Step 1: Choosing your Ramsay hospital
Many insurers are quite happy for you to go to them direct and request treatment in the Ramsay hospital of your choice. Others will require a referral by way of a letter from your GP. So before arranging your first out-patient appointment with Ramsay Health Care, it’s worth checking how your insurer prefers to do things.
Step 2: Check that you’re covered
Before attending your appointment, it is necessary that you gain authorisation from your insurance company as to whether you’re covered for any diagnostic tests that may take place – or if there is an excess to pay. If an excess is payable, you won’t have to do this before you’re treated. Instead, you’ll receive an invoice at a later date and then pay any excess directly to us.
Step 3: Arranging your appointment
Once your insurance company has confirmed that you’re covered for treatment, then contact your local Ramsay hospital to make your appointment. Or if your GP has made the arrangements for you, one of our dedicated customer services team will be in touch. You’ll receive confirmation from us or your chosen consultant’s secretary. It’s worth noting that if you have an ‘open referral’ or ‘directed referral’ clause within your policy, you can still expressly request your insurer to refer you to a Ramsay Health Care consultant.
Step 4: Here’s what we need from you
So we can bill your insurer directly, we’ll need some details from you, including:
- Name of the insurance company
- Membership or Policy number
- Claim number or authorisation code
Whilst the majority of insurers are now able to authorise all claims via telephone, in some cases they may still you to complete a paper claim form. This will need to be completed by both yourself and either your GP or Consultant, or possibly even both. This will need to be returned to your insurer promptly to allow your them to assess your claim and authorise any treatment.
Step 5: Meeting your consultant
Your first appointment allows your Consultant to assess your condition and determine what, if any, diagnostic tests are needed. It may be that further follow-up appointments with your Consultant are needed to allow a determination of what treatment is needed and whether it’s best if you’re an outpatient, day case or inpatient. If you haven’t already been given the go-ahead for your entire course of treatment by your insurer, we recommend you check that you’re covered for whatever your Consultant recommends.
Step 6: Treatment at a time and place that suits you
Whether you can be treated as an out-patient or need a stay in hospital, you can arrange treatment when and where it’s most convenient for you. Remember to tell your insurance company your admission date and proposed treatment.
Step 7: Paying for your treatment
At Ramsay, we work directly with your insurers to arrange payment, keeping red-tape and hassle to a minimum for all our patients. That way, you can concentrate on getting back to normal as soon as possible.
For day case or inpatient treatment, your Consultants (both the Surgeon and the Anaesthetist) and the Ramsay hospital will normally invoice your insurer independently of one another.
In some cases your Consultant(s) may send their invoices direct to your home address. Provided your insurer has authorised your claim, please forward these to your insurer. All charges are pre-agreed with your insurance company and therefore copy invoices are not normally sent to you by the hospital. If your insurer subsequently notifies us that there is an excess on your policy that you need to pay, the Ramsay hospital or your Consultant will send to you a separate invoice for the amount that is owed. This will need to be settled direct with either the Consultant or the hospital.
Further information
