Welcome Letter

 Our Mission Statement ~ Internal Medicine & Pediatrics of Tampa Bay provides the highest quality of medical care to the families of Westchase and the surrounding communities. Our doctors are uniquely trained in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. They are specialists for both children and adults. They are dedicated to providing the most complete, detailed, and personable care to family members of all ages.

Welcome to our office – We are very pleased that you have chosen to join our family here at Internal Medicine & Pediatrics of Tampa Bay.  We are a very unique office because we are the first and only “Med-Peds” Doctor’s Office in the Westchase, Citrus Park and Town & Country area of Tampa, Florida.  Doctor’s Mark Bilella MD,  Frank Demery MD, are dual board certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics – “Med-Peds”. Karen Ackley, M.D. is board certified in pediatrics. Tera Ritchie MS, APRN, FNP-C and Kristen Gross MD, APRN, FNP-C are board certified as a family nurse practitioners.  This means that each one of our providers can treat your whole family – from newborn babies through adulthood.  We look forward to working together with you to maintain your health and treat any illnesses.

Our Office Hours:  Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Our Location: 10111 Wilsky Blvd. | Tampa, FL 33625 – Map & Directions

Phone: 813-961-2222

In addition to our regular office hours, our doctors provide 24 hours of on-call coverage for urgent medical issues. This allows our patients to receive convenient access to a medical doctor for after-hour urgent issues 24 hours a day.

Scheduling Appointments:

• To schedule an appointment please call our office at 813-961-2222 ext 0 and our caring staff will be happy to assist you.  You may also send a request for an appointment using your patient portal account.
• We do have “same day” sick appointments available for those times you or your child are ill and need to be seen urgently.  Please note: “same day” does not mean “walk-ins”.  If you wish to be seen on the same day you must always call ahead.  For a “same day” sick visit, it may be necessary to see another physician within the group if your regular physician is not available.
• We will make every effort to confirm your appointment 1 business day prior, however, please mark your calendar with the date and time of your appointment.
• If you have scheduled an appointment and cannot keep it, please call us at least 1 business day in advance so we may offer that appointment slot to someone else.   Excessive abuse of missed appointments without prior notice may result in a missed appointment charge of $35.00 and/or dismissal from the practice.
• Scheduling of multiple family members – each will be scheduled in an individual appointment slot so the physician will have time to address their needs.  We will make every attempt to schedule family members in consecutive appointment slots.  However, we request that you schedule no more than 2 family members at the same time.

Office Services:

• Triage – Answers to your non-urgent medical questions can be addressed by one of our medically trained staff members during normal business hours. You can also send your non-urgent medical question through the patient portal.
• Lab – Generally all blood draw occurs during your office visit as ordered by your physician.    Results of all labs may be called to you within 5-10 business days or transmitted directly to you through the patient portal, if you have not received your results within this time frame, please send us a message using the patient portal or call us.  You may also be asked to schedule an appointment to discuss the results with your physician in person.  If you are given a lab slip prior to your office visit with your physician, you may be required to schedule an appointment to discuss those results with your physician.
• Referrals and Radiology Test Authorizations – Referral or Authorization services are provided only during normal business hours.  Processing of Referral and/or Authorization could take 3-5 business days.  You may be asked to reschedule your appointment with your specialist and/or the facility if your request has not been received timely.
• Prescription Refills – Prescription refill request will not be processed after our normal business hours.  Also, refills will not be filled by the on-call physician after hours, weekends and Holidays. We require 72 hours for your prescription refill request to be completed.  To help expedite your refill request, please have your pharmacy send us a prescription refill request electronically or you may send your request using the patient portal.
• Patient Portal–   We highly recommend all patients to sign up for a patient portal account.  The patient portal provides a secure and safe way to communicate with our office.
• Medical Records – Our medical records department will request your medical records from your previous physician, however, you must sign an “Authorization to Release Medical Records” allowing us to receive these records.  This form will be provided to you by our office at the time of your appointment.  You can also download the form our website.  Any records requested to be copied for personal use will have a charge of – $1.00 per page up to 25 pages then $.25 per page, postage is additional.
• HIPAA – Confidentiality is important to you as a patient and we are committed to following all HIPAA guidelines.  Records, test results, health and other personal information cannot be released to anyone besides the patient or guardian without prior written authorization.  If you wish to authorize us to release or discuss your health information with someone other than yourself or guardian, please complete the “Consent for Release of Medical Information” section of our new patient form.

• Living Will – This documents your directives as to life support.  If you have executed a Living Will please bring a copy so we may place this in your medical record.
• Co-Pays – The patient portion due for physician services per insurance contract.  This amount will be due at time of service, we accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, check or cash.  A $35.00 service fee will be charged to your account for all bounced checks.
• Insurance submission – As a courtesy we will submit most insurance claims and bill the patient and/or responsible party for any non-covered or patient portion due.  Payment is due upon receipt of the bill.  If you have a question regarding your bill, please call our billing department directly by calling 813-422-6316.
• Form Completion Charge – FMLA forms require a completion charge of $35.00 per form or an optional office visit to complete the form with the physician.  This charge covers the time involved for the physician to review necessary information and complete these forms.

Please note: We do NOT fill out Short or Long Term Disability forms or Workman’s Comp forms. Also School forms and sports physical forms are exempt from any charge or fee.

After Hour Services – Our doctors provide 24 hour on-call coverage for urgent medical issues.  Non-urgent issues and prescription refills will not be addressed by the on-call physician.

Controlled Medicine Office Policies:

• A controlled substance agreement must be signed by patient or legal guardian for certain controlled medicines. A copy of this agreement will be provided to the patient and/or legal guardian upon request.
• Prescriptions written for Narcotics, Pain and ADHD medicines must be signed for upon receipt of prescription and cannot be mailed. In some cases, these controlled substances can be electronically transmitted to the pharmacy of your choice.  Please speak with your pharmacist, to confirm that they accept electronic prescriptions for controlled substances prior to requesting your doctor to transmit your prescription to the pharmacy.
• ADHD prescriptions will require an office visit with your physician every 3 months. Please note our office will only prescribe a 30 day prescription of ADHD medicine at a time.
• Lost, stolen or accidental spillage of your controlled medicines will at not be renewed or reissued.
• Refills for all medicines, including controlled substances will be at the doctor’s discretion at the time of each office visit and will not be refilled at any time by phone during weekday nights or weekends.