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Welcome to Our Practice
We appreciate the confidence you have entrusted in us by choosing to become one of our patients. As our new patient we feel it would be helpful to orientate you to our practice to ensure you receive the full benefits we have to offer while you receive medical care here.
 Who are Maternal Fetal Medicine Associates?
MFM Associates (MFMA) is group medical practice comprised of seven physicians who provide a wide array of specialized obstetrical and gynecologic services.
| Samuel Bender, MD |
OB-GYN |
| Nathan Fox, MD |
OB-GYN / MFM |
| Aren Gottlieb, MD |
OB-GYN |
| Chad Klauser, MD |
OB-GYN / MFM |
| Andrei Rebarber, MD |
OB-GYN / MFM |
| Daniel Saltzman, MD |
OB-GYN / MFM |
| Michael Silverstein, MD |
OB-GYN |
Drs Rebarber, Saltzman, Fox, Klauser are Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialists as well as board certified Obstetrician/Gynecologists. They are considered experts in the field of high risk obstetrics, OB-GYN ultrasound and prenatal diagnosis.
Drs Bender, Silverstein and Gottlieb are board certified Obstetricians/Gynecologists who, in addition to their extensive obstetrical experience, have particular expertise in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, colposcopy, and gynecologic ultrasound.
Over the years these physicians have worked hand in hand to bring together a complementary set of medical skills that enables them to provide a full range of women’s healthcare services within one medical practice.
What Makes MFM Associates Unique?
Our office has been designed using state of the art technology and ultrasound instrumentation in order to provide patients with the highest level of medical care. Each board certified physician in the practice has dedicated years of experience to successfully providing healthcare for women. Our physicians are recognized as experts in their fields and have received multiple teaching, patient, and scholarly awards over the course of their careers. They have headed multiple research projects, published extensively in the medical literature, are regular lecturers in their field, and have appeared on multiple television and radio news programs to discuss a wide range of topics related to women’s health. Details of each physician’s education, training and publications are available on our website; www.mfmnyc.com.
Who Will I See At My Office Visits?
All obstetrical patients within the practice are advised to rotate prenatal visits between all of our physicians. The physician that ultimately delivers your baby will be determined by the on-call schedule that is shared between six doctors - Dr. Gottlieb does not currently perform deliveries in our practice. Therefore, it is both important as well as recommended that when scheduling your prenatal visits, you take advantage of the opportunity to become familiar with each of our doctors. Due to the nature of our field and the wide variety of complex medical problems which this practice specializes in, patients in our waiting room can sometimes encounter delays. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard. As emergencies dictate you may be asked to see a different physician than the one with whom your appointment was originally booked to accommodate your schedule.
Which Hospital Is MFM Affiliated With?
All deliveries and inpatient procedures will be provided at Mount Sinai Medical Center located at 1176 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029. Mount Sinai is a teaching hospital that has been internationally recognized as a leader in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology for the past 25 years. As is true with all teaching hospitals, Mt Sinai OB-GYN residents, under the supervision of our physicians, may be involved in your care while you are a patient there. However, this has been shown in the medical literature to enhance the safety and level of care provided to patents in tertiary care facilities.
Where Will My Ultrasound Exams Be Performed?
unique strength of MFMA is its connection to CARNEGIE IMAGING FOR WOMEN, its imaging subsidiary conveniently located at 2 Manhattan locations –
•Carnegie Hill: 1245 Madison Avenue (between 89th and 90th Streets)
•Carnegie South: 148 Madison Avenue (between 31st and 32nd Streets)
Carnegie Imaging for Women is fully staffed by board certified MFM specialists and registered sonographers who use state-of-the-art 3D/4D ultrasound equipment to deliver the highest level of accuracy in ultrasound imaging. Both Centers are fully accredited by the American Institute for Ultrasound in Medicine.
More information about Carnegie Imaging for Women can be located on its website: www.Carnegie Imaging.com.
Who Can I Speak To If I have Questions In-Between Physician Visits?
MFMA has a team of experienced Registered Nurses and Midwives on staff to respond to patient questions and concerns in-between office visits. These highly skilled professionals are available to answer a variety of questions including:
Laboratory Results
Medication Refills
Pregnancy and other Medical Concerns
Relaying information to and from physicians
Surgery Scheduling |
The nurses and midwives are available by phone during normal business hours. Phone calls are triaged and responded to in priority order. However, all calls are answered within 24 hours. Physicians are available by telephone only in cases of extreme emergency.
Patients who require in-depth conversation with a physician should make an appointment to come into the office. With rare exceptions, the MFMA physicians do not perform telephone consultations due to their limited availability to do so.
