Frequently Asked Questions

To improve patient access to care, we are offering two methods of registration:

In person.  The registration packet will be printed for you at time of first visit.

Online registration.  For your convenience both the registration packet and an online submission form is available.  Please visit our online registration pages.

Clinic patient Registration

Two main benefits.  The form can be completed at your own time; allowing you to gather all the necessary information needed during the process.   It also allows you the time to search for a preferred pharmacy of your choice instead of choosing the closest pharmacy at the time of visit.

More importantly, it allows the you to be seen by the provider without any delays.  Once the registration has been submitted online, our friendly staff will proceed with preparing your file for the first visit.  Therefore, during the first visit you will be asked to sign our required forms, and then get checked in to be seen.

The following documents are required to be presented during the registration process:

1. Proof of medical insurance; unless self-pay.
2. Identification Card – Drivers License, and passport

Yes, you can always be seen by our providers. We are here to make sure you are well taken cared for.

Nonetheless, we advise the use of caution when seeing us without a valid proof of insurance. Since services are provided while your Primary care physician of designation has not been changed yet, billing inquiries are likely to be denied and you are left to pay the balance. Please call our friendly staff so that we can help expedite the process and help you accordingly. Please call 818-600-1472 for further assistance.

At any point you may choose the self-pay method to avoid further issues.

The following link will open a new page with nearest pharmacies to our location
Google Maps Link

Yes you can. Please request our staff to specify an email on your records.
Be mindful that you can transmit any information  through email to our staff members, including medical records.  However, in order to obtain your records you’ll need to sign up to the patient portal or come directly to pick them up.  The patient portal is the most convenient way to obtain your records.  It is also the quickest way.

YES, in most cases.  Please be aware that our main goal is to provide safe medical care to our patients.

– Patient should weigh over 100 Lbs.

– Patient should have received all their childhood immunizations through their pediatrician’s office.  We can still order the immunizations on your behalf.  However the materials may need to be obtained from the pharmacy and may cost overall more.  At this point we do not carry, childhood vaccinations such as MMR, Polio, Hepatitis-B, DTaP, or Varicella.

Unfortunately, thus far, we have not started enrollment of Medi-CAL patients.  This does not pertain to Dual Eligible Medicare-MediCAL as we do accept the Medicare patients.Since, March 2015 our administrators have communicated with our affiliated HMO groups and Health plans to Re-assign our designated Medi-CAL patients.   Until, January 2017 we have honored designated patients’ request to be seen until they re-assign their primary care physicians.  At this point we are no longer able to honor such requests.  Please call your HMO group to ask for reassignment, or seek the care of an urgent care facility for immediate attention.

Please sign your name at the front desk and include the time of your arrival. Our front desk staff will greet you and ask you to do so themselves.

If the staff is busy caring for other patients, we ask that you have a seat, and wait to be called.

As per office protocols, our staff is required to assist each patient at the time of arrival. They are trained and expected to check in each patient within 10 minutes of their arrival.  Patients will be notified if there are any delays with the check-in process.  

Be mindful that our providers are taking care of sick patients. At times even with their best efforts there could be a wait before they can get to you.  Our staff will inform you if there is a delay.

In general, there is no need for additional paperwork after initial registration. Our staff will review your file for any required Co-payments before the visit, and ask if there has been any change with your insurance coverage since your last visit. This will be an opportunity to update your file if needed

We always recommend arriving 5-10 minutes early to allow our staff to address unforeseen issues, such as insurance changes, and pharmacy change requests. Patients will also have the time to address any issues that arose since last visit.

All patients that are late by more than 15 minutes from the scheduled appointment, are considered as “Add-ON” visits.If a patient is late to their appointment, we encourage them to re-schedule the appointment if they feel that waiting to be seen will cause problems with their work schedule or meetings they have already in place.** We are aware that our patients have personal obligations, and taking a day off from work may be challenging. Therefore, we spend all our time and efforts to get our patients back to their busy schedules as quick as we can, while maintaining a high level of medical care. Therefore, we are committed to taking care of patients arriving on time first.All Add-ON visits may need to wait for the provider to become available. Our priority is to care take care of patients arriving at their appointed time first. Nonetheless, all Add-ON visits will be seen at one point.

