Insurance Rights and Responsibilities
As a service to patients to ease their interactions with the medical insurance system, we provide complimentary insurance billing services with the exception of TriCare/TriWest. Tracking insurance coverage and dealing with insurance company problems is ultimately your responsibility. You are responsible to pay your bills for services provided, regardless of insurance coverage. The health care providers at Alaska Family Wellness Center are preferred providers for Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Aetna. We are not accepting new patients who are covered by Medicare. We are accepting patients who have TriCare but, as stated, we will not bill the company. TriCare patient will be considered self paying patients. We can, however, provide you the paperwork to submit your own claims to TriCare.
If you are not sure if a service is covered by your insurance, please contact your insurance company prior to your appointment to see what percentage of the service provided you will be responsible for. Payment of your deductible, if not already met, and your copay are required at the time of service.
In some instances, your provider may order services or testing which are independent from AFWC. Such organizations include: X-ray facilities, therapy facilities and diagnostic centers. If you use Laboratory Corporation of America, you will be billed through our office. All other organizations will directly bill you and your insurance company for their services.
Your insurance company may pay on charges according to their usual and customary fee scale. AFWC fees are set independently from national insurance guidelines. In the event your insurance company determines a service to be “not covered” or “above the usual or customary charges,” you will be responsible for the balance.
Arrangements should be made with our Billing Department for past due accounts. We want to help work with you in setting a payment arrangement that will help you pay your account without affecting your credit. We can work out payment plans, if necessary.
For any account which is not paid in full within 30 days of final payments from insurance, we will add 2% interest for each billing cycle, until the balance is paid in full. However, once you have been billed for any amount not paid by your insurance company, if you do not contact us your account will be sent to Doctor’s Collection Service, Inc. after 60 days.
We offer a Direct Pay Program which automatically processes your payment to a credit or debit card when the balance is due. Your card number is securely maintained on file so you won’t need to write and mail us a check. We will tailor your automatic payments to meet your needs.
For Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield Patients
Beginning January 1, 2010 if an adult member completes the federal employee Blue Health Risk Assessment, the copayment for his/her subsequent annual physical examination or an individual preventative counseling visit will be waived. The member will receive a certificate that entitles them to a preventative visit at no charge and be directed to present the certificate to the physician at the time of care.
Refill Policies
We expect patients to monitor their need for medication refills. Please send us your request before you run out of medication. It is our policy that we need at least 3 business days notice for refills. We request that patients contact the pharmacy directly to send refill requests to AFWC. It is good medical care to maintain ongoing supervision of patients on medications. There may be occasions when your provider will request a lab study before refilling your prescription. For your safety your provider will meet with you in person to make sure your medications are best suited for your health concerns and to review your health for refills or changes in medications.
