Clinic For Rheumatic Diseases

Rheumatology

Welcome!

Welcome to the Clinic for Rheumatic Diseases, where your care is our top priority. Here at CRD we pride ourselves in collaborative medicine and treatments that aid our patients to the best of our abilities. We provide efficient, knowledgeable care to our patients. We accept most major insurances. For more information regarding insurances accepted, please contact our front desk at 205-750-0030.

CRD was founded in 2003 and continues to serve patients from West Alabama and East Mississippi. Some of our specialties include arthritis and osteoporosis treatments. To learn more about our partners, please refer to the Our Partners tab. On our Forms and Referrals tab, there are referral instructions for providers and online payment options. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Services

CRD provides a broad array of in-clinic services, including:

Digital Radiograph/XRay
Musculoskeletal Ultrasound
DXA (bone density)
Complex Laboratory Services

ATTENTION RHEUMATOLOGY PATIENTS:

Our physicians are the only board-certified rheumatologists in West Alabama. Additionally. Dr. Jones is one of only a few rheumatologists in this state who treats children. Our physicians are strongly committed to caring for all patients who need specialty treatment of rheumatologic conditions. In order to meet the high demand for these services, it is necessary that our patients respect the following policies:

We are not able to serve as a primary care provider. We will not be able to manage or treat conditions not related to your rheumatologic condition. Our office will be happy to assist you in obtaining a primary care physician if needed.
We will no longer manage chronic pain and chronic noninflammatory spinal conditions. We would be happy to assist you with an appointment with a pain management physician.
Our practice employs nurse practitioners to assist our physicians with patient visits. They are all certified nurse practitioners that our physicians have trained extensively in the assessment and treatment of rheumatologic conditions. They regularly attend medical seminars on various topics in the rheumatology specialty. Our physicians have the utmost trust in their knowledge and judgement in treating our patients. In order for us to have sufficient appointment slots to recheck patients at the frequency necessary, you may not see a physician each time that you come. However, our physicians are always available to the nurse practitioners for consultation regarding your care.

Thank you so much for your patients and understanding.

Sincerely, our staff at Clinic for Rheumatic Diseases

Policy and Procedures

New Patients

The Physicians and staff at Clinic for Rheumatic Diseases are excited about having you as a new patient. In order for your visit to go smoothly, please make sure you fill out all of the paperwork through the link that will be texted to in advance of your appointment. Please arrive 30 minutes before your appointment time You will need to bring your photo ID, insurance cards, and any medication you may be taking currently.

Reminders

Our office will send a reminder text of your upcoming appointment. If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, please notify us 24-48 hours in advance so that we may offer that appointment slot to another patient. Patients who "No Call/No Show" for their scheduled appointment will incur a $50.00 No Show Fee. Please be advised that patients who are late may be asked to reschedule.

Insurance

Please inform our office immediately if your insurance or personal information changes. Insurance rules on timely filing of claims have changed, so we need to get your claim completed as soon as possible. Insurance co-pays are due at the time of service. We accept cash, personal checks, and most major credit cards and debit cards. When you receive a bill, we expect it to be paid in full within 30 days. If you are having financial hardship and need assistance in this area, please call our office at 205-464-4705.

Returned Checks

If your bank returns your check, we will charge your account $30.00 plus the amount of the returned check. We do not process returned checks back through the bank.

Prescriptions

Patients should request medication refills at the time of his/her appointment. If you need to have a maintenance prescription called in to a pharmacy, please allow 2 business days. Refills for some prescriptions may require an office visit or lab work. Narcotics CAN NOT be called in and there is a $10.00 charge for narcotic prescriptions not written at the time of visit. All narcotics require a written prescription and will not be filled during non-business hours, including nights, weekends, and holidays.

Medical Records

Federal law requires our office to keep medical records on each of our patients. All medical records kept in our office are the property of our office. A patient may request a copy of his/her records at any time, please allow up to 7 days to complete the request. Alabama law allows us to charge a fee for copying records.

$1.00 per page for pages 1-25

$.50 per page for pages 26 and greater

$5.00 retrieval fee

$5.00 imaging disk

There is no fee to have your records sent to another physician at the physician's request, accompanied by a signed Authorization to Release Medical Records.

Disability-Insurance-Letters

If you have been a patient for less than one year, Clinic for Rheumatic Diseases reserves the right to decline completion of any form. The majority of patients seen in our office require treatment by the means of medications and it takes at least three months to see any improvement, therefore our physicians cannot adequately answer questions on disability forms until we can determine if different treatment options will work. When needing a form filled out by our office, be sure and sign your part of the form first. We cannot finalize incomplete forms. Please allow 30-60 days for the forms to be completed.

The fees for completion of forms are as follows:

$25.00 FMLA

$40.00 Disability forms

$25.00 Letters and other forms

$5.00 Handicap form

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Hours of Operation

Monday-Thursday: 8am to 5pm

Closed on the following holidays:

Martin Luther King JR Day
Memorial Day
Juneteenth
Fourth of July
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
New Years Day

4280 Watermelon RD Suite 112

Northport AL, 35473

Phone: 205-750-0030

Fax: 205-750-0855

Email: crd_message@hotmail.com