Decoding Health Care Costs

HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley is here to help YOU. As part of the HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley’s commitment to providing quality, patient focused and compassionate care, we strive to help our patients understand our billing process and payment policies. As a result, we’ve provided a blank bill with definitions (in red) for each section to help you better understand your bill.

Your Bill and Authorization of Services
The HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley hospitals appreciate your cooperation with our payment policies. Complete and accurate information should be presented at the time of registration. If insurance information cannot be provided at that time, patients should contact the Central Registration Department at 845.334.4259, as soon as possible. Upon discharge, the hospital will bill your insurance carrier for covered services rendered. Depending on what services you receive from the hospital, you also may receive a separate bill from your private physician, specialist, radiologist or laboratory. Learn more about this in the HealthAlliance Disclosure.Visit our insurance information page for more details and a list of insurance providers accepted by HealthAlliance.

View your hospital bill online here. If you don’t understand your bill, we’ve provided a document on how to read a HealthAlliance hospital bill as well as a consumer guide to healthcare prices from the Healthcare Financial Management Association. You can also pay for your bill online.

Co-Pay and Deductible Responsibilities
Co-pay or deductible responsibilities should be paid on the date of service. We accept Visa, Discover, MasterCard and American Express.

Patient Accounting Our Patient Accounting Department is open between the hours of 8:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, in order to assist our patients with resolution of their open accounts. Appointments can be scheduled to speak with one of our representatives outside of our normal hours upon your request. All information is kept confidential. For assistance, please contact the Patient Accounting Department at 845.334.2743. We understand the difficulties surrounding healthcare costs, that’s why we offer financial counseling, charity care and payment assistance to our patients. For more information, visit our financial assistance page.

HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley is here to help YOU. We understand the difficulties surrounding healthcare costs, that’s why we offer financial assistance to our patients.

Financial Counseling
The HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley hospitals offer an extensive counseling program for those unable to meet their financial obligations. We will assist patients with applications for Medicaid, Child Health Plus and Charity Care. For those not eligible for coverage, we can establish payment plans that will allow you to pay your bill over a period of time. The Patient Accounting Department will be happy to schedule a personal and confidential counseling session.

Charity Care and Payment Assistance
The HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley hospitals also offer a Financial Assistance Program (Charity Care), which assists individuals who are unable to pay their hospital bill. Applications for this program are available at registration, through the Patient Accounting Department and provided below. We encourage everyone having difficulty paying their hospital bills to inquire about our program.

Below are forms and additional information about our financial assistance services.

Charity Care Policy and Procedure Statement

Hospital Financial Assistance Application

Hospital Financial Assistance Frequently Asked Questions

For more information, please contact t he Patient Accounting Department at 845.334.2743.

The New York State Department of Health (DOH) has publicly released hospital-specific charge and cost data on its Health Data NY Website. The DOH, led by Commissioner Nirav Shah, M.D., M.P.H., is ushering in a new paradigm of greater healthcare cost transparency; the release of this data was one of his top priorities.

Here is a summary of the data that was released:

• The data are hospital-specific charges and costs derived from the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) inpatient data—the State’s database of all-payer claims data reported by hospitals to the NYSDOH. The actual payment to the hospital is not currently collected, and therefore was not released.
• The data elements are reported by All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (APR-DRG), the patient classification system utilized by the Medicaid program and some commercial payers, which contains roughly 1,400 DRGs.
• The charge data are what the hospitals reported to DOH. DOH derived the cost data by multiplying the reported charges by the hospital’s ratio of cost-to-charges (RCC).

Charges represented in this file do not reflect what hospitals are actually paid by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance due to a pre-negotiated rate structure with those payers as well as any financial assistance offered to patients who may qualify for such programs. New York State law also requires hospitals to provide financial assistance to ensure that low-income New Yorkers, who are unable to afford their bills, receive a discount.

The release of this data could cause some confusion among the public about why there may be a cost disparity across the state or region for the same procedures. There are many factors contributing to this, such as type of facility (i.e. Academic Medical Center or community hospital), where a facility is located in the state, and the overall rate of reimbursement from payers. Should you like to view hospital and charge information for our regional hospitals, please visit Health Data NY. Here is a screenshot and legend describing what you can expect to view on the Health Data NY website.