Privacy Practices

Please download the following PDF to view our full privacy policy. Feel free to reach out to us with any questions you have: Privacy Policy(opens in a new tab)

Credit Card on File Policy

Please download the following PDF to view our full credit card policy. Feel free to reach out to us with any questions you have: BBPA CC on File Policy(opens in a new tab)

Financial Policies

At Beittel-Becker Pediatric Associates, our primary goal is to provide our patients with health care services of the highest quality. This goal is best achieved if everyone is aware of our policies. Your clear understanding of our financial policies is important to our professional relationship. The medical services you seek imply a financial responsibility on your part. This responsibility obligates you to ensure payment in full for the services you receive. To assist in understanding that financial responsibility, we ask that you become acquainted with our financial policy.

Your Responsibilities:

It is your responsibility to know your insurance benefits. Your insurance policy is a contract between you and your insurance company. You are responsible for knowing what services are covered, how often (example – well visits), and how much of the cost is your responsibility.

You are responsible for:

• Your copay
• Your coinsurance
• Your deductible
• Any services that your insurance does not cover

You must provide current, complete, and accurate insurance information at every visit. This is to protect you from receiving a bill because we did not have correct insurance information.

You must present your insurance cards at every visit. Your insurance card contains essential information that helps us process claims efficiently and without errors. Please bring your insurance card to every visit.

You must pay your copay at the time of the office visit. Our agreements with insurance companies require us to collect your copay at the time of service. We accept cash, credit cards, and checks as forms of payment.

If your insurance plan requires you to choose a primary care provider, you must contact your carrier and select one of our doctors before your visit. In accordance with insurance guidelines, we cannot schedule any appointments or write any referrals until we receive notice that your child has been added to our roster.

Insurance:

We will prepare and send claims to your insurance. However, we remind you that your policy is an agreement between you and your insurance company. Please understand that you are responsible for your total obligation pertaining to your specific insurance plan. If we participate with your insurance, we have agreed to accept their fee schedule. After your insurance pays according to the specific benefits of your plan, they will send us the patient obligation, which may include amounts related to unpaid copays, co-insurance, or the plan deductible. We will send a statement for any remaining balance, which is payable within 30 days.

Self-Pay or Inactive Insurance

Patients who are self-pay or have inactive insurance are required to place a credit card on file. We offer a 15% self-pay discount if the patient/caregiver authorizes us to charge the card on the same day of service. If the balance remains unpaid after 60 days, the card on file will be charged for the full undiscounted amount.

Personal Balances:

Personal balances are due immediately upon receipt of a bill. If your balance is not paid, we will resend a bill every 30 days. Failure to pay a balance after 90 days will trigger a late fee. See the “nonpayment” section below for how late balances are managed.

Payment Arrangements:

We realize that financial problems may affect timely payment of your account. If you are unable to pay your responsibility in full within 30 days, please contact us promptly to discuss payment arrangements. We are able to store a credit card on-file and arrange short-term payment arrangements.

Nonpayment:

Failure to pay any balance(s) associated with your account after 90 days will incur a $25.00 late fee which covers the additional costs incurred on our end that stem from late payments (e.g., administrative time and postage costs associated with mailing multiple bills). We will send a final notice letter notifying you of your unpaid balance. If no attempt is made to resolve the balance by the due date on the final notice letter, we will forward the unpaid balance to a collection agency. A 33.0% charge will be added to the balance to cover the fee charged by the collection agency. Your family will be dismissed from our practice. We will still provide acute services for your children for 30 days. If you have been dismissed from our practice, and you wish to rejoin, all balances in collections must be paid, and a $25.00 reinstatement fee per child is due prior to rejoining. A second balance sent to collections will result in permanent dismissal from our practice.

Preventative and Additional Services During Same Visit:

Preventative well child visits are normally covered 100% by insurance. When your child is seen for a well child visit, there may be situations when he or she needs additional services that are not considered preventative. If a problem is found that needs to be addressed or you want a problem addressed that is not related to the preventative well child visit, the provider will need to provide services in addition to the preventative exam. This also applies for sports physicals, which is an additional service.

