{"id":5,"date":"2015-01-04T20:25:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-04T20:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rutledgemd.com\/?page_id=5"},"modified":"2026-10-05T21:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:25:24","slug":"new-patient-information","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.rutledgemd.com\/?page_id=5","title":{"rendered":"Office Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emergencies:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 For life threatening medical or psychiatric emergencies, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.<\/p>\n

Cancellation and Missed Visits:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>To cancel an appointment, please call me at least 48 hours ahead of time. Given the limited availability of appointment times and that last minute cancellations are generally unable to be rescheduled with another patient, cancellations made less than 48 hours prior to the scheduled appointment may be charged at the regular rate. Patients arriving late for an appointment will be seen until the end of the scheduled appointment time and charged for a full appointment.\u00a0 While text message reminders are offered as a courtesy, it is your responsibility to keep track of your appointments. If you do not receive a reminder, you are still responsible for attending the appointment. Missing three appointments in 6 months without notice may prevent me from continuing to treat you. Patients need to be seen at least every three months unless otherwise discussed. If you wish to return to treatment with me if it has been more than 3 months, we will need to discuss this prior to scheduling.<\/p>\n

If I have to cancel due to illness or inclement weather, I will call you. If you do not hear from me, I will be in the office.<\/p>\n

Phone calls:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Most concerns, including medication refills, should be addressed during regularly scheduled appointments. When a matter arises in between scheduled appointments, please call. If I am unable to answer the phone when you call, I will return your call as soon as I am able during regular business hours. Occasionally, I am able to respond outside of business hours, but please to not rely on this. If you feel a matter cannot wait a day or more, please call my cell phone at 720-589-0528. If a phone call lasts more than 10 minutes, it will be billed at the regular follow up visit rate.<\/p>\n

Emails and texting: <\/strong> Please know that neither emails or texts are secure forms of communication. I encourage you to limit private or confidential information to phone calls or visits. If you choose to communicate via text or email, you are acknowledging and accepting the risk that it may be intercepted and seen by an outside party. Please limit texts to immediate matters, such as running late for an appointment or difficulty with a video link. For other matters, please email at RutledgeMD@Protonmail.com<\/p>\n

Prescription refills: <\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At each visit, please know which of your medications need. Prescriptions will primarily be completed during regular office visits, and last until the next scheduled visit. If you have to reschedule, please also let me know if you need a refill prior to the rescheduled visit. Similarly, if you miss a visit without calling to reschedule, it is your responsibility to notify me if you need a medication refill. Allow three business days for this refill to be completed. I can only provide one refill without attending an appointment. Patients must be seen at least every three months for me to provide medication refills. New medications will only be considered at an office visit, not over the phone.<\/p>\n

Controlled Substances:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Any time you fill a prescription for a controlled substance, this is entered in a database called the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. All of your providers, including primary care and myself, have access to this information and will check it periodically to be sure you are not receiving inappropriate amounts or combinations of medications.<\/p>\n

Replacements for lost or stolen medications are not available for controlled substances, regardless of the reason.<\/p>\n

Reports\/Forms\/Letters\/Correspondence:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Due to the time involved, reports and letters will be billed at a flat rate. Letters confirming attendance will not be billed.<\/p>\n

Payment:\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>For the sake of providing the best treatment for my patients, I have opted not to accept insurance plans. This means I do not have to rush through your visits, nor limit the number of sessions when more are needed. You will find my rates comparable to other experienced psychiatrists in the area, and many insurance plans will reimburse a portion of this as an out of network benefit when you submit a \u201csuperbill\u201d that I can provide. You can also use your health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending account (FSA) for these visits. <\/strong>Payment is due at the time of service via cash, credit card or check. If your check is returned for insufficient funds, I will only be able to accept cash after that.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emergencies:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 For life threatening medical or psychiatric emergencies, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room. Cancellation and Missed Visits:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To cancel an appointment, please call me at least 48 hours ahead of time. Given the limited availability of appointment times and that last minute cancellations are generally unable to be rescheduled … Continue reading Office Policies<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rutledgemd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rutledgemd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rutledgemd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rutledgemd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rutledgemd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"https:\/\/www.rutledgemd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287,"href":"https:\/\/www.rutledgemd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions\/287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rutledgemd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}