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Q. What is Preferred Podiatry Group (PPG)?
A. Preferred Podiatry Group provides high-quality podiatric care to residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Our senior podiatric care plan has become an industry standard in the field of podiatry, expertly perfected since 1972. Long-term care facilities that we partner with benefit from our laser focus on quality assurance and a centralized team that relieves administrative burdens from their teams. To learn more about our podiatric care plan, please visit our services page.
Q. Where is the company located?
A. PPG provides services throughout most of the country with regional medical directors overseeing care. We are headquartered in Northbrook, IL. For our address and contact information, please visit our contact page.
Q. What days of the week do you provide services?
A. Care is available every day of the week, almost 365 days a year, based on the scheduling needs of the facility and patients.
Q. How long has PPG been in business?
A. PPG was founded in 1972, and we’ve been perfecting our podiatric care plan ever since. Learn more about our story here.
Q. How many doctors do you have?
A. There are over 80 podiatrists in our group and we’re always growing.
Q. Where is the service provided?
A. In the comfort of the nursing home or other long-term care facilities. We currently provide podiatric care to residents of long-term care facilities throughout the country. We’re always working to expand our reach, so if you’re outside of these areas please contact us!
Q. Are you involved with any health care associations?
A. You bet! We are active members of a number of health care associations and on many committees. Check out our extensive network of associations here.
Q. Can you provide references?
A. We take pride in our long list of glowing references from administrators, Directors of Nursing, corporate offices, and patients. Just send us a message and let us know what you need.
Q. Are your podiatrists Medicare participating providers?
A. Yes, our doctors take assignments from all carriers.
Q. Are your podiatrists from the local area?
A. The majority of our doctors are local to their assigned facility.
Q. Will the same doctor treat our patients on a regular basis?
A. Yes, you will have a dedicated assigned provider to take care of your residents and provide continuity of care. We also have additional providers in our group for emergency care if your primary podiatrist is unavailable.
Q. Are your podiatrists insured?
A. Yes, our company and every member of our clinical staff has liability and medical malpractice insurance.
Q. Are you podiatrists qualified to treat diabetic patients?
A. Yes. Our podiatrists are trained in diabetic podiatric care, along with many other specialized areas of podiatric care, and will be able to expertly treat your residents.
Q. Some of our patients have decubitus or diabetic ulcers on their feet, do you debride wounds?
A. Yes. We are highly qualified to do sharp resection/debridement of ulcers at bedside. This saves the cost of transporting your patient to a hospital and maintains continuity of care.
Q. Do you provide education for our nursing staff?
A. Yes, we provide education programs to our facilities as part of our comprehensive partnership.
Q. Does Medicare cover podiatry services for Hospice patients?
A. Yes, Medicare accepts hospice patients. However, Medicare does apply 20% coinsurance to services.
Q. If patients are having Medicare, will there be any bill sent to them?
A. Medicare covers 80% of the charges, the remaining 20% will be the patient’s responsibility. If the patient has active secondary insurance, Medicare balance would be covered by them. If not, the statement would be sent to the patient.
Q. Do we accept Managed care plans of Medicare/ Medicaid or any commercial Insurance?
A. Yes, we do accept, and the copay/coinsurance may apply.
Q. Do we see patients who don’t have any Medicare/ Medicaid insurance?
A. We do provide services if patients don’t have any active insurance and are willing to pay out of pocket. Statements will be sent to patients with self-pay discount.
Q. Do we send statements to patient’s family/ POA if requested?
A. Yes, we would update the address to which the patients want us to send the statements, and future bills will be sent to the provided address.
Q. Do we accept cash payments?
A. No, we do not accept cash, patients can make the payments thru our payment portal Pay.instamed.com/prefer.pod or call our billing department at 847-504-5000.
Q. Are there any late fee charges or do we charge anything extra to pay over the phone?
A. No, we do not charge. Patients will have to pay only the amount which is reflected in the statement.
Q. Do we have information about how much the insurance covers and if the patient needs to pay?
A. We would not have any information about this. Patients can contact the insurance company for their benefit details.
Q. "I received a statement stating a surgical procedure was done for 11055, 11056 or 11057. What does this mean?"
A. This means that the provider removed calluses and should list how many calluses were removed.
Q. How often do you schedule visits?
A. As often as is medically necessary. Individual patients are usually seen every 9 weeks. However, they may be seen more often as necessary for acute care, such as infection treatment. We may visit larger facilities more frequently, depending on patient need.
Q. What happens if an acute situation arises between scheduled visits?
A. In the event of an acute situation, please contact PPG directly and we will assign our nearest podiatrist to immediately follow-up with the patient.
For any other questions please contact us at: revcycle@ppgpc.com