We wish you a comfortable stay and a speedy recovery from the procedure your physician has planned for you, and want to let you know how your insurance claims will be processed by our Surgery Center and the doctors who care for you here.

Insurance coverage is very complicated these days. It's a comfort to know you have coverage, but patients are sometimes surprised when they find out that their plans, including Medicare, don't always cover everything they expected them to cover.

Here are a few facts that we hope will clarify coverage issues in advance:

The Surgery Center is separate from your physician's practice. We will be sending our own claim for the services we provide to you here. Our claim is completely separate from those that will be sent from the physicians who provide services to you here, including the doctor who performs your procedure, the pathologist and the anesthesiologist. Any payments you've already made to doctors are unrelated to our fees. Deductibles are also a factor and you are responsible for meeting your annual deductible before your insurance coverage begins.

We rely on your physician to obtain authorization for the specific procedure that is planned here. Before your procedure we also do our best to verify that you have insurance that covers your procedure in our facility. We rely on your insurer to tell us if you will be responsible for any co-pays or deductibles at the time of service. This might be a flat amount or a percentage of the allowed fee, and we collect this estimated amount on the day of your procedure. This amount may change once your insurance company processes your claim.

Following your procedure the Surgery Center sends our claim to your insurer based on the procedure(s) actually done, which sometimes differs from what was planned by your physician. When we are paid we receive an "explanation of benefits" or "EOB" which tells us your insurer's decision about your coverage. You will get a copy of this explanation as well.

This document tells how much was paid to the Surgery Center by your insurer and how much, if anything, you are still responsible for. You should save this document. You'll get an "explanations of benefits" for each doctor's claim. Sometimes you may owe nothing more, but sometimes there is a co-payment or co-insurance due to an unmet deductible for the year which is your responsibility. This will all be covered in your "EOB". If you have questions about your coverage, co-pay, or deductible you should call your insurance provider or Medicare.

If you have a "supplemental" insurance policy that you told us about we'll process a claim to that insurer before we send you a statement for any final balance you might owe. This supplemental company will also send an "EOB" to us and to you.

When all your insurance claims are processed, and your insurance coverage indicates you are still responsible for any part of our bill, we will send you a statement (a bill) at that time. If you have any questions about this bill please call us, otherwise we'll expect prompt payment at that time.