Healthcare is best delivered when the right patient is matched with the right physician
This matching does not have to happen by accident if expectations are known
9 questions patients should ask doctors:
What is this going to cost me?
-Dr. Jogi has has a self pay fee schedule for appointments and labs for patients without insurance, otherwise insured patients will be charged their contracted rates which he would not know off the top of his head but patients can contact the billing department via patient portal for details
Did you wash your hands?
-YES! in office visits, Dr. Jogi washes his hands and has not desired to shake patient hands since 2014
Can I have a virtual visit with you?
-YES! New and established patients are allowed tele-visits.
Am I going to be safe?
-Dr. Jogi will try his best to keep you safe from the medical-big food-pharmaceutical-insurance industrial complex.
Do you have any conflicts of interests for your referrals or orders?
-Dr. Jogi has no allegiances to any hospital or medical group or imaging center or lab location. He will select what is best for the patient. Of note, his wife is a dermatologist that owns Village Dermatology and that may be considered a conflict as he thinks his wife Dr. Reena Jogi and those that she has hired and mentored in her group are excellent: specifically Dr. Caroline Vaughn and Dr. Ashley Baldree
Who is going to coordinate my care?
-Dr. Jogi can endocrine-specific advice and coordination, but he does require all patients have a primary care doctor (PCP) as he cannot function as a PCP
Is this treatment or procedure necessary?
-Dr. Jogi will review all your alternatives if there are any. Please ask him this question
Are you experienced?
-Dr. Jogi completed his endocrine training in 2009 and has a lot of interest and experience in these disorders: Thyroid disease of all kinds, Type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus, hyperparathyroidism and calcium disorders, congenital adrenal hyperplasia. He can also treat but has less of an interest in low testosterone in men, osteoporosis, adrenal diseases, and pituitary diseases. He has little to no experience in transgender medicine or female hormone replacement (menopause) so he can give excellent referrals.
Can we talk about the end?
-Dr. Jogi would love to discuss the end point of all conditions and what the path to get there will look like for the patient
Do you have any clinic rules or policies that will make the experience better?
-Dr. Jogi agrees with the statement "expectation is the mother of all frustration", therefore he has created a clear set of policies to guard against frustration.
No Jerk Policy
Dr. Jogi runs an office where he expects mutual respect among staff and patients. Patients should expect to follow the below rules
There are two specific tests:
After encountering the person, do people feel oppressed, humiliated or otherwise worse about themselves?
Does the person target people who are less powerful than him/her?
The below behaviors are not tolerated:
NOTE- Dr. Jogi will tell all patients when they should follow up again with him. Best practice is to schedule all appointments as soon as you can. Reminders will be made via portal and SMS only if an appointment is scheduled.
Communication with Dr. Jogi
In order to provide excellent responses to your questions, Dr. Jogi requires his patients to communicate with the office in written-form only.
(1) Portal messages:
The patient will receive an email alert that there is a portal message so make sure these messages from " no-reply@eclinicalmail.com "are not going to a spam folder. Please use a subject title that summarizes the content of the body. The location of portal is http://www.houstonendocrine.com/patientportal If patient is post-operative or newly pregnant please put that information into the subject line. Use of the patient portal is expected for all Dr. Jogi patients. The doctor will generally only respond directly to portal messages within a 30 day window after the last follow up office or tele-visit with him or within 5 days of an upcoming visit with him (which does not substitute for the visit). The turn around time for this message is usually within 10 business days. Outside of this 30 day window, non-procedural patient portal (clinical or interpretation of lab results) messages will be directed to the scheduling department so that a tele-visit or office visit can be set up to answer questions. See the "lab and imaging policy" regarding interpretation of results.
(2) Faxes:
Fax to 713.795.0855 with title "Communication to Dr. Jogi" (14-30 day turn around)
(3) Upload a document
Give the title "Communication to Dr. Jogi" at http://www.houstonendocrine.com/submit-records (7-14 day turn around)
(4) Letters
Mail to 23920 Katy Freeway, Suite 500. Katy TX 77094. Attention ""Communication to Dr. Jogi" (3-6 week turn around )
Emergencies and urgent communication will generally require a visit to the emergency room.
