Credit/Debit Card on File

Thank you for choosing Kansas City Urology Care, PA (KCUC). We are committed to providing you with exceptional care, as well as making our insurance billing processes as simple as possible. With the changing environment in healthcare, insurance policies are increasingly transferring more responsibility of payment, to you the patient, in the form of higher copays, higher deductibles, and larger co-insurance amounts. In some cases, we may not know the amount your insurance plan requires for your copayment, deductible, and co-insurance amounts at the time of your visit. Thus, it has become necessary to ensure that KCUC has a guarantee of payment on file in our office.

Effective no sooner than February 20, 2023, KCUC will be updating our billing practice regarding patient payments and will begin requesting that patients keep an active credit/debit/HSA card on file which may be used later to pay any balance that becomes due after your insurance processes our claim(s). In other words, it may be used to process the amount your insurance plan tells us that you owe for the care KCUC provided. Patients with verified ACTIVE Medicaid, Tricare, or Workers Compensation are exempt from this policy. If your insurance policy requires that you pay a copay or that you have an annual deductible/out-of-pocket amount, then you are required to add a card-on-file. Unless prohibited by law or contract, this applies to commercial/private insurances (e.g., BCBS, United, Aetna, CIGNA), Medicare Advantage, and Medicare patients without a Medigap secondary policy (Medicare only).

When you come into our office and receive services, you do so with the understanding that you are ultimately responsible for the cost of your healthcare. We bill your insurance for you as a service and we have contracts with most insurances. Upon your insurance’s determination of benefits, we will look to the patient for payment with the card on file for the amount your insurance plan tells us you owe KCUC for the care provided to you. The “Card of File” program simplifies payment for you and eases the administrative burden on your provider’s office. It reduces paperwork and ultimately helps lower the cost of healthcare.

KCUC will only charge your credit/debit/HSA card, on file, after your insurance company informs us, via an explanation of benefits (EOB), of a patient responsibility. Your credit card information will be held securely by a third-party credit card merchant services provider Phreesia. Phreesia promotes itself as providing industry-leading privacy and security services for the patient information it maintains to facilitate healthcare provider billing services.

The following are examples of when we would use your card on file, this list is not all inclusive:

  • Patient copay amounts which were not collected at the time of service. Copays are required to be paid at each visit per the patient’s agreement with their insurance company, but as noted above, sometimes we do not have that information at the time of service.
  • Patient deductible and/or co-insurance amounts that are assigned to the patient by their insurance company upon processing of their claim.
  • A missed or canceled appointment charge without 24-hour notice, $50 for an office visit and $100 for an in-office procedure.
  • Any non-covered services and/or denial of services allocated to patient responsibility by your insurance via an EOB, which may be to your insurance plan’s notice requirements.

 

Please read through the following FAQ section for further information.

Why the Change? With the changing environment in healthcare, more responsibility of payment is being placed on the patient in the form of copays and deductibles. Thus, it has become necessary to ensure we have a guarantee of payment on file in our office. Card on File is becoming the new standard for medical practices.

But I Always Pay My Bills, Why Me? We want to thank our patients that do pay their outstanding balances timely or set up payment plans to pay off their balances. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The medical industry is fraught with issues; yearly cuts in pay, added regulatory requirements each year, a tight labor market, as well as a long-drawn-out insurance billing process. Reducing unnecessary costs is essential for us to continue to accept insurances, like yours. This new policy/process dramatically cuts down on the administrative burden and costs associated with billing and collecting.

How Will I Know How Much You Are Going to Charge Me? When we receive payment from your insurance company, you should also receive notice, usually in the form of an Explanation of Benefits (EOB). The EOB will have a column named “Owed by Patient” or something similar. This is usually the deductible/co-insurance/copay amount that you owe. Through Phreesia’s Payment Assurance, we will notify you of the balance and the date in which we will charge the credit card on file. At the time of this notice, you may also contact our office to set up a payment plan.

How Card on File benefits patients? First and foremost, it is far more convenient for you – you don’t have to call the office or buy a stamp or worry about getting around to paying the bill. It takes the hassle out of the process, especially for patients who have HSA cards to pay for their medical care.

What if there is a problem with my bill and I don’t notice it until after the payment processes? We hope that this doesn’t happen. And, although we love technology in our offices, we routinely review the accuracy of claims processed by insurance companies and will contact you if we find a problem. But, if you find a problem, please call us and we will investigate. If it is determined that you have overpaid, we will promptly refund the overpayment back to the credit card on file.

But wait, I’m Nervous About Leaving You My Credit/Debit/HSA Card. We do not store your sensitive credit/debit/HSA card information in our office. Your information is stored on Phreesia’s HIPAA credit card processing platform, which Phreesia promotes as using PCI-Validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) reducing credit card processing security risks for patients. KCUC only has access to the last 4 digits of your credit card number.

When Do I Give You My Credit/Debit/HSA Card Info? Your credit/debit/HSA card information can be inputted directly into the Phreesia system during your registration at your next scheduled appointment.

What If I Have More Questions? Our staff is happy to speak with you about your account at any time. Please call our billing office at 913-341-7985 during normal business hours or email at billingdept@kcuc.com with any questions.