Subspecialty Clinics – Consultative Rheumatology
- About our practice
- Our Physicians and Faculty
- Our Staff
- Gout Clinic
- Hours
- Scheduling an appointment
- Prescription Refills
- Insurance/Billing Information
- Patient Resources
- Address and Directions
About our practice:
The Johns Hopkins Consultative Rheumatology Clinic is staffed by board-certified rheumatologists who are all attending physicians and faculty members of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In addition, clinical fellows in rheumatology work in the clinic under the supervision of an attending physician. Clinical fellows are physicians who have completed three or more years of training in internal medicine and are now receiving 2-4 additional years of training as rheumatologists. They provide continuity care for patients in this practice during their tenure in our department. It is our mission to provide excellent clinical care while seeking to better define the causes, natural history, and best treatment approaches for rheumatologic diseases.
Meet Our Physicians and Faculty
- Alan Baer, M.D., Director
- Rheumatologist Carol Ziminski, M.D.
- Rheumatologist Jill Ratain, M.D.
- Rheumatologist Thomas Grader-Beck, M.D.
- Rheumatologist Homa Timlin, M.D.
- Rheumatologist Philip Seo, M.D.
Meet Our Part-time Physicians and Faculty
- Ira T. Fine, M.D.
- Howard Hauptman, M.D.
- Peter Holt, M.D.
- Iredell W. Iglehart, III, M.D.
- Andrea Marx, M.D.
- David McGinnis, M.D.
Meet Our Staff
Ambulatory Services Manager
- Don Mendell
Medical Office Coordinators
- Brittany Hale
- Angel Chambers
- Sharde Michie
Our medical office coordinators manage your referral to our clinic, the scheduling of your appointments, refilling of your prescriptions, and completion of medical disability forms. They also perform a large number of tasks inherent to a busy medical practice.
Gout Clinic
The Gout Clinic treats patients who have a known or suspected diagnosis of gout or pseudogout.
Office Hours
Our normal clinic hours are Monday – Friday 7:30am-5:00pm. Our normal phone hours are Monday – Friday 9:00 AM -4:00 PM.
Our Office is closed for the following Holidays:
- New Year’s Eve
- New Year’s Day
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day (July 4th when it falls on a regular business day, the Friday before when it falls on Saturday, or the Monday after when it falls on Sunday)
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Day after Thanksgiving
- Christmas Eve
- Christmas Day (December 25th when it falls on a regular business day, the Friday before when it falls on Saturday, or the Monday after when it falls on Sunday)
There may be other posted days that are closed due to divisional activities and/or professional development. That information will be provided on all divisional voicemails.
After-Hours, Weekends and Holidays Calls
- If you are experiencing a medical emergency after-hours, please call 911 or go to your nearest urgent care facility or emergency department.
- If your need is a medical management question that cannot wait until our next business day, we offer an On-Call Provider to help you. Our On-Call Provider may be paged by calling our answering service at 410-955-6070.
Inclement Weather and Unexpected Closings
- It is the policy of Johns Hopkins Medicine to reasonably maintain outpatient clinical operations; however, due to weather or other unexpected closings, such as an area-wide power outage or water main break, there may be times when it is necessary to close our office.
- Our closing notices will be provided for you via our voicemail recording and our staff will contact you if we are not able to keep your appointment, let you know what we are experiencing, and when we may be looking to reschedule your visit.
Appointments
New Patients:
The Johns Hopkins Division of Rheumatology cares for patients with a variety of rheumatic diseases, with sub-specialty care available for select diagnoses. Specifically, we have sub-specialty centers with expertise treating diagnoses of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, gout, scleroderma, myositis, Sjogren’s syndrome, vasculitis and lupus. Unfortunately, we do not currently have expertise in treating the following diagnoses:
- Chronic pain
- Chronic fatigue
- Peripheral neuropathy (alone)
- General back/neck pain (except suspected inflammatory back pain)
- Fibromyalgia
In order for your care to be matched to an appointment with an expert in the field of your diagnosis, it is necessary to have your records available to our physician reviewers prior to scheduling an appointment. Therefore, we ask that you have your referral and medical records faxed to 410-367-2371. It is important to include the following: a referral from your current physician, any clinical notes, imaging reports (including x-rays and MRIs), lab results, other tests results as applicable (such as pulmonary function tests echocardiograms, pathology reports, EMG/NCS results).
