Fees apply for new consultations, follow-up consultations, and there are additional fees for specialist outpatient investigations, including endoscopy. These are detailed below.
A hospital ‘facilities’ fee will apply for endoscopic procedures in addition to the consultant fee. You may receive a single bill covering consultants’ fees and hospital fees, or two separate invoices depending on circumstances.
Patients are responsible for settling all fees personally although in many cases the invoice will be settled directly by your insurance company. If you have medical insurance you are strongly advised to seek prior approval from your insurance company for the referral, and it is helpful to bring your insurance details and any authorisation code/number to your first appointment. In most cases insurance companies will provide separate authorisation references for your consultation and subsequent investigations.
Self-paying patients are not committed to continue all future care in the private system. At any stage during the care pathway you may transfer to the NHS for ongoing care should you nominate to do so. However once your care is transferred to the NHS you will be given the same priority on outpatient and surgical waiting lists as other NHS patients. You should be aware that NHS care provided under the name of Dr Ahmad may be delivered by non-consultant grade doctors working as part of his team.
List of typical fees applicable:
New consultation appointment: £325
Follow up consultation: £185
Insurance companies all provide different levels of reimbursement for consultation and procedures. Dr Ahmad’s fee structure is based on the WPA insurance schedule. We expect to be transparent with our fees and are happy to provide clarification before your appointment. You should check reimbursement rates with your insurance company to establish whether there will be an excess to settle personally.
In most cases insurance companies will provide separate authorisation for surgery from your original consultation reference.
If you are funding the cost of investigations yourself, we can offer ‘fixed price’ packages in conjunction with Nuffield Health and the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital.
Insurance company fees and ‘recommended’ consultants
Some of the larger health insurance companies promote consultants as ‘preferred’, ‘authorised’ or ‘recommended’ consultant partners. Some people mistakenly believe this relates to a quality rating.
The General Medical Council and the Royal College of Physicians are the only authorities who regulate our professional practice. Insurance companies preferentially recommend consultants on the basis of commercial agreements: generally a contract to charge a lower set fee in return to being recommended for referrals.
The choice of which consultant you see is an important decision. People commonly seek a personal recommendation from family, friends or their GP. Insurance companies will usually only mention the name of consultants with whom they have signed fee-agreement contracts.
We do not enter into these contracts and have a transparent fee structure for our services. In some cases there may be a small excess to pay which isn’t covered by your insurance company, as for many other types of insurance claim. You can establish this in advance by asking what your insurance company will reimburse and comparing it against our fee structure. We believe our relationship is directly with our patients and should be supported, not driven by insurance companies.