When you are a new patient to our clinic, and you are prescribed opioid narcotic medications, the interval between visits is determined on a case-by-case basis but will be no longer than one-month intervals. Ultimately, the decision regarding medication management and visit intervals is a decision made by the Physician and Provider after considering the patient’s medications, health history, medical problems, overall level of health, other prescribed medications that may cause sedation, and the patient’s compliance and risk with medical therapy. Our clinic is also required to comply with Federal, State, and local laws and with State and Federal licensing boards. Some of the various agencies which are involved in the oversight of medication prescribing in the United States include: the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) and the New York State Medical Board. State of New York laws, Insurance Requirements, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Compliance monitoring requirements also play a role in determining the frequency of follow up appointments.If you are not receiving oral opioid narcotics as part of your chronic pain management regimen, then you follow-up intervals are completely individualized and based on the level of care you receive.

Many times, a procedure may be performed on the same date as a follow-up visit, however, this will depend on the requirements of your insurance company.

If you are prescribed opioid narcotic medications by our office, and are scheduled for surgery, please inform a provider here at one of your follow-up visits. To maintain consistency with opioid prescribers, it is part of our practice opioid agreement that once our office is prescribing opioid therapy, you agree not to pick-up any opioid narcotics from any other doctor. We prefer to work with your surgeon to determine the best possible pain control strategy for you and we will require written documentation of your intended upcoming surgery and date.

Urine drug screening is not necessary if we are not prescribing you opioid narcotic treatment. However, a baseline urine drug toxicology will be requested at your initial appointment so that opioid treatment can be considered in the future if required. If you are being prescribed opioid narcotics for the management of chronic pain, randomized urine drug toxicology’s are an essential part of compliance monitoring for patients who are being treated with controlled substances. This serves many purposes including meeting regulatory requirements by the federal government, insuring patient safety, assessing for aberrant behavior, and monitoring for the development of opioid use disorder. Please understand, we do not think you are misusing or abusing your medications. It is simply a requirement of the therapy. Our ability to prescribe controlled substances for pain management is a privilege afforded to us by authorities. Any UDS or other compliance monitoring should be considered as an opportunity to show us that you are taking your medications appropriately.

Urine drug screens are random. The time interval in between urine drug screens is different for everybody based on the risk of therapy, and the type and dosage of medication you are on.

We do not ‘disable’ any patients. We are not formally trained in functional or disability assessments. However, if you are filing for disability and your lawyer is requesting additional information from our office, we will gladly provide the necessary information.