Once the review process has been completed, you will be contacted by one of our intake coordinators to assist with scheduling your appointment. You may also call the scheduling office at 443-997-1552 at any time to inquire as to the status of your record review.
For International patients, please contact Johns Hopkins International for initial and return patient appointments.
Unfortunately, our physicians cannot speak with or give medical advice to patients that are not currently under our care.
On the day of your scheduled appointment, it is important to:
- Arrive at least 30 minutes before your appointment to allow time for registration
- Bring your insurance card
- Bring a photo I.D.
- Bring your co-payment
- Bring a copy of name and address of all persons/doctors who would like to get copies of your visit materials
- Bring the following medical records if not already sent:
- All medical records relevant to your diagnosis (including rheumatology records, discharge summaries)
- List of all current medications (include all over-the-counter medications)
- Recent laboratory results
- Any imaging results (i.e., x-rays, ultrasounds, etc.)
- Pulmonary function tests (bring all test results)
- Echocardiogram (bring all test results)
- High resolution CT scan of lung (bring written report and copy of actual scan on CD-ROM disc)
Late, Canceled and No Show Appointments
Late: The appointment time scheduled for you is time specifically allotted for your visit. If you are running late for an appointment, please call our scheduling office. Please note if you are more than 15 minutes late for your scheduled appointment time, we may not be able to accommodate your visit.
Canceled / No Show: If you are unable to keep your appointment we require a minimum of 24 hours’ notice. If you repeatedly do not provide our office with 24 hours’ notice, you may be subject to be discharged from our practice.
Forms Completion
The only documentation regarding your health or illness required by law (and included in the office visit charge) is an office visit note. Completing paperwork for schools, camps, Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) claims, long-term care, life insurance, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and other disability claims go beyond routine medical care and may require an update of your medical information or a special examination. In order to make this determination, please forward your form(s) to our office prior to your scheduled visit. For those forms that can be completed outside of a clinical visit, please allow a minimum of 5 business days for your completed form to be returned to you.
Rescheduling Appointments and Cancellations
We schedule our appointments weeks in advance and are usually unable to reschedule on short notice. If you must reschedule, call us at 443-997-1552 as soon as possible. This will allow us to schedule another patient who is waiting to be seen
We look forward to participating in your care.
Prescription Refills
In order for our office to provide you with timely refills, please request your medication refills at least one week in advance. Refill requests may be made via a myChart message to your provider, calling our office, or by receiving a fax from your pharmacy.
Insurance / Billing Information
We are participating with the following insurance payors:
- Aetna Health Plan
- Beech Street PPO
- Blue Cross Blue Shield
- CareFirst BlueChoice HMO
- CIGNA
- Coventry Healthcare
- EHP
- First Health
- Great West/One Health PPO
- Humana Choicecare
- InforMed/CHP
- Kaiser
- MDIPA HMO
- Maryland Medical Assistance
- Medicare Part B*
- Multiplan PPO
- NCAS
- One Net PPO
- Optimum Choice HMO
- Priority Partners MCO
- Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
- Tricare Reserve Select
- Tricare Standard
- United Healthcare
- US Family Health Plan
*We do not participate with out-of-state Medicaid or Medicare Advantage/Replacement plans.
Copayments:
It is a good idea to check with your insurance to make sure you are covered for your visit and services with us. Please be prepared to pay your copay and any balance due at the time of your visit. We accept VISA, MASTERCARD, DISCOVER, AMERICAN EXPRESS, and CHECKS.
Non participating insurance/self-pay:
We realize that insurance may not always cover care at Johns Hopkins. With the exception of Medicare Advantage and Medicaid plans, patients may have the ability to pay out-of-pocket for non-covered services. Patients scheduled for new patient appointments are required to pay a $600 deposit at the time of service. Patients scheduled for return visits are required to pay a $289 deposit at the time of service.
Patient Resources
- National Institute of Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
- How to Give a Subcutaneous Injection
- American College of Rheumatology
- Rheum Info
Address and Directions
Dr. Jill Ratain will see patients at two Johns Hopkins Community Physicians locations:
Johns Hopkins Community Physicians
Green Spring Station, Pavilion I, Suite 460
10755 Falls Road
Lutherville, MD 21093
Johns Hopkins Community Physicians
4924 Campbell Boulevard, Suite 110
White Marsh, MD 21236
