Understand Your Bill

There are providers that assist with your medical care even though you do not see them. These providers commonly read lab results, x-rays, and EKGs, just to name a few.

There are times when patients can be admitted to the hospital and placed under observation by their provider. This gives the provider more time to monitor the patient’s condition, and it is considered to be outpatient services.

If you stayed in the hospital overnight, but the charges are outpatient charges, it is more than likely that you were placed under observation and that your condition didn’t qualify as an inpatient stay.

If you are coming to Altru Health System for an appointment, you will need to bring your insurance card, and update your information at the time of the visit.

If you are not coming in for an appointment, you can call the Altru Health System Business Office at 701.780.1500 to give your insurance information.

If you gave the correct insurance information at the time of, or before, your visit, it should go to your insurance company. If you are questioning whether it did, you can contact a customer service representative at 701.780.1500.

Sometimes when patients come in for preventative services, an underlying health issue is discovered. When that happens the visit now becomes a medical visit and not preventative due to the patient being treated for the new condition.

Your insurance carrier may require you to contact them to make sure that a procedure or service you are having done is medically necessary before they will authorize it or pay for it.

Coding is based on the service provided and the reason that service was needed, which is learned by reading the provider’s documentation of the visit. The insurance company typically does not have access to the provider’s documentation of the visit. When an insurance company says it was coded wrong, they mean your policy does not cover the code that is assigned. We have certified coders who have a very strong understanding of the state and federal coding rules and regulations. They use their knowledge to choose the most appropriate codes for the service that was provided based on the documentation. They are held to strict rules that do not allow them to code “for payment” and, in fact, can be penalized for doing that. We are happy to review the documentation to verify the coding was done correctly, but we cannot make any changes based on what the insurance company would pay.

We will always provide emergency medical services regardless of your insured status. For elective services, we may ask you to work with us to ensure you don’t receive a bill that you aren’t able to resolve after care is provided.

We have Financial Counselors that can help you through this process that can be reached at 701.780.5060.

We offer a 39% discount for uninsured patients.

When someone makes a payment, we apply it to the oldest account first. If the payment was more than the balance left on that account, it will be applied to the next oldest account. This can result in payments being distributed to multiple accounts.

We offer a 10% discount to all patients if the balance is paid within 30 days of the visit. 

Your payment is due in full at the time of services or upon receipt of your statement. If you need assistance in resolving your balance, please contact the Altru Business Office at 701.780.1500.

We realize that medical bills can be unexpected and overwhelming. We welcome the opportunity to work with you on your individual needs and do have financial assistance that includes payment plan options.

Contact a patient account representative at 701.780.1500.

Payment of your account is due in full at the time of service or upon receipt of your statement. We realize that medical bills can be unexpected and are difficult to resolve in full.

If you are having trouble paying your bill, please contact our Business Office at 701.780.1500. If the balance is not resolved in an acceptable manner, it may be forwarded to a collection agency, so please contact us so we can assist in resolving the balance.

Yes, we are happy to provide good faith estimates prior to services to help you make informed decisions about your care. The Price Estimates and Transparency page shares further details on how to get an estimate.

You may contact our Business Office at 701.780.1500 for further assistance.

If you have been approved for a payment plan on your account, you will receive a statement approximately every 30 days.

You may contact the Altru Business Office and speak with a customer service representative by calling 701.780.1500.

We accept cash, check, and most major credit cards.

Yes! MyChart is an online patient portal that gives you access to pay on your outstanding balance as well as communicate with your doctor, request prescription refills, access your test results, manage your appointments and more!