At Castro County Healthcare, we care about our patients.

  Our mission is “to provide high quality, ethical and cost-effective healthcare services that improve the health of the communities we serve.”

We do this by providing you with the care you need with skill, compassion, and respect. We do so in a clean, safe environment, involving your care, protecting your privacy, preparing you and your family for when you leave the hospital and helping you with your bill. We are committed to working with you and your family to meet your healthcare needs. We are here to serve you.

Patient Liason Services

  • To provide information about the range of services provided by Castro County Healthcare and community agencies. To educate and assist the patient and family on how to access services available to them.

  • To provide patients with financial assistance for their medical and prescription needs (Medicare/Medicaid, SSI, and County Indigent Health Care Program)

  • To discuss Health Care Power of Attorney, Physician Directive, Living Wills and other legal aspects to the patient and family

  • Participate in the development of a plan of treatment and discharge for each patient consistent with the patient’s individual, preferences,concerns, and choices

  • To promote the protection of vulnerable individuals against abuse, neglect and exploitation by making referrals when necessary to prevent further maltreatment

Your Rights and Protections Against Surprise Medical Bills

When you get emergency care or get treated by an out-of-network provider at a n in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center, you are protected from surprise billing or balance billing.

What is “balance billing” (sometimes called “surprise billing”)?

When you see a doctor or other health care provider, you may owe certain out-of-pocket costs, such as a copayment, coinsurance, and/or a deductible. You may have other costs or have to pay the entire bill if you see a provider or visit a health care facility that isn’t in your health plan’s network.

“Out-of-network” describes providers and facilities that haven’t signed a contract with your health plan. Out-of-network providers may be permitted to bill you for the difference between what your plan agreed to pay and the full amount charged for a service. This is called “balance billing.” This amount is likely more than in-network costs for the same service and might not count toward your annual out-of-pocket limit.

“Surprise billing” is an unexpected balance bill. This can happen when you can’t control who is involved in your care—like when you have an emergency or when you schedule a visit at an in- network facility but are unexpectedly treated by an out-of-network provider.

You are protected from balance billing for:

Emergency services

If you have an emergency medical condition and get emergency services from an out-of- network provider or facility, the most the provider or facility may bill you is your plan’s in- network cost-sharing amount (such as copayments and coinsurance). You can’t be balance billed for these emergency services. This includes services you may get after you’re in stable condition, unless you give written consent and give up your protections not to be balanced billed for these post-stabilization services.

Texas law protects patients with state-regulated health insurance (about 16 percent of Texans) from surprise medical bills in emergencies or when they didn’t have a choice of doctors. The law bans doctors and providers from sending surprise medical bills to patients in those cases.

Certain services at an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center

When you get services from an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center, certain providers there may be out-of-network. In these cases, the most those providers may bill you is your plan’s in-network cost-sharing amount. This applies to emergency medicine, anesthesia, pathology, radiology, laboratory, neonatology, assistant surgeon, hospitalist, or intensivist services. These providers can’t balance bill you and may not ask you to give up your protections not to be balance billed.

If you get other services at these in-network facilities, out-of-network providers can’t balance bill you, unless you give written consent and give up your protections.

Texas law also prohibits balance billing for any health care, medical service or supply provided at an in-network facility by an out-of-network physician or other provider and for services by diagnostic imaging providers and laboratory service providers provided in connection with a health care service performed by a network physician or provider.

You’re never required to give up your protections from balance billing. You also aren’t required to get care out-of-network. You can choose a provider or facility in your plan’s network.

When balance billing isn’t allowed, you also have the following protections:

  • You are only responsible for paying your share of the cost (like the copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles that you would pay if the provider or facility was in-network). Your health plan will pay out-of-network providers and facilities directly.
  • Your health plan generally must:
    • Cover emergency services without requiring you to get approval for services in advance (prior authorization).
    • Cover emergency services by out-of-network providers.
    • Base what you owe the provider or facility (cost-sharing) on what it would pay an in-network provider or facility and show that amount in your explanation of benefits.
    • Count any amount you pay for emergency services or out-of-network services toward your deductible and out-of-pocket limit.

If you believe you’ve been wrongly billed, you may contact the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at (800) 633-4227 or the Texas Department of Insurance at (800) 252-3439.

Visit https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises for more information about your rights under federal law.     

Visit https://www.tdi.texas.gov/medical-billing/surprise-balance-billing.html for more information about your rights under Texas law.

Contact Information

Plains Memorial Hospital
310 W. Halsell
Dimmitt, Texas 79027
Phone: 806-647-2191
Fax: 806-647-0934

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