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At the Endocrine Treatment
Centers, we make every effort to keep the cost of healthcare down
- both to you as well as to society.
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Additionally, we
understand that nobody wants to have issues of finances and costs
"pop-up" at them when they are not feeling well and when
they have not been told in advance what to expect.
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The excellent care we try to
give all patients of ETC attempts to address the first concern -
this financial policy guide addresses the second.
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This policy is meant
to explain a significant number of the usual instances in which
there are charges for care received or effort expended on your
behalf.
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In it we try to explain the
different systems for healthcare payment into its largest and most
common "blocks" so that it is understandable to all.
Naturally, the details of each persons situation is most important
and need to be reviewed individually. In that light, the
following:
Insurance
- the insurance alphabet is truly confusing. What each type of policy
means to your pocketbook or wallet even moreso. And the particular,
individual, small print items, or potential "gotchas" that
appear in your individual policy are possibly endless!
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"Managed Care
/ "HMO"s - This is the now most popular type
of insurance or more appropriately "payment system" that
people have who are covered by insurance. Briefly, a person with
an HMO type of insurance is responsible for payment of all
"co-pays" and / or "deductibles" for their
policy. This is not covered by the HMO policy - while the vast
bulk of the remainder of the charge is. Each patient is
responsible for complete payment of their co-pay at the time of
their office visit.
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A person may also be responsible
for a "referral" or "paper permission" from a
"primary care physician" to see one of our specialists. If this
is the case, it is vitally important that you obtain this
"referral" or "paper permission" prior to seeing
our doctors and / or educators - since, if your HMO mandates it, we
will either not be able to see you without it - or we will require you to
sign a "waiver" that allows you to be responsible for the
full cost of that particular visit at the time of the visit.
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In some situations, because of the
rules and regulations imposed upon you by your HMO, such "paper
permission" must be obtained by you from your primary care physician
for each and every time you see us. In some cases, a
"batch" or group of referrals for a particular period of time,
such as 6 months, 1 year, or even lifetime, is available from your primary
care physician. If you find that you need to see us on a regular or
frequent or extended basis - you might want to investigate this
possibility with your primary care physician.
"Indemnity"
or "Traditional" Insurance Plans - Traditional
Insurance policies / contracts that you enter into are just that -
contracts between you and your insurance company. This means that even
though these organizations may pay for some or most of your healthcare
bills, any money owed to your healthcare provider is ultimately your
obligation. This means that it is in your best interest to make sure that
any healthcare payments owed by your insurance company to your doctor(s)
is paid - since - if the insurance company does not pay - you will be
responsible for all of those payment(s).
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FEES AND CHARGES:
1 - Office visit attendance:
Repeated and/or excessive
lateness, broken office appointments, frequent cancellations, or
canceling less than 24 hours in advance disrupts the continuity of
medical care both for you as well as other patients who might have put
that time to use.
In that light we have
established the following fees:
Canceling an appointment
less than 24 business hours in advance or no-showing for an appointment:
$15.
- This will NOT be billed to your insurance company.
- It will be required to
be paid in full prior to being able to establish another appointment, see
a physician or educator, or have any prescriptions refilled - except under
emergency and life-threatening circumstances
- This includes Educator
appointments
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2 - Bounced Check Fee: $25
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This will NOT be billed to your insurance company.
- It will be required to
be paid in full prior to being able to establish another appointment, see
a physician or educator, or have any prescriptions refilled - except under
emergency and life-threatening circumstances
- This includes Educator
appointments
- A second bounced check will
require separation from the practice
3 - Medical Records
Photocopying Fee:
- $0.25 per page for records
delivered to the patient, or their representative or guardian, or
sent to a second opinion physician, or sent to another physician in
change of care. Records sent to other physicians currently caring
for the patient along with ETC are sent without charge.
- Advance notice of greater
than 10 business days is required
- Emergent requests will be
considered at an additional charge of $50
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4 - Social Security /
Disability Applications
- In accordance with RI
State Law - any and all medical records requested by a patient
concerning a persons application for Social Security
Disability - whether to lawyers, or to governmental
agencies - will be forwarded - preferably by facsimile - free
of charge.
- If a
"narrative" form' or "prognostic"
evaluation, or additional summary of the patients medical
situation, anticipated future treatment, or possibility of
improvement is required - then an additional fee, not
prohibited by state law, will be charged. Please contact us
for details regarding this fee.
5 - Miscellaneous
Forms and Fees
- Short term /
Long term disability applications - to non-government agencies
or attorneys:
- Medical records
as part of such an application will be charged as in #3 at
$0.25 per page , advance
notice of greater than 10 business days is required, and
emergent requests will be considered at an additional
charge of $50
- Forms filled out
for the same purpose: $10 - $50 depending on the length of
time and complexity required
- FMLA (Family Medical
Leave Act) Forms: $50
- School / Camp / Work
Physical forms; "Fit-for-Duty" forms (additional to
the actual Chart Note) $25
- Handicapped parking,
Utility abatement applications, etc.: free of charge
- Not all forms or
situations can be covered here - and ETC reserves the right to
change the above or charge for other forms or applications not
listed here.
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