Billing / Patient Information
New Patients
New patients should arrive a half hour before the appointment to have time to fill out paperwork. Alternatively, paperwork can also be filled out and e-mailed or faxed to us prior to your appointment to minimize wait time and lessen exposure. Our new patient information sheets can be printed out one-sided.
Our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices can be viewed here.
**Antihistamines can interfere with our testing, so it is important that patients come into the office without having taken antihistamines for 3 days prior to the visit. These include Zyrtec (ceterizine), Benadryl (diphenhydramine), Claritin (loratidine), Allegra (fexofenidine), stomach medications such as Pepcid (famotidine), Zantac ( ranitidine), Tagamet (cimetidine), and even some anti-depressants such as Sinequan (doxepin).
Billing
Billing is done by 808 Medical Billing at (505) 348-7153. Vanessa and Brian Anderson do an excellent job of getting claims to the insurance companies, and keeping you up-to-date with where the claims are, and what your responsibilities are, by sending out monthly statements.
Insurance
We do accept most of the insurance plans available in the Four Corners, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Mexico, Anthem, and out-of state BC/BS plans. We are also contracted via the Durango Network with Rocky Mountain Health Plans, United, Cofinity, Aetna, Cigna, San Juan IPA, and many others. We are NOT contracted with Bright Health. If you have questions as to whether we are in network, you can call your insurance carrier or check on their website. If we are not listed as in network, let us know at the office.
Self-Pay Patients
We realize that our healthcare system is fractured and imperfect, leaving many with no insurance at all. We offer a discount for self-pay patients who pay at the time of service. Dr. Cooke also recognizes that self pay patients may have financial constraints, and we try our best to work with you, for example, by not going overboard on skin testing or other tests. We want to offer cost effective allergy care for everyone, insured or not.
Sublingual Immunotherapy
Sublingual (under the tongue) immunotherapy, or SLIT, is a form of allergy desensitization that can be done at home without shots. It is widely practiced in Europe and Japan and is slowly being introduced in the USA. We have been providing SLIT drops for patients for use at home, but they are not FDA approved. Because of this, insurers are not covering this form of treatment consistently, and Medicare/Medicaid will not cover drops from our office. However, we have found benefit in our patients and presented our data at the 2015 AAAAI meetings. We are reducing the cost of the drops to $250, but patients are required to pay the $250 fee for the drops up front. Insurance will usually not cover this cost, but you can submit it or call your carrier for clarification. The procedure is billed under code 95199. Be aware that patients need to start grass SLIT in early April for best results.