At times patients require an urgent visit to the clinic.  Though we are not an urgent care facility, we try to accommodate all patients needing care.An Add-ON visit allows the patient to be checked in by our staff, but they have to wait for the provider to become available to see them.  Since all appointments are pre-booked, we take extra care to make sure scheduled patient appointments are kept on time and without delay.  All confirmed Add-ON visits will be seen, but with possible delays.

** We are aware that our patients have personal obligations, and taking a day off from work may be challenging.  Therefore, we spend all our time and efforts to get our patients back to their busy schedules as quick as we can, while maintaining a high level of medical care.

All medications are electronically transmitted to the pharmacy at the end of the day. We encourage you to contact your designated pharmacy the day after your visit. Electronic prescriptions pertain to medications that are not urgently needed, and can wait 1 day.

In the case of antibiotics prescriptions, the provider will give you a written prescription so that you can obtain the medications right after your visit

Referrals are sent in 1-3 business days.Once the referral has been submitted electronically, our staff will contact the patient by email to inform.For “Approved” referrals, patient may call and request an appointment from the specialty clinic.For “Pending” referrals, we encourage the patient to call their insurance provider and inquire about the status of the referral.  Most times, a phone call will bring the referral to their attention and allow faster processing.Patients may call our friendly help desk staff to inquire about the status of their referral as well.** please be aware that our providers are not responsible for “approving” referrals.  Providers act on behalf of the patient to submit referrals electronically.  The insurance provider is responsible for approving the request.

Even though they are eligible to visit our clinic, their HMO medical groups have not yet received the information from the health plans, and may have not added the patient to their rosters.
In the event the patient is not listed on the HMO portal, our staff sends an electronic request to have a patient added to the portal.   Though the requests takes us only 2 minutes to send, it may take up to 3 weeks for the HMO group to verify eligibility with the health plan and add the patient to the portal.
*** Please be aware that we have no control on how fast an HMO group personnel adds a patient to the portal.
Our staff can followup with them, but we can not force them to do so.  We encourage patients to help expedite the process by calling both their health plans and the HMO group to add the respective record to the web portal.
Once the process is complete, our staff will enter the referral as initially intended.

YES. If you have a particular physician that you wish to see, we will send the request on your behalf.Be mindful that requesting a particular physician does not guarantee approval by your HMO group. HMO groups refer to In-Network physicians rather than non-contracted physicians. If you request an out-of-network physician, it is likely that your HMO group will deny the request. They will then assign another physician in-network for you.In some cases such as hematologic cancers, your HMO group may not have the specialist needed for proper care as an in-network provider. At that time, they will most likely approve our request for referral.## Be mindful that our staff does not “approve” referrals to specialist. The referrals we send on your behalf are reviewed and “approved” by your HMO group.

Yes, you can always be seen by our providers. We are here to make sure you are well taken cared for.Nonetheless, we advise the use of caution when seeing us without a valid proof of insurance. Since services are provided while your Primary care physician of designation has not been changed yet, billing inquiries are likely to be denied and you are left to pay the balance. Please call our friendly staff so that we can help expedite the process and help you accordingly. Please call 818-600-1472 for further assistance.At any point you may choose the self-pay method to avoid further issues.

Referrals are sent in 2-3 business days.Once the referral has been submitted electronically, our staff will contact the patient by email to inform.For “Approved” referrals, patient may call and request an appointment from the specialty clinic.For “Pending” referrals, we encourage the patient to call their insurance provider and inquire about the status of the referral. Most times, a phone call will bring the referral to their attention and allow faster processing.Patients may call our friendly help desk staff to inquire about the status of their referral as well.** please be aware that our providers are not responsible for “approving” referrals. Providers act on behalf of the patient to submit referrals electronically. The insurance provider is responsible for approving the request.

