Patient Advocacy
Your medical discount program includes a service called Patient Advocacy provided by Zurvita Health, which can provide tremendous help and reassurance when you're faced with large medical bills. This service links you to negotiating professionals who help you resolve your bills with medical providers, whether in or outside of the network or whether it's after you're scheduled for admission or once you have a bill in hand.
Benefits
- If you're scheduled for admission, you'll be assigned a personal negotiator who will review your financial situation and explain cost savings options you may want to discuss with your physician. Depending on your financial resources, your negotiator may pursue a variety of options with the facility to make payment arrangements up front including helping you apply for financial assistance or negotiating a reduced down payment or discounted fee.
- If you've already received medical care and have bills in hand, you'll be assigned a personal negotiator who will review your bills and financial situation. Depending on your financial resources, your negotiator may pursue a variety of options with the facility including helping you apply for financial assistance or negotiating a settlement or payment plan.
So, whether after admission is scheduled or once you have bills in hand, our professional negotiators take the time to understand your individual situation and tailor solutions to meet your individual needs. At a time when you need to focus on your health, it's comforting to know you'll have someone focusing on how you can best pay for that care.
To be eligible for Patient Advocacy Service you must:
- Have been an active member of this program when the charges were incurred or admission was scheduled.
- Have been scheduled for admission into a hospital for treatment where the facility or your physician must have confirmed that the bills related to a single medical incident will more likely than not exceed $1,000 from a single provider (hospital, emergency room or stand-alone surgical center) for treatment of a single, related medical incident.
- Have bills relating to a single medical incident within the last sixty days that exceed $1,000 from a single provider (hospital, emergency room or stand-alone surgical center) for treatment of a single, related medical incident. If you are scheduled for admission, the facility or your physician must have confirmed that at least one bill will most likely exceed $1,000.
If you believe you are eligible for Patient Advocacy service, simply contact Zurvita Customer Care at (713) 464-5002 to verify eligibility and to submit a service request form and medical information release. Upon receipt of these forms, a member of the Patient Advocacy team at Zurvita Health will contact you to verify eligibility, bill, financial and household information and assign you a personal negotiator.
The negotiator will pursue all reasonable options to help resolve your medical bills, whether by settlement, payment plan or financial assistance qualification.
Note: Patient Advocacy is not insurance and does not provide funds to pay for bills. Patient Advocacy is a best efforts service and despite our diligent efforts on members' behalf, some providers refuse to make accommodations to help resolve outstanding medical bills.
THIS PLAN IS NOT A HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY. This plan provides discounts at certain healthcare providers for medical services. The Vision, Hearing and Lab/Imaging portions of the program are not available in the following states: AK, CT, FL, IL, IN, KS, MT, NV OR, SC, SD and VT. The Rx program is not available in KS. This plan does not make payments directly to the providers of medical services. The plan member is obligated to pay for all healthcare service but will receive a discount from those healthcare providers who have contracted with this discount plan organization. It is the member's responsibility to confirm with Member Services that a provider is an active participant of the program prior to seeing that provider. Discount Medical Provider Organization: Lifeguard Benefit Services Inc., 4929 W. Royal Lane, 1st Floor, Irving, TX 75063.