• Bring your insurance identification cards or Medicare or Medicaid ID.  This enables us to provide accurate bills, verify insurance benefits promptly and obtain pre-approval for patients before receiving services. 
• You will be asked upon admission to pay any insurance co-pay or deductible not covered by your insurance.
• As a courtesy to you, the hospital will bill your insurance company.  If your insurance company requests additional information from you, please respond as soon as possible.  A delay in returning the requested information will also delay payment to your account.
• After discharge from the hospital, you will receive a monthly statement from the hospital to keep you informed of the insurance payment status.  Because the insurance company’s response time may vary, you may not see the insurance payment on the initial statements.
• Please keep in mind that (with the exception of HMOs) your hospitalization coverage is a contract between you and your insurance company, and we will cooperate to the fullest in expediting your claim.  You are ultimately responsible for your account.
• Your hospital bill does not include fees for the professional services of your physician, surgeon, radiologist and emergency room physicians.  You will receive separate bills for services provided by these specialists.
• Any patient having inadequate insurance coverage, or no insurance coverage, will be requested to make appropriate deposits at the time of admission The hospital accepts cash, check, money order, debit card, MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover for prepayments and the estimated portion of your bill which is due on admission.
• Your hospital statement does not come with an itemized statement but can be made available to you at request by calling 580-8939.
• We will be happy to answer any questions you may have concerning your financial arrangements.  Call the Financial Counselor at 580-8986 between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday.

Outpatient Medicare Patients Notice:

Items not covered by Medicare include "self-administered" drugs.  Basically, Medicare, even when used in hospital outpatient settings such as the emergency room, outpatient surgery or observation does not cover drugs that can be taken in pill form, drops, sprays, lotions, or inhalants.  Under this rule you are not reimbursed for prescription drugs, even though they may be medically necessary.

Since Medicare considers these types of drugs non-covered, they fall under the "general exclusions" section of the Medicare guidelines.  This means that you will receive a bill from the hospital for any self-administered drugs you receive while an outpatient.

There are some exceptions to the self-administered drug rule for which Medicare allows payment.  Some of these exceptions include blood-clotting factors, immunosuppressive agents, erythropoietin, certain oral anticancer drugs and their associated antiemetics, and insulin administered in a medical emergency.

If you have any questions about Medicare's billing requirements, please speak to a representative from our business office at (254) 580-8937.