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Revised: 10/31/2005 |
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Arbitration
When collection efforts over and above the normal billing are required, an additional SERVICE CHARGE may be assessed. An additional charge will be assessed for all checks returned for insufficient funds. It may be possible to extend payment terms in the event of serious illness, unemployment, or other unfortunate circumstances. The clinic cannot accept responsibility for collection of insurance, or other claims. You are responsible for payment of your account in accordance with our policy. We anticipate payments on your account even though you may have an insurance claim pending. Q4. Why did my first visit to the Tanner Clinic cost so much? A4. The standardized billing codes allow an additional fee to be assessed to new clinic patients to cover the cost of establishing care (computer entry, insurance tracking, chart creation, etc). It may also be assessed if you are not new to the clinic but seeing a specialist for the first time. This is due to the extra time and effort needed to obtain pertinent past medical history. In general, this is a one time fee and will be encountered infrequently. Q5. Why don’t you accept my insurance?A5. Tanner Clinic is dedicated to provide care to as many patients and insurance groups as is financially and physically feasible. Unfortunately, some insurance plans may exclude Tanner Clinic from their plan in preference to another medical group. On the other hand, Tanner Clinic has excluded several insurance plans due to difficulty negotiating fair contracts or as a result of concerns over philosophical differences on how a certain plan may prefer to reimburse for care (see the next question). Each insurance plan reimburses at a slightly different percentage of the total amount we charge for your care. If a particular insurance company refuses to reimburse at a profitable level, we are unable to accept their contracts while other plans are willing to reimburse at a more reasonable level. Q6. What is a capitated insurance plan?A5. Some insurance plans reimburse participating physicians through a system called capitation. In essence, these plans offer a provider a certain dollar amount to accept your family's medical care for a year. If at the end of the year there is any money left that has not been spent on your family's medical care, part of that is given to the physician. If, on the other hand, your family has a medical catastrophe which costs more to manage than your insurance plan has capitated, the excess medical cost is covered not by the insurance company, but by the physicians caring for you. It has actually gotten to the point where some physicians are forced to purchase insurance to cover their under-insured capitated patients. Tanner Clinic feels that the ethical conflicts associated with capitated plans are such that we are not willing to allow profit to influence our ability to make good safe medical decisions. As such, Tanner Clinic does not accept capitated insurance plans. Q7. Will the Tanner Clinic continue to care for me if I have filed for bankruptcy?A6. It is Tanner Clinic policy to invite patients with considerable amounts owed to the clinic who have filed for bankruptcy to seek future medical care elsewhere. However, each Tanner Clinic physician does have the right to allow continued care through him/her if so desired. Q8. Will I have to pay more to see a handsome doctor like Dr. Mike?A1. Are you kidding? Have you seen him? We should pay you to see him.
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Copyright © 2000 Tanner Clinic
Tanner Clinic
2121 North 1700 West
Layton, Utah 84041
801 773-4840
