This page outlines the billing policy of the
Norman Parathyroid Clinic.  
All patients are required to acknowledge their understanding of this policy
prior to undergoing consultation with us.

Insurance Billing:  The billing staff of the Norman Parathyroid Clinic will submit all surgeon charges for your operation to your insurance company for you (specifically, this is the fee due the surgeon and the assistant surgeon for performing the actual operation). The cost of your operation that is covered by your insurance will be known prior to your operation, as will the amount (if any) of your co-pay, and any deductible that you still owe on your insurance for this year. We are preferred providers for most major health plans, including Medicare, BC/BS, Humana, Aetna, Cigna, and others. Each of these insurances cover the cost of the operation (the amount covered depends on your plan, your deductibles, and other plan-specific issues, but all cover parathyroid surgery). HOWEVER, do not confuse collecting operation fees from your insurance company for the surgeon's operation fee  with collecting  consultation fees directly from you.  Consultation fees are the patient's responsibility and cannot be submitted to the insurance company.  This is detailed further below. The consultation occurs days or weeks prior to you coming to Tampa for your operation, and this is not billable to any insurance company.

Payment of Co-Pay and Deductibles:  It is the policy of the Norman Parathyroid Clinic to collect your co-pay and any deductible still owed AT THE TIME OF SERVICE.  We will contact you to let you know your payment requirements and to help you make arrangements for payment prior to the day of your operation. Our billing staff will tell you the amount that is your responsibility prior to you coming to the clinic / hospital. If there are any questions regarding payment and the need to establish a payment plan, please email Barbara (Click Here)  to discuss (or call her at 813-972-0000) . Our policy (like almost all doctors') is that the patient is responsible for any outstanding payments not made by their insurance company. In almost all cases, this will be known before the operation.

Payment of Consultation Fees for Services Received Prior to Traveling to Tampa

Consultation Fee:  All Florida patients outside of the Tampa Bay area will be required to pay a $725 fee for the assimilation and organization of their medical chart, entry of this data into our extensive computer database for comparisons with thousands of other patients, a review of your chart and data by either Dr Norman or Dr Politz, and then a phone consultation with you by one of these doctors. Difficult cases are always reviewed by both doctors. Once your chart is reviewed, one of our two expert doctors will call you on the phone to discuss their findings. The chart we prepare for you will include labs, clinic notes, x-ray results, and other records from one or more physician's offices and labs. This chart will organize your calcium levels and parathyroid hormone levels over the past several years (as many as are available to us) and will show how your disease has progressed. Your information will be organized in such a way that will allow Drs Norman and/or Dr Politz to review all pertinent information regarding your parathyroid problem, helping them make recommendations regarding your needs and expectations post operatively. Your information will be entered into our computer database so that comparisons can be made between your parathyroid disease and thousands of previous patients we have seen with this disease previously. Dr Norman or Dr Politz will call you to discuss their findings and recommendations. This fee also covers the cost of our office negotiating payment from your insurance company for the cost of the actual OPERATION.  Patients who live in Florida but not in the Tampa Bay area will be charged a $725 Consultation Fee.  This fee is not covered by insurance and it will be your responsibility to pay. Remember, preparing your chart this way and consulting with you on the phone will almost always save you a day or two of travel to and from Tampa as well as the cost of a night in a Tampa hotel. It also speeds up the process, allowing us to see you and fix your problem all in one visit. It also allows us to compare your problem with thousands of others with the same uncommon disease so that we can make the best recommendations for you and increase your chance of cure. No other doctor in the world can offer this service. This fee is NOT billable to your insurance company, so don't ask them to pay it -- they will not -- it is NOT their responsibility. If you cannot afford this fee, don't ask for a consultation. Your insurance will not pay it.  YOU MUST UNDERSTAND..... YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY IS NOT REQUIRED TO PAY THIS CONSULTATION FEE AND THEY WILL NOT. BY FILLING OUT THE FORMS ONLINE AND FORWARDING YOUR INFORMATION TO US TO ASSIMILATE INTO A CHART, AND HAVING THAT CHART UNDERGO A REVIEW BY ONE OR BOTH OF OUR PARATHYROID EXPERTS MEANS THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED INTO A CONTRACT WITH US AND THAT YOU (NOT YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY) ARE 100% RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS CONSULTATION FEE.  YOU CANNOT ASK YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY TO REIMBURSE YOU FOR THIS FEE... THEY WILL NOT!

IMPORTANT. The consultation fee is for the consultation to determine if you have parathyroid disease and what our opinions are regarding surgery or no surgery. The consultation fee will be due even if we determine that you do not need surgery, or that surgery is not in your best interest. Furthermore, this fee is due if we decide you need surgery and you decide to be operated on somewhere else by somebody else. This is not a surgery fee, this is a consultation fee and if you ask for our opinions about your parathyroid disease and you go through the steps that lead to the preparation of a parathyroid-specific medical record for you and a review of your records by our experts ending with a phone consultation with one of our two parathyroid experts, then this fee is due. The fee is NOT dependent upon you having parathyroid surgery with us.

