Please bring your health card with you to every visit!

You will be asked to present your health card by our Receptionists when checking in at every visit.  It is your responsibility to carry a valid health card.  Your healthcare at the Clinic is paid for via your health card. It is the policy of the Ontario Ministry of Health that a VALID provincial health card (Ontario or otherwise) is required at every visit.

If you do not have your valid health card to present at your visit, you could be charged for the visit  based on our list of  Uninsured Services that you can read by clicking here:  AMC Schedule of Uninsured Services as at May 6, 2024.  If you present a valid card within 30 days of your visit, any amount you have paid will be reimbursed.  However, our admin fee will not be reimbursed.

Remember:  Keep your health card up to date to ensure access to health care and to prevent fraud.  Use our website to help notify us (from our home page – click on ‘update your health card’).

If your health card is lost, stolen or damaged, you should immediately call the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care info line at 1-800-664-8998.  If your address or name has changed, visit or call your local OHIP office or the Ministry of Health.

FAQ: Why must I show my Health Card every time I visit the Clinic?

All health cards are scanned when a patient checks in with the front reception desk to verify that our records are correct. Our computer systems also check the eligibility of your health card. Invalid cards do show up on our computer system. If you present an invalid health card, you could be responsible for the cost of the medical services received.  It is an OHIP requirement that your OHIP Card be presented at each and every visit.

Services not covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan are the personal responsibility of the patient.  Patient charges will be discussed before the service is rendered.  We accept cash, debit and credit card payments.  Payment is due in full at the time of treatment.  We will be happy to discuss all fees and answer any questions you may have regarding our services.

FAQ: How can I renew my HealthCard?

Please make sure your health card is up to date/not expired.  You can check this on your health card itself. Please use this link to renew your Ontario Health Card online. Patients with invalid health cards may be charged for their appointment.

FAQ: What if I live in another province/another country?

There will be a charge for all patients who do not have valid medical coverage in Canada. However, we must be able to verify your coverage prior to your visit.

Cancellations

We require 48 hours notice (2 business days) for cancelled appointments.  The demand for appointments to see family physicians is at an all time high, and this advance notice of your cancellation allows us sufficient time to offer your appointment slot to another patient seeking medical care.

Late Arrivals/No Answer when called

We do our best to run on time during the day, and late arrivals make this difficult. If you arrive late (more than 5 minutes) for your appointment time, you may not be seen. You may wait to be seen when there is an opportunity, if time allows (at the physician’s discretion); if not, you will need to rebook your appointment.  This applies to phone visits as well.  If you are unavailable when we call you, we may have to cancel or rebook you to another date and time.

Missed Appointments (and not cancelling with 24 hours notice)

When you make an appointment at the Clinic, time is put aside for you. Missing an appointment and especially not calling in advance to cancel, causes significant delay to other patients seeking medical care, and increases wait times when the appointment is rebooked.

If you miss an appointment or cancel with insufficient notice, you could be billed for the missed appointment based on our Uninsured Services fee schedule that you can read here: AMC Schedule of Uninsured Services as at May 6, 2024

This bill would need to be paid prior to your next visit with your family physician.  If there are extenuating circumstances that caused you to miss an appointment, please let us know by going to our website and sending us a message or by calling our Booking Center at 416-461-9471.  Three (3) unpaid Missed Appointment billings may result in dismissal from your physician’s practice.

Please remember that our physicians receive hundreds of reports a week, and so it can take a bit of time for them to review. Physicians also triage concerns – more serious issues are typically prioritized.

Please allow at least 48 hours for blood work results and at least 72 hours for x-rays or other investigative test results.

Due to the volume of test results coming to the clinic each day, as an overall policy, the Clinic does not report normal results to patients unless your own physician advises otherwise.

Every physician reviews their incoming test results, and if there is an abnormal test result or a result that the physician feels you need to have followed up, either the physician or staff member will contact you and advise you whether a follow-up appointment needs to be booked.

If you wish to discuss test results with your physician, please book a follow-up appointment for one to two weeks after the tests are done.  

If you feel that you should have heard back from your physician regarding your report, please send us a message and let us know which facility/clinic that you visited to have the test completed.

FAQ: Can I get my test results over the phone?

No.  Our administrative team is not able to comment on the status or the results themselves, so kindly keep in mind that it may take some time to hear back from your physician.

Please monitor your current or existing prescriptions and contact the Clinic for an appointment or telephone/fax renewal well in advance of prescriptions running out – especially if you know you need to see your physician before a renewal.  If you run out without having made an appointment, our Walk-in Clinic or your Pharmacy will issue a ONE TIME SHORT SUPPLY renewal.  