Dr. Jogi's only methods of communication towards patients are patient portal messages. Rarely he may send certified mailed letters when patients are discharged from the clinic. Read below to find the 3 most common reasons why a patient may be dismissed from the clinic.
Primary Care Doctors are required
All patients seeing Dr. Jogi must have a separate primary care doctor. Dr. Jogi does not provide primary care services.
Insurance Verification
Before your first visit we may perform a complimentary insurance benefit verification designed to help you better understand what can and cannot be billed to your insurance company. Please note that some patients will require a PCP referral based on the type of insurance. You can contact our billing department via patient portal. Once we have investigated your benefits, our billing department may contact you via SMS or portal and explain what we have learned. Although we make the best attempt to obtain accurate information from your insurance company, there will be times when the information we are provided conflicts with how the insurance company processes the claims. Therefore, we cannot accept liability for inaccurate information and encourage you to verify our findings with your health plan or employer. We might not be able to give you detailed information about what you may owe until you arrive for your appointment.
New Patients- Videos & Homework
The online Jogi Specific New Patient Packet must be completed in order to schedule an appointment. Almost all new patients will receive specific home work messages via portal with instructions, homework, and videos created by Dr. Jogi. He expects patients to read through the patient portal messages, watch the videos prior to visits, and be prepared for the visit with questions and concerns after the videos are watched. Specific older records depending on the diagnosis or symptom will be required to be sent prior ahead of visits. SMS messages are sent as reminders but do not serve as the portal. Dr. Jogi does not make phone call visits for any patients as either in-person or virtual secure video visits are the best ways to communicate with him. He expects continual learning from his patients, so start reading.
Established Patients- Videos and RSVP Messaging
Established patients are expected to make appointments to review their concerns and a few days prior to each visit Dr. Jogi will send messages via portal requesting what symptoms or issues are on the patient's mind. Care is not delivered by portal messaging but can begin here. Please note that Patient Portal is the PRIMARY method of communication with Dr. Jogi and he will send messages via patient portal. Please do not let the email alerts go to your spam. Tele-visit virtual appointments are encouraged and if done, required vitals signs with an arm (not wrist) blood pressure cuff, he recommends the Omron brand. Also weights from patients are required. Nurse office visits or in person visits with the doctor may be required at times per discretion of the doctor.
Lab and Imaging policy
If a patient completes imaging and/ or blood orders under the doctor's name, then a follow up tele-visit or office visit appointment is required to obtain an interpretation of the results. The doctor is liable for all results and will only interpret them with a patient directly unless specifically told to the patient at a visit that a schedule paid-$15-portal-message is made (very rare). The doctor will not give an interpretation of results via patient portal, phone call, or via a medical assistant. Failure by patients to follow up (with multiple unanswered portal messages to schedule an appointment) after any lab or imaging tests are completed using his orders is the second most common reason patients are dismissed from his clinic.
New patients: orders are given at the first visit and then there is an expectation of a follow up visit to discuss results together.
Follow up patients: if lab testing is required, the patient must complete the blood testing 10-15 days prior to an upcoming visit so the results can be discussed. If not completed, then another scheduled appointment will be made to discuss results.
1. We should provide you with a paper copy of all lab and imaging orders at the end of your visit in-office or send an SMS with attachment of a copy for you to print out. Patients are expected to retain a copy of these orders. A paper print-out may be required at the lab.
2. We will provide a one-time electronic submission of your lab orders at the time of your office visit and give you a paper copy of the order.
3. If you do not have the paper copy when you go to the lab, you must come to the office to pick up a paper copy of your orders or request a secure SMS delivery of the orders (2 day turn around). We will not submit orders by fax to any location. We do not mail orders.
4. We are not responsible for obtaining lab results ordered by a different office since these orders may be done under a different doctor name. If they are not in your chart at the time of your visit then you will be responsible to obtain them for our clinic
5. Self-pay patients can refer to our self pay fee schedule for appointments and labs for affordable lab fee rates which are available by contacting the front desk for payment. A pre-paid lab slip for labcorp will then be given to the patient.
