Harris Regional Hospital and Swain County Hospital

Patient Accounting Office Responsibilities

The Patient Accounting office at Harris Regional Hospital is committed to the financial wellbeing of our patients, and will gladly work with the patient or designated representative to help with insurance benefits and with financial arrangements for each hospital encounter. Each time an individual is a patient at Harris Regional Hospital a new patient encounter or account number is assigned. This enables the insurance company to distinguish different episodes of care that the patient has required. Harris Regional accepts assignment of insurance benefits and will file insurance claims on the patient's behalf. If however, after a 60-day period of time there has been no reply back from the insurance company a bill will be sent to the patient or guarantor for settlement of the claim.

Future Visits - Service Estimates

A Financial Counselor is available Monday through Friday from 8:30am - 4:30pm to assist patient's with inquires concerning the cost of upcoming procedures or testing as well as assisting with payment options. The financial counselor is located in the registration area at HRH. If the patient wishes to inquire about the cost of a test, how to pay for services or any other financial questions please call (828) 586-7778.

Insurance Information

To enable Harris Regional Hospital to bill the patient's insurance company directly, the patient will be asked to provide insurance identification card(s). Failure to provide accurate and current insurance information and required referrals when upon admission or registration could result in penalties or a reduction of benefits by your insurance company. There may be some services that insurance will not cover. Should that occur, the patient would be billed directly.

Pre-Certification

Most insurance companies require pre-certification, or approval of admission before a scheduled hospital stay and various outpatient procedures or testing. Registration personnel and utilization review staff will work to obtain the necessary pre-certification; however, ultimately the patient is responsible for notifying the insurance carrier before your arrival at the facility.

Medicare Recipients and Advanced Beneficiary Notice (ABN)

HRH strives to provide appropriate and timely health care services and to act in the best interest of our patients. We want to ensure that the patient is aware of every aspect of services that he or she may require and we want to inform the patient of any procedure or test that may not be covered by the Medicare program. To accomplish this goal, we will work to make sure that the physician's orders contain the outpatient test(s) procedure codes(s) and the patient's diagnosis. These codes are used by Medicare to determine payment coverage. If the combination of procedure codes and diagnosis codes fail pass Medicare's standards the patient will be asked to review the information and to sign an Advanced Beneficiary Notice (ABN). Upon signing this form, the patient agrees to be personally responsible for payment of the non-covered service if Medicare denies the claim. The ABN is designed to help the patient make an informed decision regarding the health care service that has been ordered. This information is designed to prepare the patient that he or she may be responsible for the cost of the test or procedure out of his/her own pocket. Each Medicare patient must decide whether or not to proceed with the specific test or procedure that fails to meet the Medicare standards. The registration and patient accounting office will work to provide the patient with the knowledge to make these decisions.

Other Providers the Patient May Encounter

The patient may receive an additional bill(s) from physicians that provided care while the patient was at Harris Regional Hospital. Those bills may include the radiologist interpretation fee of x-ray procedures, anesthesiologist fee for the administration of anesthesia during a procedure, or a pathologist fee for services. The patient is responsible for making financial arrangements with those other providers.

Payment Options

Payment may be made with cash, personal check or money order made payable to Harris Regional Hospital. HRH also accepts VISA and MasterCard. Patients are eligible to receive a 10% prompt payment discount if the account is paid in full within 25 days after receipt of first patient statement.

Billing Statements

After the patient visit has been concluded the a summary of the charges will be mailed to the patient for review. If insurance information has not been provided to the patient accounting office please call 828-586-7186 with appropriate information to submit an insurance claim. If insurance information was provided upon registration a claim has been sent to the insurance carrier on the patient's behalf. After insurance processing the patient will receive a statement explaining the insurance response and outlining the patient's remaining balance. One statement will be sent from the Patient Accounting Department. If payment is not received in full within 25 days the account is forwarded to ProCor Patient Billing Services. This service allows for patient's to make financial arrangements that are both acceptable to the patient and to HRH. HRH, along with assistance from ProCor strives to meet each patient's financial responsibilities. If this isn't successful, past due amounts will be forwarded to a collection agency to continue collection efforts.

Financial Assistance

For patients who are unable to pay the full amount Harris Regional has a program that may help individuals with finding sources of payment for healthcare needs. Harris Regional Hospital has employees that are available to assist patients in Medicaid applications as well as assistance with other alternate payment sources. Patients interested in financial assistance can call (828)586-7778 and request an application or come to the Patient Accounting office Monday through Friday between 8:30am - 4:30pm.

Questions/Information

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