You should schedule your first prenatal appointment as soon as you discover that you are pregnant. Early prenatal care is crucial to a healthy pregnancy.

Set aside time before and after your appointment

Make sure that when you are scheduling your acupuncture appointment that you are not engaged in too stressful an activity before or afterward. In addition, do not overbook yourself on the day of your appointment, as you want to be relaxed during the actual acupuncture treatment.

Bring a list of all your current medications and supplements

As a precaution, it is important to bring a list of all your current medications and supplements, particularly if herbs are a component of your treatment. This is because there are certain herb-drug interactions that can have harmful effects. MAOI’s or blood thinning medications, including Warfarin, may fall into this category.

Eat an appropriate amount before your appointment

Another rule to follow is to eat before your appointment. Most experts recommend that you eat something approximately two hours prior to your treatment. However, make sure this isn’t a big meal, as this may cause you to feel uncomfortable during your appointment. The other extreme should be avoided as well. You risk feeling lightheaded if you go to your appointment on an empty stomach.

Opt for loose-fitting, comfortable clothing

It is also important to wear loose-fitting clothes on the day of your appointment. This will make it easier for the acupuncturist to place the needles in the right places.

Avoid caffeine before your appointment 

Do not drink coffee for at least two hours before your acupuncture treatment. Because it is a stimulant, coffee increases your body’s fight-or-flight response, something which acupuncture seeks to lessen.

By law, wellness exams are typically covered 100% by your insurance company. To ensure that your wellness exam is covered at 100%, we schedule annual wellness exams following the guidelines set forth by most major insurance companies. These guidelines state that annual well-woman exams should be done no sooner than one year and one day after the previous annual wellness exam was done. Additionally, these guidelines state that wellness exams should be just that. Exams to promote wellness. Not visits to address problems. So what does this mean and why does it matter?

In short, medical complaints or problems cannot be addressed at an annual wellness visit. If you present with a problem or a complaint at an annual wellness visit you will be asked to make an appointment for a separate “problem” focused visit. While this may seem silly, there is a VERY good reason for this. Most insurers are required to pay for your annual wellness exam at 100%. However, if your annual “wellness” exam becomes something other than a “wellness” exam, they are not required to cover it or anything that may results from it at 100%. And this may mean that you will end up getting a pretty big bill. And because every healthcare provider that accepts medical insurance is required by law to use a nationwide coding system called CPT to document everything they discuss and treat during a visit, your insurance company’s computers will quickly realize that your annual “wellness” visit was something more than that. With this realization, they have an out that they can use to avoid their obligation to cover your “wellness” visit at 100%.

So if you have a medical problem or a complaint when you are calling to schedule your annual “wellness” visit, let us know and we will be more than happy to make two appointments for you on separate days. One will be an annual “wellness” appointment and the other a “problem” appointment.

If you are requesting copies of records from another physician to be sent to us, download this form:

Medical Records Release Form

If you are requesting copies of your records with us be sent to another party, download this form and fax it to 847-244-7122 (Patients in Illinois) or to 340-713-0335 (Patients in the U.S. Virgin Islands) :

Medical Records Release Form

We will provide you with a copy of your records after we receive a valid signed request. For patients in Illinois, there is a charge for copying records that complies with the State of Illinois fee schedule. We will inform you of these charges. Please allow a minimum of 72 hours to process your copy request.

We understand that on occasion patients may need a form completed by their provider (e.g. disability, FMLA, WIC, return to work form, etc.). We try to complete many of these requests immediately. We ask our patients to fill in as much information as possible before giving us the forms.  Please allow a minimum of 72 hours for forms to be completed.

Note: There may be a fee for processing some forms or for re-processing lost or incorrect forms.

In order for us to provide you with the best possible service please read our financial policy by clicking on the link listed below.

Download Financial Policy

In Illinois, emergency calls after hours should be made to 847-244-0222. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, emergency calls after hours should be made to 340-713-0330. After-hours calls will be forwarded to our answering service who will then page the physician on-call. A healthcare provider is on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for emergencies. Please note that requesting a medication refill, discussing a symptom or complaint that has been present for many days, questions about test results, or calls about scheduling matters are not considered an emergency and should wait until the office has reopened.

Requests for prescription refills will be processed Monday to Friday during normal business hours only. If you have been seen in our office in the past year and/or need a refill to get you through until your next appointment, please call your pharmacy and ask them to fax a refill authorization to our office. You do not need to call our office. Please allow a minimum of 72 hours to process your request.

