Fees, Insurance and Financial Policies

All co-payments, deductibles and fees for non-insured services are due at the time of your appointment.

Insurance and Health Plans
We will bill insurance carriers for you and collect their portion as a courtesy to you. You are ultimately responsible for all professional fees regardless of your insurance coverage status. Your insurance benefits are ultimately a matter between you, your insurance carrier and your employer. We are providers for: Brown & Toland, Aetna, Medicare, Blue Shield, Cigna, Health Net, Pacific Care, CCN, and many others which you can find here.

Please note that our practice periodically must close to new patients in order for us to best serve our current patients. We are currently closed to new Medicare patients, except for family members in the same household as current patients, or current patients converting to Medicare as they age.

We do not accept MediCal or Health Plan of San Mateo except as a secondary insurance for our Medicare patients. If you have a question about coverage under your insurance, please call our billing office at 415-382-3486 or ask at the reception window. You must provide us with your health plan card and/or all information necessary for us to bill your insurance carrier, or the fee for your visit will be due at the time of your appointment. You may need to obtain pre-authorization from your carrier in order to avoid unnecessary cost to you for care that may not be included in your plan. Please familiarize yourself with what your plan coverage is, or contact your personnel department or insurance carrier.

Prescription insurance-payment or specialist-referral authorization by your insurance plan may take up to two weeks for the insurance company to do all their paperwork back-and-forth with us, especially for newer or more expensive medicines or doctors. We focus on your health care, and provide you with what we believe is the best prescription or referral for you, at the time of your appointment. We do not profit from which prescription we write for you, or to which specialist we refer. Employers change insurance plans, and insurance plans change pharmacy-benefits and specialist-membership all the time, to save money. We cannot possibly keep track of all the insurance company changes every year. Your best option might be to pay for the first prescription or specialist-visit yourself right-away, so that you can have the benefit of the prescription or specialist until your insurance company finishes the paperwork, then reimburses you. If you are having a lot of problems with your insurance company not covering visits and prescriptions, or delaying your authorizations, you might want to select a different insurance company, or talk to your employer about it.

If you would like to learn more about insurance company and employer tactics to reduce pharmacy benefits and costs, go to Insurance Drug Benefits

If you would like to check out your insurance company's Report Card, go to NCQA

Auto Accidents and Personal Injuries
If your problem is due to an auto or other injury please let us know immediately so that the correct insurance information can be generated for you. Since your injuries may involve different insurance companies with whom we are not providers, payments for medical care in our office are due at the time services are rendered. We will send in an insurance claim for you, and your insurance company will reimburse you directly. We can provide you with copies of reports and paperwork required for a minimal fee. We do not accept liens. We will suggest specialists or testing based on medical necessity in our opinion. It is your responsibility to find the X-ray, lab, specialist, chiropractor, acupuncturist or other specialist that will accept your insurance. Please call your insurance company, or the specialist to whom we refer you, with any questions about coverage. If these policies are not acceptable to you, you will need to find a different doctor for your auto accident or personal injury claim, though we can still see you for your other medical needs.

Workers Compensation
Our practice does not provide care for Workers Compensation cases. Ask your employer for a referral to a Workers Compensation clinic, or look in the Yellow Pages for the nearest Workers Compensation clinic near you. If you wish supplemental care, or a second opinion on the care you are receiving, we can see you on a cash basis with payment at time of service, as insurance coverage does not apply.

Call your insurance company with any questions or concerns you may have about benefits.

Our office sometimes closes to new patients for a number of months to avoid overloading Dr Hoddinott and the Nurse Practitioners with too many requests for appointments. We appreciate your understanding.

©Bay Area Family Practice Inc. A Medical Group, 1850 Sullivan Ave, Suite 210, Daly City CA 94015 (next to Seton Medical Center)