These additional services will be billed to your insurance in addition to the preventative service. These services may also incur financial responsibility as well, such as a copay for an office visit, which must be paid at the time of service. After your insurance processes the claims, any coinsurance or deductibles must be paid within 30 days of receipt of your bill. 

Examples of additional services include, but are not limited to:

• Provider’s treatment of minor problems;
• Medical treatments (nebulizer treatment; wart removal);
• Minor surgical procedures (removal of foreign body; splinter removal).
• Sports Physicals

Evening/Saturday After Hours Charge:

As a convenience to our parents, we offer appointments after our standard 8am-5pm office hours. We charge a $25.00 after hours fee for this service. Insurance plans and parents both recognize that this fee is a cost-effective alternative to an Emergency Room/Urgent Care visit and/or leaving work to bring your child in to be seen. 

This fee is added to all visits that are provided:

• After 5:00 pm on weekdays
• On Saturdays.

Forms

Our position has always been to refrain from charging excessive fees for the completion of forms. However, we do charge a $10.00 form fee if the form is not completed at the time of service.

Copies and Transfer of Medical Records

Patients requesting copies of medical records or medical records be transferred to another provider will normally not be charged a fee. Our standard practice is to transfer the last several years of records. If the request is excessive, we reserve the right to charge a fee in accordance with guidelines established by the PA Department of Health (Department). The Department publishes guidelines and fees that a health care provider may charge in response to a request for production of medical charts or records. All remaining balances must be paid prior to these requests being accomodated.

Cancellation and missed appointments

Beittel-Becker Pediatric Associates strives to provide exceptional care and to ensure convenience and accessibility to all of our patients. It is important that patients arrive on time for their appointments or cancel/reschedule in accordance with our appointment cancellation policy. This policy allows us to provide exceptional care to ALL of our patients which is our mission, what our patients deserve, and what they have come to expect.

Late Arrival:

Our policy is that patients must arrive by their assigned check-in time, which is 10 minutes prior to their appointment time. This allows adequate time for the patient to complete the registration process and complete necessary paperwork. We will send text and/or phone reminders prior to the appointment which notifies the patient of their check-in time.

A late arrival occurs when anyone arrives more than 15 minutes after their assigned check-in time without any advanced warning and an adequate reason for running late. As a courtesy to our patients, our providers, and our staff, we reserve the right to reschedule your appointment if you arrive more than 15 minutes after the assigned check-in time and we are unable to accomodate same-day rescheduling. It will be marked as a missed appointment.

Appointment Cancellation:

We understand situations may arise in which you may need to cancel your appointment. Under these circumstances, if you need to cancel a routine visit (typically scheduled in advance of appt) such as a well-check/med review/mini physical etc., more than 24 hours' notice is required. If you need to cancel an acute visit, more than 2 hours' advance notice is required. Our text communication system is an acceptable method for cancelling an appointment ONLY if made more than 24 hours' in advance.

Please understand that cancellations without the required notice will be treated as a NO SHOW and your account will incur a fee. These fees are the sole responsibility of the patient/caregiver.

No Show/Late Cancellation: 

Failure to show up for a visit without cancelling the appointment or providing advanced notice according to our "Appointment Cancellation Policy" will be considered a NO SHOW and will result in a fee being assessed. The fee structure for missed appointments due to no show/late cancellation is $50.00 for complex visits (20+ minutes) and $25.00 for simple visits (10 minutes). 

Patients who no-show 4 or more times in 12 months may be dismissed from the practice and will be unable to schedule future appointments. This policy applies to each child, not the family as a whole. However, if one child meets the criteria for dismissal due to no shows, all siblings will be dismissed. If you call to cancel an appointment without sufficient notice you will be informed during the call that insufficient notice was provided which will result in a fee. All balances must be paid prior to releasing medical records.