Frequently Asked Questions

What is Internal Medicine?
Internal Medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. These physicians are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes.
If I am a new patient what should I bring to my first office visit?
We ask all of our new patients to arrive to their appointment ten minutes early to allow time to complete our new patient packet. Please have your current insurance cards available for us to copy, as well as a picture id. We photocopy picture Id‘s for security and privacy purposes. Please bring a list of all current medications so we are able to copy and record this list into our files. If you are a new patient to our office and are transferring from another Physician we ask that you allow 15 business days for their office to transfer records to our office. We can obtain records one of two ways from your previous physician, you can call your previous physicians office and request records be sent to our office via fax or mail, or you can sign a release with our medical records department and we can fax your request to your previous physician. Please remember that if there is a co-payment with your insurance company we will collect this amount at the time of service.
What is the office phone policy?

Our phone hours begin at 8:30 am to 11:30 am, and 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm, Monday Thru Friday. Our automated phone system will route your call to the appropriate staff member.  All patient call backs are done in between patients (as the schedule permits) at the end of the day, or in rare cases the following business day.

Are your physicians available after hours for emergency purposes?
Yes, one of our in office providers is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We have a professional answering service available after hours that will direct your call to our on call Physician. For non-emergency purposes we do have a voicemail that allows patients to leave detailed messages during non working hours.
What should I do if I have to cancel my appointment?

If you have to cancel an appointment, please call us at (559) 437-9100, 24 hours prior to your appointment. We understand that you may not be able to give us 24 hours before the appointment so please call the morning of the appointment and leave a message on our answering machine. Because we know how busy life can get we understand some appointments may go forgotten and missed. We do charge a $100 no show fee, since that time slot would be lost for other patient appointments. Our front office staff will also call you the morning/afternoon of your missed appointment in attempt to re-schedule according to your convenience. We strive to go above and beyond for our patients, and in turn ask for your courtesy and cooperation with our policies.

What type of insurance does our office accept?

Please contact our office in regard to the types of insurance we accept.

What hospital do our Physicians prefer?
Because our providers have privileges at both Community hospitals and St. Agnes, our office firmly believes that the patients should choose where they are most comfortable going. We have on line access to Community Regional Center, Clovis Community Hospital, and St. Agnes Medical Center, and are able to obtain medical records through our compatible software.
Does our office perform skin checks and perform skin biopsies?
Our office strives to provide our patients with comprehensive care, if our providers detect a worrisome skin lesion or mole, we will often recommend a skin biopsy. Biopsies can be performed during your routine visit if the schedule permits, If more time is requested, a procedure can be scheduled for the near future.
Do you provide well-woman services?
Dr. Amber K. Mahal provides a variety of well women services including, pap smears, pelvic exams, breast examinations, gardasil vaccinations, and pregnancy tests. Please understand this is not a full list of our female services.
What ultrasound scans can be performed in our office?
For the convenience of our patients, we have decided to offer a variety of ultrasound scans here in the comfort of our own facility. Having the scans in our office will allow the scheduling process to be expedited, but also will allow us to have your results read in house, getting the results much faster. The ultrasound scans we provide include, carotid (vascular), thyroid, abdomen, pelvis (not transvaginal), and small parts (growths & masses).