Insurance and Fees

Patients without insurance who pay their own way or are "self pay" are simply charged the Medicare rate.

Below is a listing of the insurance plans in which we participate. We essentially participate in every major plan in the state of Oklahoma. If you don't see your plan listed let us know; we may be a member of the plan or we can easily join in most cases. 

Insurance plans

Aetna 

Bass Pro (Employee Health Network)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma 

Beech Street 

CCN Managed Care and Workers Comp 

Cigna 

Coventry Health

CommunityCare 

First Health 

GEHA

Global Health

HealthChoice 

Humana 

Indian Health Services 

Mailhandlers

Medicare 

Medicaid/SoonerCare Choice

Oklahoma HealthNetwork EPO (copay option) 

Oklahoma HealthNetwork PPO 

Pacificare

PPO Oklahoma 

PPO USA (GEHA) 

Preferred Community Choice

Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)

Railroad Medicare

Secure Horizons

Tricare 

United HealthCare

Physician fees tend to be "mysterious." Patients quite understandably go to the doctor's office worried about the fees and expenses that will be encountered. 

How do physicians set their fees? It's important to understand--for all practical purposes, physicians do not set their actual fees or reimbursements. Medicare (the U.S. Government) every year sets a fee schedule for all Medicare patients. In the last 10 years, this fee schedule has not kept up with inflation, so fees for physicians have essentially declined over the past 10 years. Physicians and physician organizations have a small amount of input as Medicare sets fees but this input is small. Health care economists employed by the Department of Health and Human Services of the U.S. Government, in conjunction with input from the President's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), decide Medicare reimbursement levels. 

What about private insurance? Well, in the past (over 10 years ago), private insurers set their own fees, but for the past 10 years or so private insurers have essentially followed the Medicare fee schedule, usually paying the same as Medicare or a little bit more, on the order of 5 to 15% more (or sometimes even less than Medicare). If Medicare drops their fees, the private insurers follow Medicare and drop their fees.

So, in essence, physician fees are set by the U.S. Government.

Now, most physicians will have a "list price" fee but they essentially never receive this fee. Most physicians simply double the Medicare fee for a procedure or visit and call that their "list price" fee. The "list price" fee only comes into play in a few large academic medical centers in cities like Houston or New York that see wealthy patients from outside the U.S. who come to the U.S. for health care; these are essentially the only patients who pay the "list price" fee. In our office the "list price" fee is 1.5x (not 2x) the Medicare fee.

The schedule is organized by "codes." The coding system is confusing and opaque (doctors don't like it but that is the system that is imposed upon us). Listed below are the codes most commonly used in our office. Pick a code and search for it in the Medicare fee schedule; the second column or "Par Fee" is the appropriate fee.

New patient consultation visit 99244

Return visit 92014 or 99213

Retinal photo 99250

Retinal angiogram (one eye) 92235

Retinal thickness map (OCT; one eye) 92135

Detailed retinal exam (one eye) 92225

Intraocular injection of medicine (most often for wet macular degeneration) 67028

Subtenons or "under the skin layer of the eye" injection of medicine 67515

Scatter or "PRP" laser for diabetic retinopathy 67228

Focal or grid laser treatment for retinal swelling or edema 67210

"Tack down" laser for retinal tear 67145

Pneumatic retinopexy ("in office repair") of retinal detachment 67110 and 67101

Scleral buckle surgery for retinal detachment 67107

Vitrectomy surgery for retinal detachment 67108

Vitrectomy surgery for macular pucker 67041

Vitrectomy surgery for vitreous hemorrhage 67040

Vitrectomy surgery for macular hole 67042

Vitrectomy surgery for complicated retinal detachment 67113