Commercial / Private Insurance
Doctors Making Housecalls is an “in network” provider for all Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana and Cigna insurance plans. We also accept Medicare and Medicaid, and take assignment.
We file all insurance forms and, for convenience, we accept payment by credit card for deductibles or co-pays, if applicable.
Doctors Making Housecalls charges a “trip fee” of $95.00 when we see patients in a private residence, which compensates our physicians for their travel time. We waive the fee when we see multiple patients on a scheduled visit in a business, retirement community, or other communal setting.
Our trip charge is not covered by insurance. Insurance companies consider it a charge for “convenience” and therefore not medically necessary. We bill the fee to your credit card on the day of your appointment.
Our professional fees — what our physicians charge for their services — are dictated by your insurance company. They are comparable to those of office-based physicians in the same specialty. The actual charge for a visit varies according to the time our physician spends, which depends on the number and complexity of your medical problem(s).
If the physician orders laboratory tests or radiologic procedures, whoever performs those services will bill you separately. Your insurance carrier will pay those fees just as they would if they were ordered from a typical office practice.
Medicare
We accept assignment, which means we bill Medicare directly, and all secondary (Medigap) insurance plans. You only pay what’s not covered by your insurance.
Medicare reimburses 80% of our physician’s professional fee, once you’ve met your annual deductible. Many supplemental insurance plans pay the remaining 20% of the physician’s fee, and some even pay your annual deductible. Some supplemental plans pay our practice directly, but some send payment directly to you.
We ask Medicare patients without supplemental insurance to pay their 20% co-pay at the time of service. Similarly, if your supplemental carrier sends payment to you, we ask that you pay us at the time of service since you will be reimbursed directly by your supplemental carrier.
We charge a service fee of $95.00 for visits to a patient’s home or place of business. We do not charge that fee when we see patients in one of the senior or assisted living communities we visit on a regularly scheduled basis. And of course we do not charge that fee to patients who see us in one of our offices.
Medicare does not reimburse our service fee because it is an administrative charge for scheduling the physician, not a fee for the physician’s professional services; therefore it is not considered “medically necessary” by Medicare.
