Financial Policy Insurance does not cover cosmetic surgery. You will be given a written price quote at the time of your initial consultation. We make our quotes as accurate as possible. If for some reason your surgery runs longer than anticipated, there may be additional facility and/or anesthesia fees. The surgeon’s fee is collected at the preoperative visit, usually about two weeks before your surgery date. We accept personal checks, cashier’s checks, money orders, Visa and Mastercard and, of course, cash. We offer financing through Capital One (www.capitalonehealthcarefinance.com). Why I do not contract with health plans or insurance companies. Would you take a job in which you had no idea how much, when or even if you would get paid for your work? Not likely. That is the situation that doctors are in when they contract with health plans (including the federal health plans of Medicare and Medicaid) or health insurance companies. When I first started practice in 1991, I signed just about every contract that came across my desk. Several years into practice I found I was spending almost as much time haggling with third party payers as I was taking care of patients. I had a staff member who devoted all her time to jumping through hoops. After I dropped all my HMO contracts about ten years ago, my practice became better. My focus was again on my patients, not on referral forms, authorizations slips, and my blood pressure. Several years ago I completed the dive into true independence by dropping all my insurance contracts and dropping Medicare and Medicaid. All of these third party payers interfered with my practice of Plastic Surgery. Does this mean that I do no insurance covered procedures, such as breast reconstruction or facial skin cancer removal? Not at all. It just means that I take care of you, you take care of your financial obligation to me and the insurance company takes care of its financial obligation to you. It’s really quite straightforward. This is how it works if your procedure is covered likely to be covered by insurance. I see you and evaluate you and make a surgical plan. You receive a price quote for my services. I write your insurance company to obtain preauthorization. At your preoperative visit, you pay the surgeon’s fee. After your surgery, I will send a HCFA statement and supporting paperwork such as operative reports and pathology reports to your insurance company. They send you the reimbursement. If they get dazed and confused and send me the reimbursement, we sign it over to you. If the insurance company does not reimburse you in a timely fashion, you should give them a call. You are their customer and they need to hear from you. This way, I stay out of the middle and stay very happy. You really want your surgeon to be happy.