Our practice
At Child Health Associates, we are open and fully staffed Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We are also open evenings and weekends for urgent care visits only. We gladly accept newborns, children and adolescents to our practice. If you are an existing patient, we will continue to follow you until you have graduated college or are 22 years of age. We do not accept new patients over the age of fifteen.
On the following minor holidays, we are open for urgent care visits from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM
- Martin Luther King Day
- Presidents Day
- Patriots Day
- Columbus Day
- Veterans Day
We are closed on all major holidays.
Appointments
We realize that your time is valuable, and that it is inconvenient and irritating to wait for long periods of time to see the doctor. We are continuously trying to improve our appointment scheduling to minimize waiting times. In order to help us, we ask that you arrive 10 minutes prior to your appointment time to allow sufficient time for registration and completion of the required paperwork.
If you are unable to arrive for an appointment on time, please call the office and let us know. We will try our best to accommodate you, but we may have to reschedule your appointment.
If you need to cancel an appointment, please call the office 24 hours in advance.
If you plan on bringing a sibling along to be seen for an illness, please call to obtain an additional appointment for that child. If you call ahead, we can give you an appointment that will allow enough time to appropriately evaluate and treat your child. Parents who arrive with children without a scheduled appointment may be asked to return later in the day as schedules permit.
At your appointment, please check in with one of the receptionists upon arrival. Give us your child’s name and the name of the provider that you are scheduled to see. Please present your insurance card and allow our staff to verify your insurance, a picture ID, address and telephone number each time that you come into our office to ensure that our files remain current. A written, dated consent is required for any child under the age of 18 years to be seen without a legal guardian present. Appointments for sick children are scheduled throughout the day. Please call us as early as possible in the day if you would like your child seen.
Many illnesses cannot be diagnosed over the telephone and we will not prescribe antibiotics without first seeing your child.
It is a policy at CHA to book appointments in order. We may not book an appointment for the afternoon hours if we still have appointment availability in the morning.
Our evening and weekend hours are only booked on an as needed basis for Sick/Urgent Care visits. Our Sick/Urgent Care hours are intended to address the medical needs of our patients who need immediate care that cannot wait until our next regularly scheduled office hours. Please call by 11:00 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday and by 6:00 p.m. on Monday through Friday if you feel your child needs to be seen for an Urgent Care visit.
In order to treat the largest number of people we can in that limited timeframe, our triage nurses are available to take your calls beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings and we begin booking appointments at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Insurance
Child Health Associates accepts most major insurance plans. To be sure that we accept your plan please contact your insurance company directly.
- AETNA
- Allways
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Steward Health Care DPO Plan
- CIGNA
- CMSP(Childrens Medical Security Plan)
- Fallon Health Select Plan(*see not accepted plans)
- First Health-HCVM/CCN
- Great-West Healthcare/One Health
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Care(*see not accepted plans)
- Harvard Pilgrim Elevatehealth Options
- Health New England
- MultiPlan
- Private Healthcare Systems
- Steward Employee Choice EPO/POS(a Tufts product)
- Tricare(CHAMPUS)(*see not accepted plans)
- Tufts
- Tufts Health Together with Boston Childrens Hospital ACO (until 3/31/2023)
- Tufts Health Public Plans, Inc.(aka Network Health Plan)
- Tufts Health Direct Plan(aka Network Health Direct)
- Tufts Select Network
- Tufts Spirit Network
- Unicare
- United Healthcare
- Wellsense Health Plan Boston Childrens Hospital ACO (effective 4/1/2023)
- ALLways Select HMO/Value HMO
- ALLways Allies
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Steward Health Care EPO Plan
- Boston Medical Healthnet Plan
- Cigna's Local Plus Network
- Commonwealth Care through Mass Health
- Community Care through Fallon Health
- ConnectiCare HMO Insurance
- Connecticut Husky Plan (Connecticut State Insurance)
- Fallon 365 Care ACO
- Fallon Community Health Plan through Mass Health
- Fallon Direct
- Fallon Steward Community Care
- Fallon Total Care
- Harvard Pilgrim BMC Select
- Harvard Pilgrim Elevate HMO
- Health New England through Masshealth(Be Healthy Standard)
- HSN Free Care (Health Safety Network)
- Masshealth PCC
- Mass General Brigham Health Plan (aka Allways Health Plan)
- Medicare
- Oxford Health Plan HMO
- Tricare Prime
- Tufts Steward Community Choice
Our billing department submits all claims as a courtesy to commercial insurance companies. This is not a guarantee that our physicians are contracted providers.
Referrals
Patients who are members of an HMO or PPO must obtain approval from their primary care physician before seeing a specialist. An advanced notice of 72 hours is required for approval, except for emergency room visits. This allows us time to verify and submit the necessary documentation. Please note that if you arrive to the specialist without the necessary authorization you may be asked to reschedule and/or pay for the visit.
Any new patient must be seen in our office before a referral can be made.
Please contact our office at least 72 hours in advance of your specialist appointment and provide us with the specialists name and the date and time of your appointment.
If our office has scheduled a specialist appointment for you, we will also process the insurance referral. You are always welcome to contact our office to ensure that your referral and insurance authorization have been processed.
If you need assistance scheduling an appointment or would like to know which specialists we recommend, please feel free to contact our office to speak with our referral specialist.