Before each visit, please make sure to check the number of remaining renewals for your prescriptions.  Prescription renewals are generally reviewed during an appointment and your physician will ensure that there are sufficient number of refills until your next visit for re-evaluation of your medical condition.   

If your pharmacy faxes us a prescription renewal, please allow at least 5 business days for your doctor to receive and review the request.  Your family doctor may process existing/current prescriptions received by fax.  However, if your pharmacy sends us a fax renewal on a Friday, do not expect a renewal to be processed prior to the Tuesday the following week.  And, please tell your pharmacy not to resend the request over the weekend.  This only creates more work for your doctor and does not speed up the process for renewal.   

New medications, or dose changes require an appointment.

Narcotics, sedatives and antibiotics are NEVER renewed by telephone/fax, and require an appointment.

Prescription renewal without an appointment is a service not covered by OHIP, and can be subject to a charge from our Uninsured Services list:  AMC Schedule of Uninsured Services as at May 6, 2024. Please know that even telephone/fax renewals require time from your physician to review your chart to ensure a medication renewal is appropriate, as well as time to send the prescription to the pharmacy.

FAQ: How do I renew my existing prescriptions?

If you are running out of a medication ordered by your family doctor (with no renewal), it is because your physician would like to review your health / risks / benefits / effectiveness of the medications before you continue to use them.  Please make an appointment with your family physician before your medications run out.

IF you are running out of a medication ordered by a specialist or a provider outside of our clinic and want your family doctor to renew it, please make an appointment with your family doctor.

FAQ: What should I do if I have changed my pharmacy?

Please message the Clinic to update your pharmacy details (Fax number and Phone number) in your file, else it will lead to unnecessary delay in your prescription renewal.

We are all very fortunate in this country to have access to good health care paid for by the Ministry of Health through our taxes and the family doctors at our Clinic endeavor to provide the highest level of primary care to you and your family by focusing on delivering medically necessary services covered by OHIP.

However, not all services requested of physicians are covered by OHIP.  We are seeing that more and more services and more and more demand for services not covered by the Ministry require significant time and financial resources to administer and operate our Clinic.

In the face of rising office expenses and government restrictions, we are unable to provide such services free of charge and the cost is the responsibility of the patient or the agency requesting the service. ​The fees we charge, based on the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) guidelines, are set out on the attached schedule by clicking here: AMC Schedule of Uninsured Services as at May 6, 2024

If you are financially unable to pay for an uninsured service, you may request the fee reduction or exemption. We realize that there are special circumstances.

The Ontario government covers the cost of providing medically necessary services to patients through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP).

Certain services are not covered by OHIP and will have a fee attached to them. (eg doctors notes, completion of forms, driver’s physicals, invalid health card, etc). You will always be notified prior to receiving an uninsured service of the cost attached.

These fees must be paid at the time of service or prior to your next visit with your physician. Payment can be made by cash, debit, credit or cheque.

Requests for transfer of medical information to Alternative Health Practitioners (e.g. naturopaths, chiropractors, osteopaths) are subject to a transfer fee, as set out in the Uninsured Services list.

You can view our list of Uninsured Services by clicking here:    AMC Schedule of Uninsured Services as at May 6, 2024

Lab tests or imaging that may be requested by Alternative Health Practitioners will only be ordered by the physicians after assessment, and only if medically indicated.

Visits exclusively for travel medical advice are not covered by OHIP and subject to fees as set out in the Uninsured Services.

Note:  Uninsured services fees charged by your Albany physician may vary from the Clinic posted rates based on your personal circumstances.  Visits to the Albany Medical Clinic for uninsured services are charged at the Clinic posted rates.

If you feel that the patient-doctor relationship is not working well, you must schedule an appointment with your doctor to discuss your concerns. If your issues cannot be resolved after your conversation, you and your doctor may agree that a change in doctors is in the best interest of your care.

If another doctor in our Clinic is willing to take you on, your current doctor will arrange the switch, otherwise, it is the Clinic policy to not process requests to switch family doctors.

To find a doctor or nurse practitioner outside the Albany Medical Clinic, go to Ontario.ca.  There are 2 options to find a family doctor or nurse practitioner who are accepting new patients: 

Option 1: Register online with the Health Care Connect service and have a nurse find a doctor or nurse practitioner for you (or call 1-800-445-1822).

Option 2: Contact an Ontario physician to ask if they are accepting new patients. Go to the The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s Find a Doctor search:

• Choose “Advanced Search” to find a doctor near you (by city/town or postal code). 
• Click on “Additional Search Options” to narrow your search (to family doctors and/or language spoken). Contact the doctor to check if they are accepting new patients.

FAQ:  Why does the Clinic NOT allow switches to other physicians of the Clinic?