If you live outside of the state of Florida, the Consultation Fee is $1250. We have developed a very smooth process to bring patients from all over the US to Tampa for their mini-parathyroid surgery, however, since it takes more time and effort by our staff to work with insurance companies and physicians from outside Florida, ALL patients from outside the state of Florida are required to pay a $1250 Consultation Fee. We will work with your insurance company to collect as much from them as possible for the cost of the OPERATION, decreasing the financial burden to you as much as possible. However, the chart preparation and consultation fee is NOT paid by insurance companies and will be your responsibility. Of course this fee covers all those items covered in the paragraph above regarding Florida patients, so you must read the section above for details.

If you require a second surgery (or third, etc) for parathyroid disease because a previous surgeon was unsuccessful then the "Consultation Fee" is $2000. This fee will be applied to ALL patients regardless of what state they live in. This fee covers all aspects of "re-do" neck surgery. This type of surgery is much more complex than first-time neck operations and there are few doctors in the US who do this type of operation with any frequency. Dr Norman and Politz performs more re-operations for parathyroid disease than any other surgeons in the world (they do at least 1 or 2 every day, sometimes as many as 4 times per day!). Your chart is more complex. The disease is more complex. The decisions preoperatively and intra-operatively are more complex. Our computer database of these patients is unparalleled. YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY WILL NOT PAY THIS FEE. IF YOU CANNOT AFFORD THIS FEE, THEN DO NOT ASK US TO PERFORM YOUR RE-DO PARATHYROID SURGERY, AND DO NOT ASK US TO CONSULT WITH YOU REGARDING YOUR PREVIOUS FAILED PARATHYROID SURGERY. This is very difficult surgery and nobody has ever done more of this than Dr Norman. THIS FEE WILL HAVE TO BE PAID BY THE PATIENT, NOT THE INSURANCE COMPANY. You cannot ask your insurance company to cover this fee, or to reimburse you for this fee.

If you live in Tampa and come to our office for an office consultation then the Chart Prep and Data Entry Fee is $150. This is an additional fee that is NOT covered by your insurance, and is your responsibility. This fee is in addition to your insurance co-pay and deductibles (if any). This fee is payable prior to your office appointment or at the time of your appointment. Your insurance WILL NOT PAY THIS FEE. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS FEE.

By acknowledging this form (by checking the box on the Insurance Information Page of this Website) patients understand that this Consultation Fee is considered a non-covered service by their insurance company and/or Medicare. By submitting your records for review you agree to be financially responsible for payment of this chart review and phone consultation charge. Remember, you are not just paying for the phone call, you are paying for the expertise and interpretation of your entire chart by the world's most experienced parathyroid team. You are also paying for the extra time and effort it takes for our staff to work with out of area and out of network insurance companies.  Also realize that this method almost always allows you to avoid an extra day (or two) in Tampa since you will be able to meet with Dr Norman and Dr Politz the morning of the operation instead of a day or two prior to the operation. Thus this policy saves you travel expenses, hotel bills, office visit fees, and time away from home. It also speeds up the time it takes to get your problem cured by about 1 month.

Telephone Consultations:  Before patients travel to Tampa from out of state (or from long distances within Florida), Dr. Norman or Dr Politz will consult with them on the phone to discuss their case and treatment options, and to answer questions. This will be done following the completion of your file so that one of these two doctors can review all of your records/labs/doctor's notes and x-rays.  The Norman Parathyroid Clinic will not charge specifically for the phone consultation because it is included in the Consultation Fee.  Which doctor calls you is RANDOM. Both doctors perform almost every operation together (they operate as a team).

Additional Charges Applicable to those who have had a needle biopsy of their parathyroid gland prior to becoming our patient. Needle biopsy of parathyroid glands or parathyroid tumors should never be done. It damages the tumor and can make the operation extremely difficult. It also increases the risk of surgical complications by at least 100 fold. This cannot be over stressed. We reserve the right to refuse to operate on any patient that has had a needle biopsy (any gauge) of their parathyroid gland. Should we agree to operate on a parathyroid tumor that has had a FNA or other type of needle biopsy performed, then we may charge an additional fee that is NOT covered by your insurance. This fee will be $500. You will be required to sign an additional consent acknowledging this fee, also stating that you understand that the needle biopsy of the parathyroid gland increases the risks and potential complications of the operation greatly. Patients who have had a needle biopsy of a THYROID gland are NOT subject to this additional fee. Our policy is backed by several recent publications on this topic in major medical journals documenting the dangers of parathyroid needle biopsy: Diagnostic Aspiration of Parathyroid Adenomas Causes Severe Fibrosis Complicating Surgery and Final Histologic Diagnosis. Thyroid. 2007 Sep 22. Any patient that may be subjected to this additional fee (those that had a parathyroid biopsy, which is less than 1 percent of the patients that we operate on) will be notified of this PRIOR to being scheduled for the operation, and prior to them traveling to Tampa.  The $500 fee must be paid PRIOR to the operation. This fee will NOT be paid by your insurance company and is your responsibility. This fee is not negotiable. You cannot submit this fee to your insurance company. DO NOT let anybody stick a needle in your parathyroid gland and you won't have to worry about this fee.

Appeals:  All patients have the right to appeal any decision that is made by their insurance / Medicare carrier about any payments or refusal of services. This is federal law.