It is the patient’s responsibility to provide our office with current contact information. Tests that are ordered by our providers are tracked in the office. You will be notified by phone or mail of abnormal results. It is our policy to not leave abnormal test results on a patient’s voice mail. Patients without follow-up appointments may not be notified of normal test results.  However, we strongly encourage all patients to register for our PATIENT PORTAL.  Through the portal, all test results, normal and abnormal, can be viewed by our patients.  Additionally, patients can ask questions about their results using the portal.

Patient confidentiality laws limit to whom we can release information. Please know that these laws are to protect you and your confidential health information. Thank you for your understanding and we apologize for any inconvenience.

We understand that there are times when you must miss an appointment due to emergencies or obligations for work or family. However, when you do not call to cancel an appointment within 24 hours of your appointment time, you may be preventing another patient from getting much-needed treatment. Conversely, the situation may arise where another patient fails to cancel and we are unable to schedule you for a visit, due to a seemingly “full” appointment book. If an appointment is not canceled at least 24 hours in advance you will be charged a thirty-five dollar ($35) fee; this will not be covered by your insurance company.

Self-pay patients with outstanding balances will be required to pay their account balances down to zero (0) prior to each visit.  All other patients with account balances over $100 will be required to make payment arrangements before future appointments can be made.  any patients with questions about a bill, their balance options for making a payment may speak with one of our billing representatives.

We accept most of the major insurance policies. Please see our insurance information here.

You can make an appointment even if you do not have medical insurance. You will be required to pay for your visit on the day of your appointment. Additionally, you will be responsible for paying the laboratory for any blood work or tests performed. If you do not have insurance, we are willing to work with you to ensure that your medical care will be affordable.

If you require medication refills, we request that you call the office during normal business hours (Monday through Friday). Please give the office 72-hours to process your refill request. Additionally, you may send a message to your provider through the patient portal.

Your medical provider will tell you at your appointment how you will receive your results. Depending on the nature of the testing, they may schedule a follow-up appointment to discuss your results and make a treatment plan. If your medical provider has not scheduled a follow-up appointment, they will either have a representative call you to discuss results, or they will send you the results through the patient portal.

If you have billing questions, please call the main office number and speak with the billing department.

There are a few things that you can do to prepare for your first visit. First of all, we ask you to complete your patient history online through the patient portal prior to the day of your appointment. We also ask that you come to the office 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment time. That will give you sufficient time to complete all registration paperwork. Please be sure to bring a copy of your medical insurance card as well as a current ID. If you have any pertinent medical records, please be sure to bring those with you as well.

If necessary, you can bring your child to your medical appointment. We ask, however, that they wear a facemask during this COVID-19 pandemic.

The majority of our staff are fluent in Spanish, and we have plenty of translators available for patients that only speak Spanish.

If you have emergency questions or concerns after the office closes, you can call the main office number (847-244-0222). There is a 24/7 answering service that will send the on-call doctor a message.

We understand that life happens and that from time to time, you might miss an appointment.  However, there is a very high demand for appointments and this makes each appointment slot highly sought after.  For this reason, we ask that if you need to reschedule your appointment, you call within 24-48 hours of your appointment to do that.  That gives us time to offer your appointment slot to another patient.  Because appointment slots are highly sought after, if an appointment is missed, or if an appointment is canceled less than 24 hours before the appointment time, you will be charged a $25 no-show fee.  Please also note that all no-show fees must be paid before future appointments can be scheduled.

Much like we don’t arrive at the airport for a flight at the flight’s departure time, we also ask that you do not arrive at the office for an appointment at your appointment time.  Much like when you travel, when you arrive for a medical appointment you need to check-in and complete paperwork.  Additionally, before seeing the healthcare provider for an appointment, you need to have vital signs taken and to be seen by an in-take nurse or medical assistant.  All of these steps take time.  The result, if patients arrive for their appointments at the actual appointment time, by the time check-in has been completed, paperwork has been done, vital signs have been taken and the in-take with the nurse of the medical assistant completed, the actual appointment time has passed.  So we ask that all patients arrive for their appointments at least 15 minutes before their scheduled appointment time.  We also ask that any patients who anticipate arriving to the office at or after their appointment time please call before coming to ensure that they can still be seen.