The Clinical Office for Orchard Health Care

The clinical office is where you normally see Dr. Kanner for medical care. Our address is:

210 Bear Hill Road, Suite 304
Waltham, MA 02451

Nurse Jean Geller and medical assistant Michelle Riley make up the clinical support staff. Patricia (Trish) Ball is our office manager and Susanna Engrassia is the member coordinator.

Office Hours

The office and our phone lines open by 8:15 a.m. and close at 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday. The staff meet and lunch together from 12:45 to 1:30 p.m. daily. During lunch messages may be left for administrative or clinical staff, but urgent phone calls can be patched through if required by the answering service to reach Dr. Kanner during that time. The office is closed weekends and major holidays. Dr. Kanner is always accessible by phone when the office is closed. If Dr. Kanner is away, his covering physician is readily available.

Patient Care Hours

Office visits are scheduled Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. ending at 3:30 p.m., and Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. ending at 12:30 p.m. However, Dr. Kanner will see patients for urgent (and nonurgent) problems outside those hours as required. If you call with an urgent problem any morning when the office is open, you will be seen that day. Dr. Kanner will determine what best to do for you in other circumstances.

Laboratory and Imaging Services

We currently use the Newton-Wellesley Hospital laboratory facilities for most required blood work. They include a lab station at Mass General West just up the street from our office as well as in Weston center and in the Children’s Hospital Waltham facility. Additionally, Quest labs has a station at Hope Ave in Waltham, as well as many facilities around the state. Our staff can inform you of the various labs’ hours of operation as well as alternatives that should be convenient to you.

Similarly, we arrange X-rays, MRIs, CT scans and other such tests at any of the various Beth Israel, Newton-Wellesley, Mass General, or independent imaging facilities that are appropriate for the required test, able to give us prompt electronic reports, and are most accessible and timely for your needs.

Telephoning Dr. Kanner

To phone Dr. Kanner on any medical matter, including urgent situations, call the clinical office phone, (781) 684-0600. If the office is closed, nonurgent messages may be left on voice mail or you can easily contact the answering service within a few rings. The service will contact Dr. Kanner promptly.

In the rare event of failure of the phone system in our office or at the answering service so your call is unanswered, and you urgently need to speak to Dr. Kanner, call his cell phone, (617) 967-1500. However, he sometimes is (as we all are) in areas with poor cell reception, in which case he keeps in landline communication with the answering service. So please first try the clinical office phone (781) 684-0600.

E-mailing the Office Staff or Dr. Kanner

adminOHC@orchardhealthcare.com: For appointments, referrals, billing issues and so forth, use this e-mail. Either Trish or Susanna will handle the problem or further help as needed:

trish@orchardhealthcare.com: Trish’s direct e-mail

susanna@orchardhealthcare.com: Susanna’s direct e-mail.

nurse@orchardhealthcare.com: For clinical issues, such as prescription refills or lab test orders, for which you need advice or help, please contact Jean or Michelle. The email is shared by them. They will promptly involve Dr. Kanner when needed.

drkanner@orchardhealthcare.com: If you need Dr. Kanner for a substantive medical or other issue that requires his personal initial response, use this e-mail. Please use the other e-mails for administrative or clinical support issues.

Billing for Medical Care Services

Charges for your office visits and other medical services by Dr. Kanner are billed to your health insurer in the name of Steven R. Kanner, MD, LLC. The billing company (Affiliated Physicians Group of Beth Israel Hospital) does an excellent job. If something appears awry with the reimbursement from your insurer, so you think you are inappropriately being charged, please first contact Teresa Sousa at (617) 754-0709 and give her all the usual painful details. They do a very good job at resolving the myriad possible problems. Dr. Kanner will clear up any problems that Ms. Sousa cannot. You may also e-mail the details to adminOHC@orchardhealthcare.com. All payments for office visits and other clinical care go to Steven R. Kanner, MD, LLC at 210 Bear Hill Road, Waltham, MA 02451.

Orchard Health Care Membership Office

The OHC membership office is in Lincoln at Dr. Kanner’s home. It deals only with issues concerning annual or quarterly billing for OHC membership fees, such as updating credit card information. For those purposes only, use the membership office phone, (781) 259-0222, or fax, (781) 259-4050, or email at membership@orchardhealthcare.com. You may also convey the same information to Trish or Susanna in the clinical office, who will forward it to the membership bookkeeper (Diane Sellew). Payments to Orchard Health Care, LLC for membership fees are best mailed to 12 Bypass Road, Lincoln, MA 01773, but may be dropped off in the clinical office.

Membership Billing

Orchard Health Care annual membership fees may be paid annually by check or quarterly by credit card (MC, Visa, Amex). Payment due dates are December 20 for the annual payment or the first quarterly payment, March 20 for the second quarterly payment, June 20 for the third, and September 20 for the last payment each year.

An annual invoice will be sent to the member each fall for the upcoming year. Quarterly invoices are not sent, although payment receipts will be provided upon request. All credit card charges are done automatically each quarter. We request that each member contact the membership office when the credit card in use is updated or changed. Similarly, we request any member who is paying quarterly by check to remember to make the payment by the due date.

Web Site

Thank you for visiting our website, www.orchardhealthcare.com.  The members section contains our comments on significant medical news, questions and answers, and summaries of generally useful medical information. Comments and questions are welcome.