Patients

Preparing for Your Visit

We recommend printing and completing the New Patient Form and appropriate Questionnaires Form for your follow-up visit. This reduces your waiting time in our office and allows you the convenience of completing the form in the comfort of your own home. The application form for your first visit provides us with valuable information. Even if it portions of the form seem unimportant or not related to your symptom please be very thorough as it is important for an accurate diagnosis.

Please do not assume that the medical information from your primary care physician or referral will provide us a detailed history of your disease and previous treatments. It is imperative that the form is accurate to also prevent unnecessary tests and to avoid ineffective therapies. Please bring your medications, previous labs, X-rays, MRI reports and actual images with you.

The new patient questionnaires will guide us to monitor your response to therapy and adjust the medications if it is necessary.

During your first visit your picture will be taken and your information will be entered into our Electronic Medical Record system. This will prevents errors due to similar names, date of birth, etc. It also serves as a memory aid while we talk to you over the phone.

Your consultation appointment with the doctor is usually between 35 to 50 minutes and follow-up visits between 20 to 25 minutes.

Patient Referrals

Patients can be referred by their physician or self-referred according to their insurance. We have see patients in both Pleasanton and Turlock, CA in Central Valley.

To make an appointment please call your closest office with your insurance information. We recommend that you call your insurance at least 24 hours before the day of your visit to make sure there have been no changes in your coverage. It is also recommended to find out if our office is considered “in network” or “out of network” by your insurance. “Out of network” may imply that your insurance does not cover your office visit in non-urgent cases and that you are financially responsible for the out of network expenses.

Patient Education

Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO

If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.

Ronald Coase, Economics, Nobel Prize Laureate

Torture the data, and it will confess to anything

Since the mid-1990s the internet has had a tremendous impact on our lives. We have instant communication by email, instant messaging, discussion forums, blogs, online shopping sites, etc. We have access to ever increasing amount of data but we run the risk to analyze the data incorrectly or accept an erroneous analysis.

As a part of his fellowship training, Dr. Sabahi and his colleagues had to present analytic discussion on newly published studies. They had to point out their flaws, strengths and impacts in the practice. They learned that not all studies are the same. For example in 2009 a paper was published connecting the chronic fatigue syndrome to an infection with a mouse virus known as XMRV. In 2010 another study reported murine virus pMLV in some patients. For 3 years more than 70 publications followed the original report. In Sep 2012 researches in NIH, CDC, and Columbia University announced that they did not find any evidence of XMTV or pMLV virus infections in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and address weakness of past research.

For that very reason, Dr. Sabahi strongly recommends to all of his patients to stay informed and up-to-date but limit your researches to reputable non-profit organizations. Dr. Sabahi has provided the following URLs just as a sample for your convenience.

Billing Information

We do not have in house billing. All billing questions or concerns are handled by a reputable and experienced third Party Company, MDRX enterprises.

All patients must read and sign the financial statement before being seen in our office. A copy of this statement can be downloaded by

Please let us know if there is any change in your insurance before any visit. It is your responsibility to provide us with accurate up-to-date information.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The waiting time in our office is usually 25-30 minutes. We do our best to minimize waiting times in our office by allocating adequate time for each patient, but at times you might wait longer due to unforeseen events such as the need to talk to family members or referring physicians. In office procedures can also contribute to extended waiting times. You can help us to reduce the waiting time in our office by following a few simple guidelines.

In your follow-up visit, if the ordered labs or imaging are not available, we have to reschedule you. A good rule of thumb is to do the diagnostic studies one week before your follow up visit.

All follow-up patients are scheduled in 25-30 minutes intervals and your follow-up visit with Dr. Sabahi will range between 20-25 minutes. We encourage you to ask questions during your visit in order to make an informed decision, but please be aware of other patient’s time. We might not be able to address all of your concerns in one session.

If you are scheduled as an “urgent add on visit”, please note that you are being added between other scheduled patients. It is likely that your waiting time will be considerably longer than normal.

If you need to cancel an appointment, please call 2 business days before your appointment. For example, if your appointment is on Tuesday please call the Friday before to cancel. This allows us time to schedule another patient that needs to be seen earlier and you will avoid the no show fee.

We will return your telephone call within 48 business hours for regular calls and within 24 business hours if it is considered urgent by Dr. Sabahi.

We will not be able to discuss your condition with your relatives over the phone to protect your privacy.

We cannot discuss complicated lab results with you over the phone or by email. We cannot provide a diagnosis or change your therapeutic regime by phone or email. This is to prevent misunderstandings, undue stress, and medical errors. Labs and images should be interpreted in a clinical context. We can only fax or email you lab results if you have signed the necessary authorization form in our office.

If you have an HMO, we cannot refer you to any other physician. You will be required by your insurance provider to go to certain laboratories and imaging centers. Almost every procedure and all follow-up visits will need to be authorized. This means extra waiting time.

Some insurance carriers have preferred medication lists or preferred pharmacies. At times we may need to get authorization for MRIs or certain medications. Biologic medications almost always need preapproval. Your insurance might reject the requested medication or procedure. In that case we might choose to appeal the decision or accept it. The approximate time for approval authorization at times might take up to 15 business days.

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