioner) in 3 or more years, you would need to register as a new patient. Vaccine-only visits are not considered provider visits.

Why is this necessary?

Well, a lot can change with your health in that amount of time! Your safety is our top priority, and this policy allows for us to ensure that you are receiving the most appropriate care.

Can I see my previous doctor?

If they are accepting new patients, you sure can! If they are not, you may need to select a new doctor. Thankfully, all of our doctors are awesome!

Can I schedule sick visits or receive refills/prescriptions while I wait for my new patient appointment?

Unfortunately, no. As we mentioned, your health can change so much in 3+ years and we cannot safely provide care without seeing you for that initial appointment.

Will I get a notification?

Yes! If you are signed up for MyUnityPoint, you will automatically receive a reminder notification at 2.5 years to schedule an appointment and another notification at 3 years to schedule as a new patient.

Question 10

MyUnityPoint Account Issues

Accepted Answer

While we wish we could help, unfortunately, MyUnityPoint is a third-party entity to us and we are unable to control their site functions or help with user accounts. If you are experiencing issues or have questions about your account, please email their support team at MyUnityPointSupport@unitypoint.org or call (877) 224-4430. Their representatives are available Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm CST.

CLICK HERE to learn more about MyUnityPoint
CLICK HERE to log in or sign-up

Please note, payments on Associated Physicians bills cannot be processed through MyUnityPoint. CLICK HERE to log in or sign up for an Associated Physicians online bill pay account.

Question 11

Contact Form Issues

Accepted Answer

If you submitted an inquiry or request through our Contact Form and...

Did Not Receive a Confirmation Email:

Confirmation emails are automatically triggered to send to the email address that was entered when you hit submit. It may take a couple minutes to arrive. If after several minutes, you do not see the confirmation email in your inbox, check your spam/junk folder.

If you still cannot find the confirmation email, you may have mistyped a letter, number, or other character in your email address (this happens from time to time, so you certainly aren't alone). In this case, we will have received your message, but neither the confirmation email, nor our response will make it through to you. We would ask that you resend your inquiry and double-check the email address entered.

Did Not Receive a Response:

During regular business hours Monday-Friday, we typically respond in less than 24 hours; however, should your inquiry or request require more coordination, we will let you know that more time is needed to assist you properly. If you do not see a response after 24 hours and you both received a confirmation email AND sent your email during business hours at least 24 hours prior to close on Friday, please check your spam/junk folder.

If you still do not see a response, please accept our sincerest apologies for the delay. You may resubmit your inquiry or give the clinic a call at 608-233-9746 to have your need met.

Please note, as indicated in your confirmation email, we have complex spam filters built into our inquiry inbox system. Certain inquiries such as solicitation, inquiries using bot email accounts, suspicious contact information, or suspicious keywords may be filtered out and will not receive a response.

Were Directed to Call or Use MyUnityPoint:

Due to privacy laws, we cannot assist with patient-specific needs through the general inquiry inbox; however, we always steer patients in the best direction to have their needs met properly. If you are looking to speak with your medical care team or our Business Office regarding your protected health information (PHI) (e.g. appointments, symptoms, test results, prescriptions, or any other medical, billing, or insurance information), we always ask that patients send a message through their MyUnityPoint account or give the clinic a call at 608-233-9746.

Question 12

APMadison.com Site Membership

Accepted Answer

What is Site Membership?

As a site member, you are able to comment on our blogs, interact with other site members, and receive our email updates! It helps us connect the AP community outside of the clinic, and a bit more casually. If you ONLY want email updates, subscribe using the form at the bottom of our homepage.

Can I use it like MyUnityPoint/MyChart?

No, it is completely separate. Membership to apmadison.com is not connected to any clinical activities. You cannot use apmadison.com to speak with your provider, care team, or do anything patient-specific or clinic related like asking for medical advice, discussing a billing issue, sending paperwork, or scheduling an appointment. You will need to either call the clinic or use MyUnityPoint for those needs. You can sign-up for MyUnityPoint HERE.

