Lake Jeanette Urgent Care

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2016/04/26) */
Contact Name and Title: Elizabeth W***, CPC
Contact Phone: ***
Contact Email: ***@gmail.com
On June 19, the above said patient came into our office stating that she needs a Wellness exam that her health insurance
(***)told her to haveThe patient brought in her forms (from *** to have the services rendered to herThe patient was told by her insurance company that the wellness exam would be covered at 100%Her wellness exam was billed as a complete physical because that is how we bill in our officeAs our provider filled out the form, a fasting blood sugar,cholesterol, Lipids, complete blood work and urinalysis was doneNow these were requested by *** Our office charges for those services because that is not a "free" serviceWe have to pay for the testing supplies and for the lab tech to do those servicesNow because *** does not recognize Nurse Practitioners and Physician assistants, they have a medical doctor who is in charge of them and who signs off on their chartsUnbeknownst to us the provider who signed off on the chart was credentialed as a specialist (Emergency Medicine with a concentration of Family Practice)but was linked to our practice by the insurance companyOnce we submit the claim to the insurance company, the insurance company processes the claimsIt was determined by the insurance company that the above mentioned patient had to fulfill her deductible for the year, therefore having that patient with a balance of us of $The patient made payment of $via credit card and was applied to her balanceNow, the patient came in the beginning of this year and saw our nurse practitioner and again we sent the claim to the insurance company, with the supervising physician name on the claim, only because *** does not recognize Nurse Practitioner and Physician AssistantsThe insurance company processed the claim and they sent back a explanation of medical benefits stating that the patient has a balance of $because the patient did not meet her deductibleWhen our office staff called patient to notify her of her balance she states that we owe her moneyThe above mentioned patient the spoke with the Billing Manager, Ms*** ***, who told the patient that the $dollars was her responsibility per her insurance carrierThe above mentioned patient told Ms*** "GOOD LUCK IN COLLECTING THAT PAYMENT", and hung up the phone on Ms***We are not a free clinic, nor we are not a non-profit organization, and we take direction from the insurance companyWe cannot help what the insurance does or how they process our claimsWe make sure that the front desk tells the patient that we do not process claims in our office and if there are any charges we will bill them for their servicesWe do not "owe" the patient any money because it is the patient that owes us the money