Patient FAQ
What exactly is Intraoperative Neuromonitoring (IONM)?
Your physician has referred you to Denver Neurodiagnostics for the purpose of providing intraoperative Neuro monitoring during your surgical procedure. Intraoperative Neuro monitoring is a procedure that is performed during your surgery to protect the functional integrity of neurological structures that may be at risk. This service will provide real time information to the surgeon and the surgical team. The Neuro Monitoring technologist is an important member of the operating team as they help the surgeon by putting safe-guards in place to alert the surgeon if the neuro- structures are at risk during the operative time.
Your neuromonitoring tech will use small subdermal electrodes, similar in size to those used for acupuncture, after you are asleep under anesthesia. Your technologist will then take baseline measurements of your neural pathways to safe guard during your surgical procedure. They will then continuously take measurements for the duration of your procedure to monitor and maintain neural integrity against those initial baseline signals. Your technologist is board certified and trained to continuously monitor your signals and communicate with your surgeon. Should any warning thresholds be met, the technologist will alert your surgical team immediately to prevent any potential post-operative deficits.
Will my insurance cover this?
Denver NeuroDiagnostics will bill your insurance carrier directly for the costs associated with intraoperative monitoring used during your surgery. With this in mind, we would like to ensure you that you WILL NOT be balanced billed for any portion of the IONM service provided by Denver NeuroDiagnostics that is not covered by your insurance company. You may receive documents regarding IONM services from your insurance company that may include, but not limited to, an Explanation of Benefits (EOB). This EOB is also not a bill; however, you may read a “What You Owe” or “Patient Responsibility” section. Please do not be concerned as Denver NeuroDiagnostics will not Balance Bill any of our patients for any reason and are more than happy to review this with you at any time.
Across the nation, there are currently no known in-network providers for this service. You have the right to receive in network payments for these services from a non-network provider under a Colorado senate bill. The purpose of this document is to assist you in the complex billing procedure by allowing us to bill your insurance company for services performed by an out of network provider. We contract MTBC Gulf Coast Billing, an out of network billing specialist to help make sure that the insurance pays the claim correctly. As the patient, under no circumstance will you be liable for a payment outside of what is agreed upon by your insurance company or ever be balanced billed.
Have more questions? Please contact us anytime!