The following FAQs should help address your questions about Arapahoe Gastroenterology Anesthesia Associates and your anesthesia bill. If they don’t, please contact us directly for assistance.
Ideally, your insurance will process everything correctly the first time around so you won’t need to worry about anything. In the unfortunate case that they do not, we will send a letter with a statement and a form to sign so that we can assist in getting your balance reduced or eliminated.
As a courtesy to you, the bills for your anesthesia services will be filed to your insurance company. We have accepted assignment of these benefits and your insurance company should send the payment directly to our office. If we have a secondary insurance on file for you, we will file a claim for the amount not paid by your primary insurance. If there is no secondary insurance on file, then we will send you a bill for the co-payment due as determined by your insurance company.
If your insurance company sends payment directly to you, you may either endorse the check OR write a personal check for the amount received and send it to the address listed below.
Arapahoe Gastroenterology Anesthesia Associates
P.O. Box 947397
Atlanta, GA 30394-7397
We accept any insurance that the facility where you are having the service accepts. Because we are an ancillary provider, we typically do not need to contract separately with your insurance to be processed in-network (several BCBS plans are the exception). We contract with all federal (Medicare, Tricare) and state plans (Medicaid).
In the event that we are not a participating anesthesia provider within your insurance plan, we will work with your insurance company to insure that you are not penalized for our non-participating (out-of-network) status. The maximum amount that you will owe will be your participating (in-network) benefit rates. Please contact us if you have ANY concerns.
We accept any insurance that the center accepts. Anesthesia providers are considered ancillary providers and because of this, regardless of our network status, most insurances will process the claim as though we are in network. Plan types typically have a plan provision that states ancillary providers (such as radiologists, anesthesiologists and pathologists) will be processed under your in-network level of benefits as long as the facility is in-network. On occasion, the insurances do not process payments correctly the first time around so we may need your assistance by signing a form in order to reduce or eliminate your responsibility. We will contact you if this is necessary.
Column 1: Dates
The first line item will be the date of service. All other line items will be the date a payment or adjustment was taken.
Column 2: Description of service
This is where you see the service billed for, the provider who performed the service, and any information regarding payments and adjustments.
Column 3: Financial amounts
These are the costs for what is described in column 2.
Columns 4 & 5: Balances
These are any balances on your account to be paid by your insurance (Column 4) or you (Column 5).
We advise you to pay close attention to the message at the bottom of the statement. This message often provides important information such as to whether the balance can be further reduced, or what to do in the case you receive a check from your insurance provider that needs to be forwarded so that an adjustment can be made.
Your EOB is plan specific, so please contact us directly so that we can address your specific questions over the phone. If we are notified of a denial, we will send you notices explaining your benefits and appeal rights. These letters are insurance specific and typically explain what needs to be done to have the balance reduced or eliminated.
Your EOB may identify:
Remember that your EOB is not a bill, it just explains what was covered by insurance. Your provider may bill you separately for any charges you’re still responsible for. You may receive a few EOB’s over time if your claim is being appealed.
Sample EOB
Providing an estimate is quite difficult for anesthesia because processing is based on time or charged amount and is plan specific. If your service is a screening procedure, most plans will cover this at 100% of their allowed amount. Exceptions to this include some BCBS plans and grandfathered commercial plans. We are happy to assist when possible, however, due to the number of insurance plans, we suggest that you contact your insurance company if you have a specific question regarding your individual coverage. If you are not covered by your insurance and required information regarding self-pay rates, please contact us.
The procedure you had has 3 (three), possibly 4 (four) separately billable components that consist of:
Each of these services is provided under separate entities/companies and cannot answer billing questions for the other, so please contact the appropriate company for your questions. We can address all questions related to #2.
Payment is due within 10 days of receipt of the statement, however we do accept payments in installments. If you would like to pay in installments, please notify us by contacting us directly.
We accept credit cards and checks. You can pay online using our payment portal.
If you would prefer to pay over the phone, please contact us at 800-242-5080.
Alternatively, you can mail a check to:
Arapahoe Gastroenterology Anesthesia Associates
P.O. Box 947397
Atlanta, GA 30394-7397