Centennial Medical Group, P.A.

FINANCIAL POLICIES

We are committed to providing you with the best possible care.  If you have medical insurance, we are anxious to help you receive your maximum allowable benefits.  In order to achieve these goals, we need your assistance in understanding our financial and payment policies.

1.                 Payment for services is due at the time services are rendered.  If we are contracted with your insurance company, we will file your claims for you.  However, any co-payments, deductibles or co-insurance payments are still due at the time of service.  We accept cash, checks, debit cards, Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express for your convenience.

2.                 We do assess a rebilling charge of $3.00 per month.

3.                 Returned checks and balances older than 30 days are subject to additional collection fees and interest at a rate of 1.5% per month. 

4.                 A charge of $40 will be applied for broken appointments cancelled without 24 hours notice. The charge for a missed complete physical is $75.

5.                 If your account is turned over to our recovery/collections company (this occurs when a balance is greater than 59 days old), a $20 service fee will be assessed on your account.  This is a non-negotiable fee that you will be responsible to pay. Please click here for more information about this policy. Failure to pay any balance due on your account may ultimately result in dismissal from the practice.

6.     In general, we will expect to see patients every 6 months or more frequently, and therefore we will not ordinarily do referrals or medication refills for patients who have not been seen in the last 6 months. Please click here for more information about this policy.

ABOUT YOUR INSURANCE

It is very important that you realize that your insurance is a contract between you, your employer and the insurance company.  Centennial Medical Group, P.A. is not a party to that contract.  All charges that you incur are your responsibility from the date that the services are rendered.  If your insurance company doesn’t make payment to Centennial Medical Group, P.A. within 60 days of the time of service, it is your responsibility to pay those charges.  Centennial Medical Group, P.A. cannot leave an open balance on your account indefinitely waiting for an insurance company to make payment.  There may be times when you will have to pay us directly and settle with your insurance company after the fact.  If at any time we receive a payment from your insurance company after you have paid us, you will receive a refund promptly.

INSURANCE PLANS THAT WE WILL BILL DIRECTLY FOR YOU

          Medicare                                          Mamsi

          Blue Cross Blue Shield                       EHP

          Aetna                                              United Healthcare

          PHCS                                               Kaiser Permanente

          Fidelity                                            British Embassy

          Cigna                                              Elder health

This list is subject to change. 

INSURANCE CHANGES

If your insurance coverage changes it is your responsibility to notify us of that change immediately.  If a change goes unreported, there may be charges that ultimately remain unpaid due to filing limitations of the insurance company.  In this situation you will be responsible to pay all of the charges in full.

PAYMENT PLANS

Payment plans will be considered on large balances.  Contact our billing staff for assistance.

THIRD PARTY PHYSICALS

A third party physical/exam is one that the patient has because someone else requires them to do so.  Examples of this type of exam are college or school physicals, daycare physicals, DOT or work physicals, camp or sport physicals, etc.  This type of exam is not covered by insurance and must be paid for at the time of service.  We cannot alter the reason or diagnosis of the exam to “get the visit paid.”

COMPLETION OF FORMS

Quite often patients request the physicians to complete a variety of forms outside of a visit with the physician.  Completing a form requires time from the physician’s day to review the patient’s chart and complete the form accurately.  Therefore, we do charge a nominal fee for this service.  A one-page form is $10, a two-page form is $15 and for three or more pages the fee is $20.  These charges are per patient and the fees are payable in advance.

MEDICAL RECORDS FEES

If you request that we transfer your records to another primary care physician there is a fee for the service.  We base our fees on the recommendations of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of Maryland.  The current fee guidelines are $19.70 per chart, plus $.65 per page, plus postage.

THE BILLING STAFF

          If your last name begins with the letters A-M, your billing rep is:

                             Cyndi Coburn               410-997-7768

          If your last name begins with the letters N-Z, your billing rep is:

                             Ria Young                     410-997-7683

          Or, you can always call:

410-730-3399 and select Option 5

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