NEW PATIENTS

Please print and complete the New Patient Forms and bring them with you to your scheduled appointment:

Scheduling Appointments

Nurse Clinicians will help to facilitate getting tests and follow-up appointments scheduled under the cardiologist’s or NP’s direction and recommendations. Still, they do not do the actual scheduling. Our diagnostic scheduling staff will do the scheduling of a test. If an appointment is needed with the cardiologist or NP, the Doctors Scheduling Coordinator (DSC) will assist you with this.

Your cardiologist may have you follow up with a Nurse Practitioner specializing in Heart Failure, Electrophysiology, and Lipids or for monitoring medications or test results.

Insurance

At Arkansas Cardiology, we try to simplify the preparation of your insurance claims.

Please call to verify any insurance provider not listed on the current list above. Visa, MasterCard and checks are accepted for your convenience.

If you have any insurance questions, please contact us locally at (501) 978-1950. You can call toll-free within the state of Arkansas at (844) 636-2542. Please ask for Accounts Receivable when you call.

Payment Policy

Please read the following carefully.  The payment policy for Arkansas Cardiology, P.A. is as follows.  All charges are expected to be paid in full unless prior arrangements have been made.

• Initial Office Visits:  Your initial office visit charges will be filed at your request, but you will be expected to pay your coinsurance and any deductible not met.
• Uninsured Patients:  You are required to pay a $300.00 fee-for-service at the time of visit.  Payments can come in the form of cash, check, or credit card.
• Co-pays:  You will be expected to pay your insurance co-pay every time you see the doctor.  This cannot be billed.
• Re-visits:  We will file your insurance for you on revisits, but you will also be expected to pay your coinsurance and any deductible not met.
• Non-covered Charges:  You will be responsible for all non-covered charges (lab, procedures, etc.) not payable by your insurance company.
• Questions:  Please refer back to the receptionist before being seen by the doctor if you have questions.
• Financial Services:  Please refer all inquiries regarding financial services to the Business Office.
• You may receive two statements, one from Arkansas Cardiology and one from Baptist Health.

Phone Calls

When an Arkansas Cardiology patient calls requesting to speak to their physician, obtain test results, or if they require assistance with a cardiovascular problem, the call will be transferred to your primary cardiologist’s Nurse Clinician. The Nurse Clinician will review your situation or request, obtain your record and update your cardiologist. 

Our team endeavors to provide prompt feedback to our patients. During the day, the Nurse Clinicians may be away from their phones, either working at the hospital or seeing patients in the office. If your condition requires immediate assistance, your call will be transferred to the triage nurse. Otherwise, you may leave a message on the Nurse Clinician’s voicemail. If your call is regarding a potentially life-threatening emergency, you should call 911.

Generally, most patients first see us at the request of their primary care physician. Ongoing care will be arranged or specified during your visit with your cardiologist. If you have never been seen at Arkansas Cardiology or have not been under the direct care of the cardiologist for some time, you may be advised first to call the primary care provider who has had the most recent opportunity to evaluate you and has your current records. If your primary care physician feels that your condition requires that you have a cardiology appointment, either your physician or one of their care coordinators can facilitate an appointment with our scheduling department.

Si su médico de atención primaria considera que su condición requiere que tenga una cita de cardiología, su médico o uno de sus coordinadores de atención puede facilitar una cita con nuestro departamento de programación.

Test Results

The Nurse Clinician will facilitate getting the results of tests ordered by your primary cardiologist to their attention for review. Please allow two working days for the test results to be available to your cardiologist. The final report is routed to your primary care physician and your cardiologist’s Nurse Clinician. Your primary cardiologist must review tests before you are notified of the results. There could be some delay in reporting results if your primary cardiologist is out of the office. If your results are normal or stable, you will receive a follow-up letter stating your results in the mail within two weeks. Abnormal results will be reviewed promptly with the cardiologist, and the Nurse Clinician will call and review your test results and the cardiologist’s follow-up recommendations. If you have a test just prior to a scheduled office appointment with your cardiologist, the test results will be reviewed in detail at the time of the appointment, and you will not receive a letter or phone call.

If your primary care physician ordered a test and you call an Arkansas Cardiology Nurse Clinician for the results, you will be advised to contact your physician’s office.

Prescription Refills

Patients must have been seen by an Arkansas Cardiology physician or Nurse Practitioner within the past year for us to refill their medications. Our staff only refills medications that we are actively managing. If you require an appointment to qualify for a refill, our staff will assist you in scheduling an appointment. If you are due for a refill on a medication our clinic is managing, please call your pharmacy, and they will contact our office.

Your primary physician should refill your other medications. The cardiologist may initiate a new prescription but ask for it to be refilled by your primary physician. Medications that require special refill considerations are Warfarin (Coumadin), lipid-lowering medications, and Amiodarone. These medications require that patients have appropriate surveillance lab work on file before authorizing the refill.

Medical Records

Arkansas Cardiology complies with the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Congress passed this federal law in 1996 to protect patient’s confidential medical information. Arkansas Cardiology patients and other institutions requesting confidential medical record information should call our HIS (Health Information Services) Department, and they will assist you in obtaining records in accordance with the HIPAA guidelines.

Disability Paperwork

If you have disability paperwork that requires the primary cardiologist’s signature, please send it to Arkansas Cardiology, attention Disability Coordinators. These are our nurses who will assist you with this area of care.

Procedures and Education

All patients electively scheduled as an outpatient for a heart catheterization, coronary angiogram, percutaneous coronary intervention or an electrophysiology procedure will meet with a Nurse Clinician in the office within five days before the scheduled procedure. At this appointment, you will receive educational instructions about your procedure and information about your medication and diet before the procedure. Special medication instruction is required for diabetic patients and those patients on anticoagulation medication. You will also receive written instructions to take with you. You may also require updated lab work, an EKG or a chest x-ray at this appointment. If you require an updated history and physical, you will also be scheduled to see a nurse practitioner at this appointment (provided you have seen an SPHC cardiologist within the past year). The Nurse Clinician will also review procedure risks and obtain written consent for your scheduled procedure at this appointment.

• At the hospital: Nurse Clinicians discharge patients scheduled electively for procedures and remain overnight, provided they remain stable. Nurse Clinicians also see inpatients at our affiliated hospitals for pre-procedure education and risk review.

• At the office: Nurse Clinicians see patients in the office under the direction of the primary cardiologist in follow-up to adjustments for heart failure or blood pressure medication.