We encourage patients to call their respective HMO groups to inquire about the status of their referrals for the following reasons:
⦁ Your health plan is the respnsible entity for reviewing and approving referrals.
⦁ ThriveCMG staff and providers do not have any say on which referrals get approved. We can only submit the referral on your behalf online.
Patients are welcome to call our offices to ask regarding referrals, but please be mindful that we can only check the status of the referral. We can not call on your behalf to the medical group to expedite approvals.
When referrals are needed, our staff will provide you with a contact list for your respective medical group offices.

Our providers are thorough and very attentive to patients’ concerns. We try to address as many medical issues in one visit as reasonably possible. We send referrals for medical problems we addressed fully.
Our providers required to document the reason for the referral before printing and uploading the notes to the health plan’s website. Therefore, our providers can not send a referral for specialty evaluation or diagnostic studies without full documentation, showing due diligence has been performed on behalf of a patient.

No.We hope to incorporate laboratory services in the future to improve the convenience of getting labs drawn and processed at our facilities.

However, at this point we must send any collected specimens to an outside laboratory to process.

Patients have the choice to have us send the specimen (Pap smears) on their behalf to the laboratory, or they can take the specimen themselves to the laboratory for drop-off.

Dropping off the specimen personally, will give you the opportunity to negotiate a better price for processing the specimen.

Please be aware that ThriveCMG does not bill patients for specimen processing.  All bills received from a laboratory provider is coming directly from them. We are not financially associated with any laboratories. Please call your laboratory provider to resolve billing issues.

Yes.  Even though we do not directly provide any laboratory discounts, local laboratories may give us a discount stamp that can be place on your specimen prescription.  When presenting the discounted stamp to the laboratory your bill should be adjusted as per their discount protocols.

ThriveCMG staff does not have any bearing on how much of a discount you can get.  Please discuss with your chosen laboratory representatives for rates.

Please be mindful, that even with a discounted stamp, there is no guarantee that you will pay the lowest price.  We encourage our patients to call several laboratories to check prices before submitting their specimens.

Our goal is to provide the best medical care we can, within the scope of our practice. Many times medications such as narcotics, or amphetamines are prescribed as indicated medically. When a patient receives controlled substances, we need to document the reason for, and the safety of such medication.Also, controlled substances must be prescribed on a tamper proof prescription. Thus, we are not able to call them into the pharmacy, or electronically transmit them.

Our goal is to provide effective medical treatment with safety in mind. At times our providers encounter medical conditions that require further treatment by a specialist. Such conditions are most commonly relate to failure to respond to medical treatment, or prescription of medications beyond the scope of the provider’s practice.

In such cases the patient would benefit from a specialist evaluation. The specialist in general may have enhanced treatment modalities that can improve patient care and improve their quality of life. The referral to a specialist will be discussed with the patient by our providers first

The cost of any bills are Not determined by our office. It is determined by your insurance in regards to the coverage of services provided.  

Deductibles – the amount paid out-of-pocket before your insurance begins to pay for services.

Copay – set amount collected before each visit.  The amount may vary based on your coverage.

Co-insurance – Amount determined as “patient responsibility” after copayment is paid.  Will be determined after your insurance carrier responds to the original claim.

Receiving a statement depends on the type of insurance a patient carries and the services rendered at the clinic. Most times this question comes up after a patient received procedural services, which are not usual in nature. Please watch the video below regarding Co-payments. Co-payments usually apply to procedural services provided provided at the office. Contact your health plan carrier to learn more about your particular plan.

ThriveCMG is a teaching facility.  Our providers take pride in teaching how to best care for patients.  You might notice both Medical Assistant and Nurse Practitioner students at the clinic.
If you have any questions that are not readily answered by our students, you will be referred to our trained staff to address your questions.
Feel free to ask questions as we are all her to help facilitate your care.

In a perfect world we hope there would be no compliants, but miscommunications and mistakes can occur even with the most attentive staff.

We encourage all our patients to raise their concerns so we can work on addressing them in a timely manner. Please ask the help desk staff to speak to the manager to voice your concerns. In turn, the manager will discuss these issues with our leadership team and address them appropriately. We will also contact you with our corrective action plan.

You may also fill out our online compliant form:  https://thrivecmg.com/feedback

We thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns.  Your complaints are important to us. as it helps us identify gaps in care provided and correct them for future patients as well.