6. If your lab order was created more than 6 months ago then it may be expunged from the lab systems so you will need to have a copy of the lab order in hand. You will need to contact our office to "refresh your lab orders" and/or get a copy of the lab slip (e)mailed to you.
7. A patient may be discharged for noncompliance with the imaging and lab policy and here are some examples that have come up:
The patient completes labs and thinks they are fine with no abnormal ranges, then decides not to schedule an upcoming visit. Normal ranges are not the interpretation of the doctor and do not mean that everything is "normal" for all endocrine conditions because the lab or imaging company does not know the full medical history and cannot provide medical advice.
The patient completes labs and expects the doctor to send a patient portal message or phone call with any abnormal results or assumes that no contact from the office means everything is fine with the results.
The patient is upset that an appointment is required to discuss completed results because they have interpreted the results as normal or un-concerning and then violates the no-jerk policy via messaging or during a doctor visit.
Reasonable possible solutions which can be chosen by the patient for each above example:
The patient should come for an office or tele-visit for an interpretation from the doctor
The patient responds via portal letting the doctor know in writing: " I release the doctor of all responsibility of the the results and I will follow up with my primary care doctor to get medical advice and interpretation of the results".
Blood lab facilities:
LABCORP:
QUEST:
Find a Quest lab location
ANY OTHER LAB NOT LISTED ABOVE:
If you use another lab such as your primary care doctor's lab or a hospital lab, then you must TAKE A PAPER COPY OF THE LAB ORDER SLIP
We recommend you personally bring your results with you to your visit since we will not have access to those results and they might not fax results in time.
We are not responsible for getting your lab results to our office if ordered under another doctor's name
Imaging Tests/Treatment Facilities:
When your doctor orders an imaging test, you will usually be given a specific location to complete your testing. Please review the instructions given to you when you left your clinic appointment.
The usual locations we ask patients to visit are:
Houston Medical Imaging
Memorial Hermann
https://www.memorialhermann.org/services/specialties/imaging
Baylor clinic
https://www.bcm.edu/healthcare/specialties/radiology-and-diagnostics
Methodist hospital
https://www.houstonmethodist.org/imaging-radiology/for-patients/
https://greenimaging.net/
St Lukes' Hospital
https://www.stlukeshealth.org/services-specialties/imaging-diagnostic-procedures
For Bone Density orders:
Please use the same facility as previously used, otherwise results cannot be compared to previous results. If no previous BMD has been done then Dr. Jogi can only recommend Memorial Hermann Katy and Memorial Hermann Upper Kirby location and Solis Imaging. Bring a DVD copy of the raw data results to our clinic.
For ovarian ultrasounds:
He recommends the TCH Women's Pavillion in the Medical Center.
For Thyroid ultrasounds:
Dr. Jogi performs these himself on a regular basis. Otherwise he can order at an above location if needed
Refill Policy
Appointments will be needed to continue to receive refills from the doctors. How often the appointments are required is determined by the doctor. Refills will not be denied unless a patients has been dismissed from the clinic. Refills requests are taken from the pharmacy or from patient portal messaging or at a visit. Please give adequate notice that a refill is needed because they will not be given on weekends. Failure by patients to follow up (with multiple unanswered portal messages to schedule an appointment) after missing appointment-expectations-for-refills is the third most common reason patients are dismissed from his clinic.
No Show Fee Policy
Our goal here at Houston Thyroid and Endocrine, PLLC is to provide quality service to all of our clients in a timely manner. Failure to keep scheduled appointments (“no-show”) is costly to the clinic and you. Patients who are unable to keep their appointments are requested to give more than 1 business day notice prior to their appointments. We realize this is not always possible and the practice will consider each individual case. Providing such notice allows the clinic time to offer other persons the opportunity to see our providers, thus using the time more efficiently. Please also try not to be late to your appointment.
• If an established patient fails to provide notice of a cancellation of their appointment, a $50 fee will be billed to his/her account for each missed appointment
• If a new patient fails to show twice they will incur a $50 no show fee. A third missed visit will result in discharge from the clinic
Failure by patients to follow up (with multiple unanswered portal messages to schedule an appointment) after missing appointments is the most common reason patients are dismissed from his clinic.