Forms & Billing

Billing Information

Financial Assistance
We are keenly aware of the high cost of our services as well as those you receive from hospitals and other providers. We know that many of our patients may find it difficult to meet their medical expense obligations. We have developed a number of options designed to help.

Financial Statement

Our Billing Procedures
If you have health insurance, we generally bill your insurer on your behalf. If your health insurance plan requires a co-payment, we ask you to pay this fee at the time of service.

Although you remain responsible for ensuring that our bill is fully paid, many insurers will pay us directly for their portion. This takes approximately 30 to 60 days. If we are "participating" providers with your insurer, a discount or "allowance" may be deducted from our regular fee. These types of allowances are not available if we do not contract with your insurer. Please refer to our current listing of "participating" insurers.

Extended Payment Options
We realize that many of our patients may want to spread payments out over a longer period of time. Upon request, we will extend the billing period for up to 90 days without interest expense.

Financial Hardship
There are times when any one of us can find ourselves with more medical bills than we can manage, even with the availability of credit options. For our patients with demonstrated financial need, Slocum provides a "sliding scale" that can help.

This program requires an application to demonstrate financial hardship, and the discount varies based upon family income. We are pleased to provide such discounts and encourage those patients who are experiencing a financial hardship to contact our business services department for more information about this program.

How We Establish Our Fees
Patients frequently ask how we determine our fees.

Our professional fees have been developed using fee schedules published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS, a federal agency, has established a complex system that sets "relative value units" for each service we provide. These so-called "RV Units" are multiplied by a "conversion factor" to establish the price of our services.

Over the past five years, changes in insurance reimbursement to physicians have required a significant shift of pricing for our services, resulting in a decrease in the cost of our surgical procedures and an increase in our office visit fees.

For Further Information
Please contact our billing department, with any questions about these policies or about your bill. We can be reached at (541) 868-0828.