An office is asking patients to pay for refractions and contact lens exams up front when they are seen. Patients are paying for it. Normally then we will the codes out and sometimes insurances do pay for it and patients end up with a credit. The doctor wants to know if we have to bill those codes to insurance that are being paid up front because then he doesn't have to deal with the credit and it makes his bookkeeping cleaner. Aren't we required to bill all the codes to insurance? Any feedback would be appreciated.
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Wiki Do you collect $$ up front?
- Thread starter JLuz
- Start date
erinmiller
Contributor
We do the same in our office, but leave the monies unapplied till we get response back from the insurance after we bill the codes to them. It's the same for us with the medical routine eye exams and the patients paying their copay. We never know how the insurance will pay for anything till we get the claim back. It's a pain to have to issue refunds to patients vs sending them over to collections and trying to get your money from them. Not sure what the legality is for collecting from the patient, but insurance have minds of their own when paying on claims. 
monatuccillo
Contributor
MT
Well in my office I like to avoid credits so we only take copays but I do tell our pt's upfront that refraction might not be covered under your plan and you will receive bill from us and we keep a note in Pt's record that we did inform. Yes you have to bill all the charges to the insurance company just to make sure because you never know
Well in my office I like to avoid credits so we only take copays but I do tell our pt's upfront that refraction might not be covered under your plan and you will receive bill from us and we keep a note in Pt's record that we did inform. Yes you have to bill all the charges to the insurance company just to make sure because you never know
Rindahlnicole
New
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We bill all of the codes over but typically anything we think will not be covered we take the payment from the patient. I find it's easier to deal with credits then trying to chase the patients down later for the fees which is a problem we had in the past.