Understanding Hospital Charge Information
Dear Patients,
Our mission and vision at Emanuel Medical Center are to be the community’s preferred choice and help the people of Emanuel and surrounding areas live healthier and happier lives. In order to achieve these goals, we strive to provide the best care at the most affordable price. In an effort to promote pricing transparency, CMS has required that all hospitals make available their current master pricing list, or chargemaster. However, you will find that the final bill you receive may vary greatly from your original charges for services due to the many complexities of our healthcare system. We would like to briefly explain some key factors that determine the amount you owe as our valued patient.
Emanuel Medical Center contracts with various healthcare payors and insurance carriers such as Medicare and Medicaid as governmental sources and commercial payors like Blue Cross Blue Shield and United Healthcare. Our hospital has a contract with many insurance companies that allows for reimbursement below our billed charges. If we have a contract with your insurance, we will be deemed “in-network.” These contracts influence your patient responsibility for deductibles, copays, and coinsurance. Some of our payors reimburse us a flat fee amount based on a fee schedule, regardless of our charges or cost of service, a percent of billed charges based on a mutually agreed upon contract, or a contract that may combine a fee schedule and percent of charges depending on the service. When you receive your Explanation of Benefits, you will see what your plan allowed and reimbursed us as the provider and your patient responsibility.
We understand that some patients are not able to afford the cost of medical care. Because of this, we offer charity and indigent care programs to discount the amount owed by the patient. We also provide eligibility services to our patients that may qualify for programs to cover medical expenses. For those who do not qualify, we offer substantial self-pay discounts.
While you will find an attached link to our chargemaster, every patient visit is unique. As explained above, the charges do not reflect patient responsibility or what our hospital is actually paid for services provided. We invite you to reach out to one of our representatives so that we may provide you with a personalized estimate for your visit. You may reach a patient financial services representative at (478) 289-1136 or patientaccounts@emanuelmedical.org. In order to receive the most accurate information, please be able to provide your insurance information, detailed service information such as procedure description and service codes, and your doctor’s name and phone number.
Please remember that estimates are approximations of your bill and do not reflect additional services that may be deemed necessary during your actual visit and do not include separately billable services from physicians such as emergency department physician fees, radiologist and anesthesia service fees.
On behalf of everyone at Emanuel Medical Center, we appreciate you choosing us as YOUR healthcare provider and look forward to serving you.
Damien Scott
Chief Executive Officer
Jessica Johnson
Chief Financial Officer
To download a copy of our charges click here.