Are site member profiles public?

Yes, but not easily accessible. Your nickname, profile image, and public activity may be visible on our site to other site members as well as on search engines. If you are only looking for email updates, feel free to subscribe using the form at the bottom of our homepage.

If site member profiles are public, isn't that a HIPAA violation?

NO, and we can't stress that enough. We take patient privacy VERY seriously. Site membership is 100% optional and the sign-up process is driven by the user themselves. The public nature of site membership is transparently explained on the member sign-up page as well as in the Terms of Use that users are required to check prior to completing sign-up. Included thereafter is a link to our Code of Conduct which reiterates that information from profiles is public, and acknowledges HIPAA privacy laws.
 
After site membership is approved by our website administrator (this helps us keep the community free of spam content and accounts), users automatically receive a welcome email which again denotes the terms of site membership and includes a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section that answers why the email was received, what a user can do on apmadison.com with their new membership, if membership can act like MyChart, and a link to contact us if they do not want to be a member.
 
Not all of our site members are patients. They are staff members, caregivers, and other community members. We designed site membership to be a transparent, legal, and fun way for our staff, patients, patient families, and other community members to connect with one another through our blogs and/or other forums. However, we do understand that site membership may not be for everyone and we encourage those who still want to receive our email updates, but do not want a profile, to simply subscribe at the bottom of our homepage.

Can I revoke my membership?

While we would be SUPER sad to see you go, we certainly can revoke your membership and remove your profile. Just let us know HERE.

Question 13

Medicare Wellness Visits

Accepted Answer

After your initial “Welcome to Medicare” visit with your physician, Associated Physicians conducts annual Medicare Wellness Visits with our nurses.

Is it like a physical?

Nope! These visits are separate from a medical or routine health visit. They are designed to focus on your ongoing safety as opposed to health concerns.

What if I have health concerns to discuss?

We completely understand. If you have any health concerns you want to discuss, our staff would be more than happy to get you scheduled for a visit with your provider to address things!

Why is this important?

As we age, our health status can change fast. These visits are great ways to check-in with you, and ensure you have a personalized plan to help prevent disease or disability, based on your current health and risk factors.

Is there a cost associated with this?

According to the federal Medicare website, if you’ve had Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) for longer than 12 months, you are qualified for a yearly “Wellness” visit. Because of our contract with Medicare, you pay nothing for this visit and the Part B deductible doesn’t apply. However, you may have to pay coinsurance, and the Part B deductible may apply if additional tests or services happen to be provided during the wellness visit. If Medicare doesn't cover the additional tests or services, you may have to pay the full amount.

Question 14

Refilling Prescriptions

Accepted Answer

Before you run out of a prescription medication, please call your pharmacy and request a refill. They will contact our office for you. You may also notify us that you need a refill at your appointment.

Please note, if you are a new patient, we are unable to prescribe or refill any medications until you have been seen for your new patient appointment.

Question 15

Hospital Affiliations

Accepted Answer

While our electronic medical records system, EPIC, and the version of MyChart our patients use do piggyback off of the UnityPoint Health system, we are an independent clinic and are not directly affiliated with a particular hospital. The hospital from which our patients receive care depends on their insurance network and/or personal preferences.

Question 16

Sharing Feedback

Accepted Answer

Our goal is to provide you with excellent service and quality care. If you want to pass along a 'thank you' or a compliment to our staff, please CLICK HERE. If you have any concerns or other feedback regarding our service, please call the clinic at (608) 233-9746 or CLICK HERE to use our online contact form.

Question 17

Review the Clinic

Accepted Answer

Sharing your experience through a review is a great way to help our clinic continue to grow! We would love for you to take a moment to write an online review on Google.

If you had a poor experience, we would love the opportunity to make things right! Give us a call at 608-233-9746 or send us a message through our Contact Form. If you had a stellar experience and want to thank a staff member, feel free to send them a message HERE!