Wiki Legality in filing insurance

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nc_coder

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If a patient comes in with insurance that we are contracted with but wants to opt out of using that insurance and be a self pay patient, are we contractually bound to file the insurance anyway?
A patient is seen for varicose veins and the doctor suggests a procedure that could be considered cosmetic. The patient doesn't want to wait for pre-determination before having the surgery. She is ok with paying the service in full. We have her sign a waiver saying that she has chosen not to wait for pre-determination. Do we still have to file the insurance?
 
I do not believe that a patient is required to use their insurance just because they have it. If they want to pay the premiums but not get any benefit, that's their choice! I suppose I could be wrong, or it could depend on the contracts.
 
I agree with Walker22 as far as I am aware that is up to the patient. Some people have plans with very high deductibles and when they haven't used it all year and come in November they would rather just pay for the visit since they will have to anyways. The only thing that I have run into is with Medicare patients they have to sign a ABN form that they agree to pay for the visit because it wont be covered by medicare for whatever reason. Good luck.
 
In all my years of billing it has been my experience that we are never "legally" bound to bill insurance. Insurance billing is a courtesy to the patient. I worked for Planned Parenthood for a couple years and many times we would have patients who had insurance but opted to not use it because they didnt want their parents or others to know they were seen with us so they would not use it. We would just charge them as self pay patients.
 
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