About Your Surgical Assistant Bill

Your surgeon determined that a Surgical Assistant was medically beneficial, and necessary for your procedure. At your surgeon’s request, a specialist Surgical Assistant from American Surgical Professionals worked closely with your surgeon to ensure the best possible outcome for you. Surgical Assistants help doctors minimize surgical times, which reduces both your risk of infection and the amount of time you are under anesthesia.

As a courtesy to you and your surgeon, we file a claim with your insurance carrier. You will receive an Explanation of Benefits statement (“EOB”) from your insurance company to let you know that they are processing your claim. The EOB is not a bill and may not reflect the final amount due for services; its purpose is to explain what is covered by your insurance company.

You will receive a final account statement from our billing company after we have concluded our efforts in pursuing our claim with your insurance carrier. This statement may include co-pay, deductible and/or co-insurance amounts due as required by your insurance plan. Such amounts may be subject to discounts.

Should you have any inquiries about our services or billing, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-855-816-7112 or 1-713-988-8400 during business hours (8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. CDT) and ask for the patient relations department.

How to Pay Your Bill

Have we sent you an invoice, and you’d like to pay it? Please click this link to submit payment securely via TSYS Payment Solutions, our payment processor.

Frequently Asked Questions – And Answers

What is a Surgical Assistant?
A Surgical Assistant is a highly skilled medical professional with specialty training to work closely with surgeons during procedures. A Surgical Assistant is different from a Surgical Technician, whose role it is to prepare, layout, and hand instruments to the surgical team. Surgical Assistants provided by American Surgical Professionals has an average of 15 years experience in this role, and participates in 3-4 times the number of surgeries per year as most surgeons.

“Why am I receiving a bill from you?
You were either designated as Self Pay or Private Insurance. If we sent the medical claim to your private insurance, this company has determined that you are responsible for a portion of the charges.

Why didn’t my surgeon tell me he was going to use a Surgical Assistant?
Many surgeons advise their patients prior to surgery. However, some do not wish to burden their patients with additional information that they feel would not be vitally important to their patient’s impending surgery and recovery. Your surgeon made many similar decisions, such as choice of anesthesia, type of instruments, etc.

Why did my surgeon use a provider not in my network?
Most surgical assistants – across all organizations – are not participants in insurance networks. We are currently working to negotiate contracts with many of the largest Payers.

My insurance company told me that the Surgical Assistant in my procedure is not licensed in the state where my surgery was performed. Does this issue mean that this individual is not qualified?
As of now, only Texas, Illinois, and Kentucky license Surgical Assistants. In other states, our Surgical Assistants are certified by one or more of these national organizations.

Why do I have to pay for a Surgical Assistant when I did not authorize this service? Since my surgeon requested the service, he or she should pay for it.
The hospital policy regarding this issue is stated on the surgical consent form. This form explains that certified surgical assistants may be called to help with an operation. The need for an assistant cannot always be predicted. When you selected your surgeon, you relied upon his or her good judgment to make decisions that were in the best interests of your health. As a practical matter, your surgeon was unable to discuss each of these decisions with you. After thoroughly reviewing your medical history and the surgical procedure that was to be performed, your surgeon determined that it was in your best interest for the safest possible performance of your surgery to have a surgical assistant present during your surgery.

Did you bill my insurance?
We normally receive insurance information from the hospital where you had your surgery. If this information is complete we will send a claim directly to your insurance carrier. If you wish to verify that the information we have is accurate & complete, please fill out the back of the stub that came with your bill giving us full insurance information, including your identification number, your group number, and the name of the insured person and his or her date of birth. Please also send us a photocopy of the front and back of your insurance card.