Billing & Insurance

Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield Updates

January 17, 2024

Dear Patients,

     We are still in negotiations with Excellus BCBS to remain in their network of providers.  Thankfully, due to your incredible advocacy, Excellus granted us an extension of our in-network status through March 31, 2024.

     If Excellus BCBS does not continue us in their network of providers beyond March 31, then patients with Excellus insurance may find that:

- Your cost of care may increase

- Your choice of providers may be limited

- Your care access may be limited

     Please consider signing our Petition to CEO James Reed and Letter to NYS Senator Lea Webb for Excellus BCBS to offer us a long-term contract at our current rates, so that we may continue providing top notch Dermatology care to our patients and community.  Paper copies are available in the office and our front desk staff will be happy to collect your signed Petition/Letter and mail it for you, or you may also easily email us at [email protected] letting us know you would like to sign the Petition and Letter!

      As always, we are grateful for the opportunity to give our best in serving you and your families!  Please feel free to reach out with questions anytime.

Warmly and with thanks,

Dermatology Associates of Ithaca

P.S.  Patients with all insurance types are welcome to sign the Letter to NYS Senator Lea Webb—all signatures are helpful—and our front desk staff will be happy to collect your signed Letter and mail it for you!


PATIENT PETITION FOR LONG-TERM CONTRACT WITH NO RATE CUT FOR DERMATOLOGY ASSOCIATES OF ITHACA


To: President and CEO James Reed
Cc: Board Chair Faheem Masood and Vice Chair Tyrone Muse, II
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield
333 Butternut Drive
Syracuse, NY 13214

Dear Mr. Reed,

   We the below signed patients and participants in Excellus BCBS thank you for extending Dermatology Associates of Ithaca's in-network status through March 31, 2024. As patients of DAI, we sign this petition urging Excellus to offer to the team at Dermatology Associates of Ithaca a long-term contract at their same rates. Dragging out contract negotiations and refusing to pay our hardworking healthcare providers fairly and sustainably is not a good use of our premium dollars.


    As your customers, we expect choice, access to, and continuity of care. The cost-effective care at DAI, including early detection of skin cancer; inexpensive light therapy instead of costly biologic medications; substitution of less expensive generic medications whenever available; removal of moles and skin cancers via small shave biopsies instead of deeper surgery with stitches whenever possible; and accurate early diagnosis by their dermatopathology team provide huge ongoing and long-term savings to your company.


    The irreplaceable care that we receive at DAI is essential and of the highest standard.  Due to Ithaca's geographic isolation, losing this independent provider from the Excellus BCBS provider network would disrupt our ongoing care as well as reduce our access to Dermatology care.  A good use of our premium dollars would be to efficiently settle this contract negotiation at the same reimbursement level you have already have paid DAI’s team last year. We strongly urge that Excellus offer Dermatology Associates of Ithaca a stable long-term contract at their current rates so that we may continue to have access to high quality care and a choice of providers.

Respectfully yours,

First and Last Name:
Excellus Member ID Number:
Address:
Date:



PATIENT LETTER REQUESTING EXCELLUS LONG-TERM CONTRACT WITH NO RATE CUT FOR DERMATOLOGY ASSOCIATES OF ITHACA


To: The Honorable Lea Webb
Legislative Office Building, Room 848
Albany, NY 12247

Dear Senator Webb,

     I am a patient at Dermatology Associates of Ithaca (DAI), which is a small, independent, woman/minority owned medical practice in Ithaca, NY.

     I am writing to ask for your assistance in advocating for patients with Excellus BCBS insurance to preserve our access to high quality Dermatology care in Ithaca.  As I'm sure you'll agree, patients in geographically isolated areas such as Ithaca are just as deserving of high quality care as those in more urban areas.  Excellus' demand that DAI accept a significant rate cut in order to stay in their provider network—after a pandemic period in which independent medical practices experienced historic increases in the cost of delivering care—endangers our access to an essential specialty provider.  DAI is the only Dermatology practice in Ithaca with full-time providers, and the only Dermatology practice in Tompkins and Cortland counties serving patients with all insurance types—including the safety net insurances on which the neediest members of our community depend.  Everyone deserves to be paid fairly for the work they do; our representatives are paid for your work, as you should be, so why does the staff of DAI not deserve the same pay for doing the same work?  With DAI’s demonstrated decades-long commitment to patients, and our need for continuity of care, our community needs for Excellus to provide a fair and sustainable long-term contract to DAI.

     DAI's excellent, cost-effective care, with an emphasis on early detection and treatment, provides a huge ongoing savings to the medical system and particularly Medicare, which will bear the burdens of more urgent and more expensive health care costs as patients age if preventative care is not accessible when needed.

     If Excellus forces DAI "out of network," our costs will increase at a time when many of us cannot afford it, after we and our employers have already paid so much in annually increasing premiums, and after Excellus has received more than five straight years of NYS approved rate increases (over 10% in 2023!).  To make things worse, women of all ages already pay billions of dollars more than men on annual out-of-pocket medical expenses—the last thing they need is additional health care expenses when they are simply seeking timely and affordable health care.  All that DAI is asking is to be paid the same rates Excellus already paid them last year, via a stable long-term contract that removes the unpredictability and anxiety that Excellus' three-month-at-a-time extensions over the past year have created for our patients and community.

     I appreciate your help and ask for a response letting me know how you plan to help address this issue so that patients in Central New York with Excellus BCBS insurance may continue to receive high-quality in-network care, over the long term and without continual threats of disruption, with our trusted providers at Dermatology Associates of Ithaca.

     Thank you very much for your time and consideration of my request.

Sincerely yours, 

First and Last Name:
Excellus Member ID Number:
Address:
Date:


Check our previous BCBS updates HERE


Dermatology Associates of Ithaca accepts the following insurance care plans*:

√ Aetna
√ Excellus BlueShield BlueCross
√ The Empire Plan
√ GHI
√ HealthNow
√ Independent Health

√ Martin’s Point (US Family Health Plan)
√ Medicare (Free help for your Medicare questions, https://forms.gle/fj2d65Vd8Ga7...)
√ Medicaid
√ MVP/Cigna
√ UMR
√ Lifetime Benefits Solutions
√ Wellcare Medicare
√ Molina Healthcare


*While we try to be as informed as possible of our insurance partners, we do not know everything about every insurance plan. It is the responsibility of the patient to check with their insurance company to make sure our office is in network and their visit will be covered.



Have a balance? We are pleased to offer three easy ways to pay your bill!

1) Click here to pay online: https://mcallister.ema.md/ema/pay/onlinepay

2) Call our friendly billing team at: (607) 220-8411

    (Please leave a message and someone will return your call!)

3) Mail your payment to:
    Dermatology Associates of Ithaca, Billing Department
    PO Box 91
    Solvay NY 13209-0091


 The Dermatology Associates of Ithaca team is dedicated to providing patients with the best possible care including high quality billing services through our partner MedSelect .

Contact Us

Phone: (607) 257-1107

Fax: (607) 257-0369