FAQ

Yes! We are accepting new patients at this time. Please register online here.

Golden Hour Pediatrics is a direct primary care practice. Direct primary care practices do not accept insurance. Instead, you pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to your pediatric team. Upon request, we can generate a billing receipt for visits or vaccines to submit to your insurance for reimbursement.

Practice fees are charged to your debit card, credit card, or bank account. Practice fees can be paid monthly or annually. Please visit the How It Works section for pricing.

Any medical service outside of our practice, such as specialty visits, hospital admissions, or outside labs can be covered by your insurance plan.

The practice fee does not count toward your medical insurance deductible. If you have a Health Savings Account or Flexible Spending Account, it may allow for the monthly fees to be paid with pretax dollars. We recommend contacting your insurance representative to learn about the details of your plan and consult with your accountant for potential tax benefits.

We encourage you to maintain health insurance to ensure financial coverage for hospitalizations, specialty visits, or any major or catastrophic illnesses that might arise. Your insurance representative can help you customize a plan that best fits your family’s needs.

For children 2 months or older, house calls are not included in the monthly fees at this time. They are a separate charge and are both priced and scheduled based on distance from the office.

We believe vaccinations are safe, effective and necessary for preventing childhood illnesses that can be serious and/or deadly. We highly recommend following the current CDC schedule for childhood vaccinations.

While the CDC guidelines are the primary recommended schedule for vaccinations, a slower vaccine schedule is permitted as long as it is discussed in detail and agreed upon by the parents and the doctor. However, please aware that without medical cause, we do not permit the self selection and rejection of certain vaccinations, regardless of planned school status. We do not accept patients to the practice who do not plan to vaccinate their children.

We do not write letters of exemptions for vaccinations without medical cause.

Congratulations! We encourage you to schedule a Meet and Greet with Dr. Priest to discuss any questions or concerns you may have before your baby’s arrival. Meet and Greets are free consultations to learn more about the practice and ensure that we are the right fit for your family. Meet and Greets also give us a chance to get to know you and your family before joining the practice.

Congratulations! We advise obtaining all medical records from the birth hospital. If you are adopting out of state, most babies will need to be seen by a pediatrician outside of the hospital before they can return to their adoptive parents’ home state. Obtain all records from the initial pediatrician’s office as well. Additionally please be aware that some states may require repeat newborn screening upon return to the adoptive parents’ home state. Please contact our office for a consultation with Dr. Priest for questions and for more information.

We are happy to see your child. However, all families who plan to give birth at a birth center must have a Meet & Greet to join the practice. We require documentation of a completed newborn metabolic screen, congenital heart screen, transcutaneous bilirubin, and administered Vitamin K injection prior to being seen. If your birthing center does not provide the Vitamin K injection, it can be administered at your baby’s first visit with the practice.

We highly encourage all these medications shortly after birth. There are multiple studies ensuring the safety of these medications and vaccines and their necessity to prevent disease and complications in newborns. While some exceptions can be made regarding the timing of the Hep B vaccine and the administration of the eye ointment, please be aware that the Vitamin K injection is required for all newborns joining the practice given the insidious and potentially severe complications of Vitamin K deficiency in young babies.

Please be aware that oral vitamin K is not recommended and is not an acceptable option for the practice. It is not consistently absorbed in the gut, and it does not provide adequate amounts of the clotting factor for the breastfed infant. Additionally multiple doses of oral vitamin K are needed to be as effective as a single vitamin K injection. The Vitamin K injection is required for all newborns joining the practice.

Healthy children make up the bulk of a pediatric practice because they routinely experience illnesses, injuries or issues that might affect their school and social performances. Back to back respiratory infections, a sudden sickness while traveling, a disruptive scholastic situation or an acute illness over a long weekend are just a few circumstances that often leave families grasping for help despite having a categorically healthy child. Golden Hour Pediatrics was created with all of these scenarios and more in mind. Our goal is to provide prompt access, guidance, and peace of mind especially in the face of unpredictable situations. We welcome children of all health statuses to our practice for individualized health care.

Golden Hour Pediatrics gives you direct access to your pediatrician outside office hours. We are available by phone, text message, or virtual visit.

Our practice benefits include travel medicine. We can facilitate medical care via virtual visits, phone calls, or email while you are traveling. We have the ability to call in prescriptions to local pharmacies and can help coordinate medical care at an urgent care or an emergency department if necessary. We encourage travel consultations with Dr. Priest prior to international travel in the event that special vaccines are advised before your overseas trip.

If your child is admitted to the hospital, we will work closely with the inpatient hospitalist teams during their admission. We will have ongoing communication with your child’s medical providers so that we are up to date on their treatment course and plan of care. Dr. Priest will act as your child’s advocate to ensure that they receive the medical care they need and will coordinate follow up care with our practice.

If you plan to deliver your baby at Cedars Sinai, at the time of admission to the Labor & Delivery department, please inform the hospital team and our office if you would like Dr. Priest to be your child's pediatrician. The hospitalist team will provide newborn care in the nursery until discharge. Dr. Priest will provide courtesy visits throughout your child’s hospital stay and will coordinate care for your child once they have been discharged.

We know life happens and we live in a busy, traffic heavy city. For that reason we do not charge a late fee or a cancellation fee for appointments. However, we would appreciate at least a 24 hour notice if an appointment needs to be canceled or rescheduled. We would also appreciate a heads up if you are running more than 15 minutes late for your appointment so we can adjust our schedules accordingly.

On a case by case basis for one time visits, mental health consultations, and house calls. We have intentionally limited our patient panel to allow for premium accessibility to our pediatrician. House calls for non-practice patients are limited by time and availability. Please contact the office for more information.

Golden Hour Pediatrics provides a yearly contract for patient care. We see patients ages 0-22 and will assist them in the transition to adult medicine when they age out of the practice.

You will be made aware via email whenever Dr. Priest will be out of the office. During these times, our practice will have coverage from a local pediatric provider and Dr. Priest will be contacted for urgent matters.