For Referring Physicians

Signature Healthcare has updated our referral policy in line with other local and state-wide providers.

Signature Healthcare provides our patients with a full array of specialty and sub-specialty services, all of which are connected via one electronic medical record. This enables our PCPs the necessary information to manage a patient’s health as a whole – managing the entire person—not just one body part or issue at a time.


Signature Healthcare E-notifications Requestor Portal

Signature Healthcare has chosen PatientPing to facilitate the delivery of real-time event notifications for care events occurring at its facilities, as required by CMS’ electronic event notifications Condition of Participation.

Referral Policy

As of 1/1/17, our referral policy requires that all patients seek a referral from their PCPs for all specialty care.

This enables the PCP to better manage patient care and have communications to and from the referred specialist. Patients who leave our network lose the benefit of this care coordination and advocacy which may result in unnecessary care, duplicate diagnosis, medication errors, non-compliance with recommended therapeutics, and excessive costs. Thus it is necessary for Signature Healthcare to work on educating and assisting our patients with their insurance product and our referral process:

  1. A patient must have seen their PCP within one year of the request (Including non-Signature Medical Group PCPs).
  2. Referrals requested by a non-Signature Medical Group specialty practice must be approved by the PCP and the Referral Navigator (Michelle Perry, 508-565-3278)
  3. No retroactive referral requests will be authorized, as most insurance companies no longer allow this practice.
  4. All specialty visit notes must be provided to the primary care provider as soon as possible following a patient visit.
  5. Patients may be required to see a Signature Medical Group specialist prior to advancing care outside Signature Healthcare.
  6. A Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center second opinion (one visit) will only be allowed after a Signature Medical Group Specialist has been seen
    • Second opinions to BIDMC do not constitute an authorized transfer of care


To better care for our patients we also request should any imaging or laboratory testing be necessary, patients should be directed to a Signature Healthcare facility. Please call the referral navigator with questions at 508-565-3278.

Please submit your request for referral directly to the patient’s PCP, and include the following:

  • diagnosis
  • reason for referral
  • National Provider Identifier number (NPI #)
  • telephone number
  • fax number
  • appointment date
  • number of visits requested