Financial Information

Please contact the Insurance Verification Department prior to your visit to discuss insurance benefits or to ask any financial questions. You may reach us by calling 863.683.2428, Option 3, or by emailing [email protected]. You have the right to request a personalized estimate which will include the cost of your procedure, co-payments, deductibles, co-insurance and out-of-pocket amounts as determined by your insurance carrier. Read below for LSDC financial assistance program and collection policy. Lakeland Surgical and Diagnostic Center’s pricing website is located at: http://pricing.floridahealthfinder.gov

Estimated patient financial responsibility is due prior to your visit. Payment in full is required unless a payment arrangement has been made. You may be asked to sign an Advance Beneficiary Notice of Non-Coverage form (ABN) or Advance Notice Non-Coverage form (ANN) for coverage. In most cases we should be able to estimate the cost of your surgery or procedure beforehand.

Payment can be made in the form of check, money order, cash or credit card. Postdated checks are not accepted.

For your convenience, payments may be made online or by calling the Insurance Verification Department at 863.683.2428, Option 3.

We offer payroll deductions for employees of the following organizations: City of Lakeland, Lakeland Regional Health, Lakeland Surgical & Diagnostic Center and Watson Clinic.

Florida Health Finder is a service of The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) that provides easy access to health care information as a health care transparency tool for consumers. This website allows consumers and caregivers to look up the average amounts paid by Florida insurance plans for a specific service, giving them a better estimate of their total out-of-pocket expenses. The average amounts paid by insurance plans are based on billions of lines of claims data from three Florida health plans. Claims data from additional health plans are expected to be added to the database in 2018.

• The website lists the services as “care bundles”. A care bundle includes the steps and procedures that are part of a typical treatment plan for that specific care bundle. For example, the care bundle for Knee Replacement includes an office visit with a specialist, surgery, outpatient physical therapy/rehabilitation and follow-up visits. The service bundle information is a non-personalized estimate of costs that may be incurred by the patient for anticipated services and that actual costs will be based on services actually provided to the patient.
• Since 2007, Floridians have been able to use FloridaHealthFinder.gov to look up undiscounted hospital charges, however, this is rarely the amount that individuals or insurance companies are expected to pay. Now, with this new tool, and in conjunction with working with their respective insurance plans, Floridians have the opportunity to get a much better estimate of out-of-pocket costs for specific services.

Facility charges will be billed by Lakeland Surgical & Diagnostic Center. Professional fees will be billed separately by your physician and anesthesiologist. If applicable, you will receive a separate bill for surgical assistants, radiologists, pathologists or third-party implant companies.

You should also contact your insurance carrier regarding your cost-sharing responsibilities for both facility charges and professional fees. (See Questions to Ask.)

The healthcare providers mentioned above may or may not participate with the same insurance carriers as Lakeland Surgical & Diagnostic Center. It is always a good practice to contact your insurance carrier to inquire if all healthcare providers are in network for your upcoming visit.

Insured patients will receive a discount off billed charges based on the contractual agreement with the insurance carrier.

Uninsured patients will be offered a self-pay rate, which is a percentage off billed charges.

There is no application process required to receive these discounts. Lakeland Surgical financial assistance and charity program is limited to the above discounts and payment plan options.

Lakeland Surgical & Diagnostic Center’s standard collection policy is to produce and send two patient statements reflecting the patient’s cost-sharing responsibility. If the statement balance is not paid in a timely manner, a collection notice will be sent. This notice will inform the patient that the unpaid balance will be placed with a collection agency.