Our patients fund their appointments through their private medical insurance policy or through self-funding. Unfortunately, we do not receive any funding from the NHS, so we cannot accept any NHS patients.
We are recognised by most of the major health care insurers however it is important that your policy includes mental health cover. It is very common for employers to provide private health insurance, and we are happy to accept this, but we ask that you are aware of what your policy covers.
We are not able to contact medical insurance companies on your behalf, so it is important that you have checked through the terms of your policy and have your policy information prepared. The information our Practice Team requires is:
- The name of the insurance provider
- The name of the policy holder
- Policy number
- Authorisation code
- Any excess on the policy
- Number of appointments pre-authorised or amount of funding available
Having this information prepared at the initial enquiry stage will ensure that our Practice Team can arrange an appointment for you as quickly as possible.
You are sometimes able to choose who you want to see but some insurance companies will give you the name of the person who they will be authorising appointments with. This is completely out of our control and if you are not happy with this, you will have to speak to your insurers. Please note that on some occasions the person the insurance company has chosen for you may not be the most suitable clinician, or they may not have availability to see you.
Some policies may have an excess amount and this needs to be paid directly to us. We will ask you about this at the first instance and this needs to be paid before the first appointment. It is also possible that your insurers will pre-authorise a number of appointments that we can provisionally schedule.
We remind all patients that any shortfall not covered by the private medical insurance company must be paid by the patient themselves and therefore we request your bank details, and permission to charge the card, in the event this happens.
Self-funding:
Many of our patients choose to fund the cost of their appointments themselves. We take pride in being very transparent about all of our costs and you will be made aware of any extra costs you may face (for example additional prescriptions outside an appointment).
If the appointment is going ahead remotely, for example over the phone or Zoom, we require patients to pay the entire cost of the appointment at least 48 hours before it is scheduled to take place. You will be reminded a week before the appointment about this and if payment is not made in time we unfortunately will have to cancel the appointment. We are able to take payments remotely over the phone (during restricted hours) or via bank transfer. We would be grateful if payment could be made by bank transfer please. We also accept cheques, but please let our Practice Team know early on if this is your preference, as payment will need to be cleared in our bank before the appointment can take place. This will involve additional time.
If your appointment is face-to-face, you are able to pay on the day, although we prefer payment in advance please. We accept all major credit and card companies apart from American Express.
You will receive a receipt from our accounts department after the appointment.
If you have any queries or concerns, our Practice Team would be more than happy to help. You can call them on 0370 162 0673 (extension 1) or email on [email protected]