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 Office Hours
Our regular office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Our Pain Management department and MRI department open at 8:00 a.m. for
scheduled patients.
Appointment Information
Your initial appointment will normally be scheduled by your current treating
physician by calling our office for your first appointment with our
doctors. This is what we call a physician referral.
When your referral is made, a
registration packet will be mailed to you if time permits. Please bring
your completed packet of information with you, your medical insurance cards
and current medications list. Also, it is very important that you bring any
x-rays, MRI scans or other films related to your problem with you to your
initial appointment. Please arrive at least 20 minutes earlier than your
appointment time on this initial visit to collect this information and
prepare your chart for you to see the doctor.
Return appointments
are made to follow up on your treatment plan. If your return appointment is
after surgery, your doctor’s charge for these visits are generally covered
in the charge for the surgery for up to ninety (90) days.
Based on the results of your examination
your doctor may need to order additional diagnostic tests, physical therapy
or recommend a surgical procedure. Your doctor’s clinical staff will
coordinate scheduling whatever is needed and get any necessary
pre-authorizations. This does not verify benefit coverage so it is
important that you familiarize yourself with your insurance plan’s
requirements for coverage.
If you are unable to keep your scheduled
appointment, please notify us 24 hours in advance, or earlier, so we can
make that time available to someone else. Every effort is made to have the
doctor see you on time, but we ask for your patience and understanding in
the event of occasional unavoidable delays or medical emergencies. We will
do our best to inform you with as much notice as possible of any delays or
the need to reschedule your appointment.
Telephone Calls
We make every effort to handle your call as quickly as possible. If you have
an urgent medical need, please call us as soon as you notice symptoms so
that we can direct you to the appropriate staff to address your medical
need. For non urgent medical or other questions, you will be directed to
the appropriate department. You may be asked to leave a message for someone
to return your call if they are assisting other patients or on an outgoing
call.
If you find it necessary to contact our
doctors after normal office hours, the answering service will forward your
message to the physician on call. Your call will be returned at the earliest
opportunity. In a life threatening situation, call 911 immediately or go to
your nearest emergency room.
Financial Policy/Insurance & Payments
To help us provide the most efficient and reasonable health care services,
it is necessary for us to have a Financial Policy stating our requirements
for payment for services provided to our patients. Patients are responsible
for the payment of all services provided by Columbia Neurosurgical
Associates, P.A. It is our policy to file for insurance as a courtesy to
you if we have accurate and complete insurance information. The balance due
is still your responsibility if we have not received payment from the
insurance carrier within 45 days. If we receive payment from the
insurance company, we will then prepare a refund for any overpayment and
send it to you.
If you have insurance and we file with
your carrier, we ask that you pay at the time of service any co-pay,
co-insurance and unmet deductible amounts which are your responsibility. On
elective procedures, you may be asked to pay some or all of your portion of
the estimated co-insurance amount due. (We do have agreements with certain
managed care companies, therefore, the preceding sentence may not apply in
some cases.) Since we are not a party to the agreement between you and your
insurance company, we ask that you assist us in contacting them if they have
not paid for your services within 30 days of filing.
For Worker’s Compensation claims, it is
our policy to bill the employer or the Worker’s Compensation carrier for
services rendered. If you are covered, we will accept the payment made by
Worker’s Compensation as payment in full. If Worker’s Compensation denies
payment, the entire balance will become your responsibility and will be due
within 10 days from the date of denial. It is your responsibility to
provide us with a written authorization for your appointment from your
employer or insurance carrier on or before your initial appointment and the
name and address of the company where claims are to be submitted. In the
event proper approval has not been received, your appointment will have to
be rescheduled.
Automobile and other insurance liability
related injuries require special attention. In many instances reimbursement
for services provided is delayed due to legal action. It is our policy that
the patient or his/her health insurance company make payment at the time
services are rendered and seek reimbursement from any settlement.
We do not accept letters of protection on 3rd party liability cases.
If you do not have any insurance and are
not covered by either Medicare or Medicaid, you are considered a “Self Pay”
patient. Full payment is due at the time services are rendered unless
previous financial arrangements have been made with our billing and
insurance department.
Participating Insurance Payors
The following is a list of Insurance Companies and Managed Care Companies
with which we have participation agreements - In alphabetical order:
AMERIGROUP Community
Care
Beech Street
Blue Choice Health Plan (formerly Companion Healthcare)
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina Preferred Blue (Includes FEP)
Carolina Care Plan (CCP)
Carolina Crescent Health Plan
CHCcares of South Carolina
CIGNA HealthCare of South Carolina
Great West
Medicaid-South Carolina
Medicare
Medicare Advantage-BCBSSC
Physicians Care Network (PCN)
Premier Health Systems
State Health Plan-South Carolina (Administered by BCBSSC)
Total Carolina Care, Inc.
Prescription Policy
Prescriptions will be written or called in ONLY between the hours of 9:00
a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. No prescriptions will be called
in during the evening or weekend hours. Please allow 48 hours for narcotic
prescriptions to be called in.
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