Frequently Asked Questions
Can you be my primary doctor?
Healthy Sprouts and House Calls loves primary care doctors and wants to be a support to them! Healthy Sprouts and House Calls is an urgent care for pediatric patients in the convenience and comfort of home.
Patients should have a primary care physician of their own who knows them well, provides all well visits, most sick visits and immunizations. Healthy Sprouts and House Calls strongly believes in timely immunizations based on the recommended CDC childhood and adult immunization schedule. They are right up there with clean drinking water, car seats and seat belts as far as health maintenance!!!
Healthy Sprouts and House Calls is the best option when a child’s primary pediatrician or family practice doctor is not available, but an emergency department visit is not needed. Our urgent care visit record will be shared with your primary care pediatrician or family practice provider within 24 hours of the visit via a secure method to keep continuity of care. If it is felt that your child needs a timely follow-up within 24-48 hours, then a phone call will be made to the primary care doctor to schedule this follow-up appointment.
Do you give advice over the phone?
In general, healthy sprouts does not give advice over the phone. Healthy Sprouts and House Calls will chat with you after an appointment is requested, reviewing symptoms and their timeline. It might be that your child’s symptoms require a visit to the emergency department or is not appropriate for a home visit. In these situations, this advice will be given to you and your primary physician will be notified. Some common circumstances are not appropriate for a home visit and include the following: any infant less than 6 months with a fever, deformity of a an arm or a leg, an unimmunized child, significant breathing difficulty or excruciating belly pain. These examples are not all-inclusive and would be determined with each case.
We do offer a Mommy Advice appointment type that is self-pay for established patients only. These are for queries unrelated to a house call, but requiring guidance beyond Dr. Google.
Asynchronous photo sharing can supplement the visit. We triage these appointment requests to make sure they do not need a telehealth or in-person visit.
Examples include advice for stings and bites, how to manage a minor wound or repair a wound with over the counter skin adhesive, COVID-19 quarantine or isolation guidance or basic advice about eczema or rashes.
What areas do you serve?
Healthy Sprouts and House Calls’ Service Area is by zip code. We currently provide services in the following zip codes: 37660, 37664, 37663,Gray portion of 37615, 37617, 37642, 37645, 37604, 24290, 24251, and 24258.
We may be able to provide service outside of our zip code areas if availability allows.
If you live in Church Hill, Bristol, or Johnson City, Tennessee or if you live in Yuma, Nickelsville, or Hiltons, Virginia – then contact our text scheduler, and we will let you know if your request can be accommodated.
Do you refill prescriptions or call them in over the phone?
Healthy Sprouts and House Calls will send a prescription in electronically only after an in person history and physical examination of your child. Of course, if an oopsie or problem comes up with this electronically sent prescription, then we will take care of it. We do not prescribe controlled substances such as pain or ADHD medications.
How do I use health insurance for my home visit?
The insurers we currently accept can be found along the bottom banner of the home page. We also take self-pay and HSA payments for any insurance although if it is not one we currently accept, this payment will not apply to your deductible.
If Healthy Sprouts and House Calls accepts your insurance health plan, then a bill will be submitted to your insurance company. You will still be responsible for the 30$ convenience fee (not a co-pay, but a separately billable fee paying for drive time/fuel/lab drop-offs if applicable).
The convenience fee will be charged once the home visit is completed. It can be paid by credit card or Venmo.
Once we know what your insurance plan will pay for the visit, the remainder will be billed to you directly. You may receive our bill before an explanation of benefits. If you want to wait and confirm your explanation of benefits reaffirms our bill accuracy, please do. If you have not met your deductible, you will be responsible for this fee. Some types of insurance treat house calls like home health and apply it to your deductible rather than like an office visit co-pay. Even within a large national insurer, different employer insurance programs may handle this differently. If you have questions please ask your insurer.
For some, self pay fees may be a better option, however, these do not count toward your deductible. We waive the convenience fee for self-pay visits. If you choose self-pay, a bill and records will not be submitted to your insurance company. Your credit card or HSA card would be billed after the visit.
We accept payment by credit card, HSA debit card, debit card or Venmo.
If you want to space out payment of your bill on a monthly payment plan, please inquire.
Venmo: @healthysprouts
Will I have access to a record of my child’s visit?
Yes, you can sign up to access the patient portal for our electronic health record and request a copy of the visit. A copy will also be sent to your primary care physician within 24 hours of the visit. Please let us know if you want access to the patient portal and we will send a link.