All of our physicians are fully qualified to provide primary care to patients of all ages and genders. All of our physicians practice in similar ways.  Our physicians work in a collaborative team, and are therefore hesitant to contradict a colleague if a conflict arises between a patient’s request and their physician’s professional opinion or advice. Patients deserve an unbiased second opinion, which can only be obtained through a new physician in a different clinic. As our physicians work in a collaborative group practice, if you are unhappy with your current physician, there may be instances where you would have to see that physician again should you stay with another physician in the clinic; this has the potential to result in sub-optimal medical care.

Taking on new patients requires a significant amount of administrative work to review health history as well as old medical records; allowing switching would increase this administrative work, and reduce physician availability for medical care.

Please avoid perfumes and colognes, and try to opt for “unscented” or “fragrance-free” products, particularly in lotions and creams when coming for a medical visit at the Albany Medical Clinic. Examples of products that can be heavily scented are: certain shampoos and conditioners, hairsprays, soaps, deodorants, colognes and aftershaves, perfumes and body sprays, lotions and creams.

Several members of our Clinic are severely allergic to scents. Some fragrances can make other patients, staff, or visitors feel ill. Fragrances can even trigger asthmatic attacks in patients with asthma. Exposure to scented products can trigger symptoms such as: headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, upper respiratory symptoms, shortness of breath, skin irritation.

Depending on the reason for your visit to our doctor, a referral to a specialist may be done by your family doctor. 

If your referral is to a specialist who holds clinic days at the Albany – book your specialist referral before you leave your family doctor – either with your own family doctor’s receptionist or by the specialists’s receptionist on either the 2^nd, 3^rd or 4^th floor.

If your referral is to a specialist NOT at the Albany – it will take time for your referral to be processed.  Specialists generally let you know within 2 weeks if they are accepting the referral and will either call you or send you an email with an appointment date.  If you have not received an appointment time with the specialist within 1 month, please send us a message (using our secure encrypted email from this website). 

If you have an appointment with a specialist and do not attend, please be aware that missing an appointment with the specialist may result in a fee, plus if they agree to still see you, a longer wait time will occur.

If you are requesting to see a specialist out of town, please provide your physician with the pertinent information eg: proper spelling of the the specialist’s name, address, telephone number and fax number.  This expediates the referral process. 

What is the status of the referral to a specialist that my doctor made?
If the specialist does not hold clinic days at the Albany – generally, you should receive a notification from the specialist office within 3 weeks from the time the referral was sent.  Unfortunately, we do not control the time delay nor the actual appointment date with the specialist office as the scheduling is done on their end.  We don’t always get notified by the specialist office of the appointment date so please call the specialist office to ask them directly.  

If the specialist holds clinic days at the Albany – you can call our Booking Center and book the appointment with the Albany specialist if you didn’t book it on the day you got the referral from your family doctor.

I can’t remember the details about the referral to a specialist.  What should I do?
Please call the specialist office directly.

How do I reschedule a specialist appointment?
To avoid any miscommunication with the specialist’s office, please contact the specialist office directly to reschedule your appointment. Please message us to let us know the new date, as we track each appointment to ensure we receive the consult note after you have been seen.  

How do I cancel a specialist appointment?
Please contact the specialist’s office directly to cancel your appointments but before you cancel your appointment, please speak with your referring doctor first. As specialist appointments are difficult to secure, we want to make sure that cancelling the appointment is the best solution for you. Please email our office to let us know as we track each referral.

Children are not allowed in the examination room or unsupervised in the waiting area.

We do not provide childcare services while you are having your test.  We do not have the expertise to look after your child while you are having your study.  If you arrive for your appointment with a child that requires adult supervision, we will have to reschedule the appointment.

Ultrasounds – Your ultrasound examination requires your technologist to concentrate to get the best images possible.  Having a child in the room is disruptive to both you and the technologist and could result in a unsatisfactory examination.

X-rays & Mammograms – A child in the exam room is not an option since it would expose your child to unnecessary radiation contrary to the Healing Arts and Radiation Protection Act of the Province of Ontario.

Mask wearing is required for patients with respiratory symptoms – eg coughing, sneezing, sore throat. 

If you are experiencing these symptoms, please wear a mask into the Clinic and for the duration of your visit.  If you are not wearing a mask, upon check-in with our Receptionist team, you will given a mask and asked to wear it.  **For all other patients, mask wearing is not required.

Please note that the personal circumstances of your own family doctor, the Technologist or our Physiotherapy staff may require that you to wear a mask during your visit based on their assessment of respiratory risk.  Please also expect that your family doctor, the Technologist or Physiotherapy staff may wear a mask and even other PPE.

For all Patients: We are trying to balance the health of our physicians, staff and patients. If you are asked to mask, please take the mask and wear it – not just for your health but everyone in our Clinic.