Insurance Coverage
You should know the following information pertaining to your insurance prior to your visit. Your insurance coverage should fall under one of these categories:
- Traditional fee-for-service health insurance plans are usually the most expensive choice. But they offer you the most flexibility when choosing healthcare providers.
- Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) offer low co-payments and cover the costs of most preventative care, but your choice of healthcare providers is limited.
- Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) offer low co-payments like HMOs but give you more flexibility when selecting a provider. A PPO gives you a list of providers you can choose from.
If you go outside the HMO or PPO network of providers, you may have to pay a portion or all of the costs.
- Medicaid and Medicare Part B are accepted by podiatrists in New York State In New York State, an expansion of Medicaid in 2012 allowed program recipients ages 21 and older with diabetes to obtain podiatry coverage from private practicing specialists.
Currently, Medicaid and Medicare cover services for medically necessary treatment of foot injuries or diseases (like hammertoes, bunion deformities, and heel spurs). This also includes metabolic, neurologic, and peripheral vascular diseases, including, but not limited to:
- diabetes,
- peripheral neuropathies involving the feet,
- foot issues related to malnutrition or alcoholism, and
- multiple sclerosis foot issues.
When diabetic patients are diagnosed with neuropathy and loss of sensation in the feet, Medicare and Medicaid may pay for routine examination and treatment of the feet once every six months.
