How is Health Care Billed?

If you are insured, Memorial Hermann will send a claim to your insurance company for payment for the facility portion of the care you received. Services provided by physicians and other providers will be billed separate and apart from facility services received. After the facility claim is received, the insurance company may contact you for additional information. Please respond to your insurance company's questions as quickly as possible. It may take an insurance company 30-60 days to process and pay your claim. After Memorial Hermann receives payment, you will receive information about any remaining balance due. Please keep in mind, your policy is an agreement between you and your insurance company. If you did not follow your insurance plan's terms, all or part of your care may not be covered.

For self-pay patients who are uninsured, Memorial Hermann offers an Uninsured Discount. This is similar to the discount provided to patients with managed care insurance coverage. All uninsured patients (excluding those receiving cosmetic procedures, fixed fee pricing or other designated “package price” procedures) will be given the Uninsured Discount for facility services. All estimates provided to uninsured patients will already reflect their out-of-pocket costs after applying the Uninsured Discount. Uninsured patients may also check with our financial counselors to see if they qualify for financial assistance through our Financial Assistance Policy.

Central Pricing Office

To speed up the process of obtaining an estimate for your health care costs, when calling our Central Pricing Office at (832) 658-6455, please have the following information ready to go:

• Description of services: Contact your physician's office ahead-of-time to get a description of the specific services needed. If your physician gave you an order, please have it available.
• Inpatient/outpatient status: Is your physician admitting you to the hospital to stay as an inpatient overnight, or are you expected to be treated as an outpatient and go home the same day?
• Name of your physician/specialist: For example, if you are having surgery, we will need to know the surgeon's name.
• Type of insurance:. If you have insurance, review your insurance coverage or contact your insurance company to make sure the services required are "covered services" under your specific plan. If they are not covered, you’ll be considered "uninsured" for these services. Please have the following information ready when you call:
  • Your insurance card: If needed, we may ask for the following information from you: the name of your insurance company, the type of policy (e.g. HMO, PPO, POS, Indemnity), the policy holder's name, the group name and number, the policy number and the insurance company's phone number.
  • The policy holder's personal information: It is possible the insurance company will ask Memorial Hermann to verify the Date of Birth of the person who is named as the primary insurance policyholder and other information.