September 27, 2024
Dear Patients:
I am announcing closure of the office practice Abilene Family Health Care office, effective 11/15/2024. This is the last date on which we will see patients for medical visits in the office. The office will remain open for approximately one month after this date for administrative purposes. Effective immediately we will not see new patients, we will only have one office employee, we will have appointments available on a reduced schedule, and we will have no afternoon appointments as we prepare the office for closure. No new elective treatments or referrals will be started. Our fax number will remain in service for a while (if it is to be replaced the notice will appear on the main page of the website). More information on new office hours, types of appointments during the shutdown, and contact information for after shutdown can be found on our website: https://www.afhchome.com.
Ongoing Prescriptions
We will do our best to be sure you have a minimum of 90-days of meds available to allow you plenty of time to find a new primary care provider. In most cases this will not require a visit, but just a call to the office before it closes. After the closure date no new insurance authorizations, referrals or prescription refills will be possible. Fills on prescriptions already sent to pharmacies are honored until they are replaced by a new prescriber’s prescriptions.
Medical Records
Your medical records are confidential and remain protected. A copy of medical records can ONLY be transferred to someone (including yourself) with your written permission on an appropriate, valid, signed medical release-of-information. Your records are in our electronic medical record system and will remain under my care until such time as they are no longer available as specified by applicable statutes (in most cases this is 7 years past the time of last interaction, but a bit longer for patients under 18 years of age when they were last seen). Records already past that mark are no longer available.
The simplest way to move your records is to establish with a new provider and they will send a request for the information they need.
Some very important things to remember about records:
- Requests for medical records will be processed in the order in which they are received. Obviously, we can only process so many requests in a single day and none will be done same-day.
- Records are NEVER sent by regular email. It is not secure and not private.
- Many requests come by fax and request a faxed response. This is probably the easiest way to move small records. However, faxes are limited in size to something around 15 to 20 pages. If the records are more than will fax properly there are other options. We cannot fax large documents.
- Records that are large documents (larger than will fax) can be easily transferred as a PDF on a flash drive or on a CD-ROM at no additional cost to you. Our preference is flash drive. We can either:
- Hand deliver either of these for you within the city limits of Abilene before the final closure date of the office. ( We will make more than one delivery a week if needed.)
- Have the flash drive or the CD-ROM ready for you to pick up before the final closure date of the office. You will need to sign for the records. Records cannot be picked up by anyone not already on your office disclosure form or on the release.
- We can mail the flash drive or the CD-ROM at your request but there will be a charge for postage of $10.00 which must be paid in advance of the mailing.
- If we must print the records to paper and mail them or provide them for pick-up there will be a standard medical record charge as specified by State of Texas regulations ($25.00 for the first 20 pages, $0.50 per page after 20 pages, and a reasonable estimate of actual postage charges if any). Records will not be mailed or available until the medical record charge is paid. Please be aware this can easily run into the hundreds of dollars for large documents and is really not necessary in most cases.
When to Change Providers
Many of you have ongoing medical problems that are significant and/or severe, will need monitoring by specialists, and/or require continued treatment. DO NOT WAIT! Find a new primary care provider and establish care as soon as you can and allow your new providers to get what medical records they need.
This is especially important for patients with HMO type insurances that require insurance authorizations and referrals. You need to establish with a new provider and get the PCP name on your insurance card updated as soon as possible.
Patients with Balances
We will continue to send out statements to patients with balances. Patients with past due balances more than 2 statement cycles past due when we finalize closure of the office will be turned over to collections. We encourage you to call the office and make payment before the final closure date.
It has been a great pleasure providing for your health care needs since the company’s inception in 1987, and I have very much enjoyed caring for you. As for me, I have many things I been unable to do with a busy office practice that now I will be able to do: I plan to continue with my nursing home practice and possibly some other types of practice. I have greatly valued our relationship, and I thank you for your patronage and friendship over the years. Best wishes for your future health.
Sincerely,
M. Dell McKnight, MD