Appointment Cancellations
When you make an appointment, we reserve a significant amount of time specifically for your consultation. Unfortunately, when a patient doesn’t show for their scheduled appointment, another patient loses an opportunity to be seen.
Therefore, if you need to cancel or re-schedule, you are requested to notify us as soon as possible, but no later than 48 hours in advance of an extended appointment and 24 hours in advance of a routine or ultrasound appointment. Without this notification, you will be responsible for a cancellation fee in accordance with the schedule outlined below.
Please phone our office as soon as you are aware that you will be canceling your appointment. If you phone our office after hours, please leave a message to cancel or reschedule and we will confirm with you by phone on the next business day.
Cancellation charges are not covered by insurance and are due and payable prior to any future appointments.
EXTENDED APPOINTMENTS:
New Pregnancy or New GYN Patients, Consultations, Annual GYN Visits, etc
Required Cancellation Notice: 48 hours
Non- Cancellation Fee: $100
ROUTINE APPOINTMENTS
Obstetrical Re-Checks, Follow Up Visits, etc,
Required Cancellation Notice: 24 hours
Non-Cancellation Fee: $50
ALL ULTRASOUND APPOINTMENTS
Required Cancellation Notice: 24 hours
Non-Cancellation Fee: $75.00
What Insurances Does MFMA Accept?
MFMA currently participates with the following plans: Aetna, Oxford (Freedom Plan only) and United Healthcare. If you are covered by an insurance plan other than those listed, you must make payment arrangements in advance of your appointment with our Billing Department. They can be reached at 646-525-3666.
Please be aware that in all cases, patients are ultimately responsible for ensuring payment for all medical services provided. Unfortunately, we are now experiencing increasing difficulty in obtaining reimbursement from insurance companies. If we exhaust all reasonable means of acquiring payment for legitimate fees submitted to your carrier, you will be held accountable for the charges associated with your care.
Are There Fees Associated With My Obstetrical Care That Won’t Be Covered By My Plan?
The payment provided by insurance companies to MFMA physicians for your obstetrical care (the “global” fee) is limited to the following:
•All prenatal visits
•Obstetrical delivery
•One (1) post-partum visit
There are many other services and fees that might be incurred during the course of your care that may or not be covered. It is a patient’s responsibility to contact their plan administrators to learn the limits of their individual policies. A partial listing of expected additional fees is as follows:
Lab Work
Throughout the course of your care MFMA will send blood and tissue samples for analysis to a variety of clinical laboratories. For our patients’ convenience, a Quest Labs Patient Service Center is located on the first floor of our building where most routine blood work can be performed.
If your insurance plan contains restrictions or limitations on lab work, please make that known to our clinical staff. Provided you let us know in advance of a test being performed, we can in many instances route routine samples to labs that will accept your insurance. For some of the specialty tests required where there are only a limited number of reference labs capable of performing them, that cannot be accomplished and patients will be responsible for the fees incurred.
Please be aware that MFMA has no role in or control over billing issues related to clinical laboratory fees. If you have questions about bills received for laboratory charges or insurance coverage available to you, please contact the clinical laboratory in question and/or your insurance carrier.
Cord Blood Sampling
Many patients are interested in cord blood preservation at the time of birth. It is important that all obstetrical patients are fully informed about the option and its associated expenses so that they can make decisions that are appropriate for their individual families. Whether a patient chooses to bank cord blood, or which company they choose to partner with, is completely up to them. The physicians at MFMA do not endorse any one of these firms nor do they specifically endorse cord blood banking.
Fees associated with cord blood banking are not covered by insurance. If patients choose to privately bank their baby’s blood they will be responsible for two separate fees; one charged by the physicians for cord blood collection at the time of delivery, and a fee charged by the cord blood banks for storage.
•The fee charged by MFMA to cover physician expenses associated with cord blood collection at the time of delivery is $250. In the event of multiple gestations, the fee is multiplied by the number of babies collected from.
•The storage fees charged by private cord blood banks varies widely among companies. MFMA has no role in setting or administering fees for cord blood storage.
•Patients have the option to store cord blood with public, non profit banks. If a patient chooses this method it is free of charge. There are no fees associated with storage, and MFMA will waive the physician collection fee.
If you are interested in cord blood banking, please discuss this option with your physician during one of your prenatal visits so that you can make a fully informed decision about this option.
Please let us know if there is anything we can do to better serve your needs while you are a patient with us. Our expert staff of nurses, sonographers, genetic counselors, billing specialists, and appointment coordinators is here to provide you with the highest level of comprehensive medical services available to women in a private setting.
The Physicians and Staff at MFMA
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