Benefit Insight

In a communication sent by the company this week it was announced:

“Kaiser Permanente leadership recently made a decision that we will not send out bills for hospital inpatient and other hospital related services that are over six months old for members enrolled in deductible plans. We will not be back billing members for services received prior to 1/1/07. Any additional member responsibility (monies owed for services received prior to 1/1/07) will be waived.

The following hospital related services received prior to 1/1/07, will not be billed:
Inpatient hospital
Outpatient surgery
Lab drawn and processed in the inpatient lab setting
Other hospital related services

For outpatient charges, we will be processing claims and applying any deposits already made by members at the point of service, and adjusting off any balances owed. Example: If the member paid $65 but owes $165, we will write off the remaining $100 member responsibility. ”

This applies to all clients who have one of Kaiser Permanente’s deductible HMO plans in place.