Dealing with health insurance and other benefits can be very confusing. If you have questions, please call your insurance representative to better understand how your policy works and what it covers.

Please bring your child's insurance identification card with you to UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. Your insurance may require prior authorization for your child to be seen by a UCSF doctor. If so, please have your child's primary care doctor or insurance company fax your authorization to the UCSF doctor's office and bring a copy to the appointment to ensure you aren't billed for medical services covered by your insurance. You may be called for insurance or authorization information before your appointment.

Your insurance may require an office co-payment. If so, you will be asked to make your co-payment in full at your visit. If your visit is not covered by a health plan or insurance, you will be asked to pay for your visit on arrival. For your convenience, we accept cash, checks and credit cards.

UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital contracts with many major health insurance companies. A list of health insurance companies that provide coverage for our services is available below.

Our hospitals and doctors do not contract with or participate in any health insurance discount card programs. They do, however, accept payments made through health savings account programs. We also can make financial arrangements for your coverage with health insurance companies that we don't have contracts with, if the companies are willing to do so. Please ask your insurance company or your UCSF doctor to contact our Health Plan Strategy and Contracting office at (415) 353–9020.

For background information, a glossary of health insurance terms and an explanation of private and public health coverage are available.

The following is a list of insurance companies that have contracts with us.

HEALTH PLAN	TYPE OF PLAN
Aetna (Except Aexcel Network)	All Plans
Aetna Citizen	HMO
Aetna Elect Choice (EC)	EPO
Aetna Managed Choice (MC)	POS
Aetna Open Choice	PPO
Aetna QPOS	POS
Aetna Select Choice, Referral Only	Medi-Cal HMO
Alameda Alliance for Health Medi-Cal Referral Only	Medi-Cal HMO
Anthem Blue Cross CaliforniaCare	HMO
Anthem Blue Cross CalilforniaCare     Medi-Cal and Healthy Families	Medi-Cal HMO
Anthem Blue Cross Medi-Cal/Healthy Families	Medi-Cal HMO
Anthem Blue Cross Plus	POS
Anthem Blue Cross Prudent Buyer	PPO
Anthem Blue Cross / Blue Shield Rare & Complex Cancer Network
ASMED Health Partnership	PPO
Beech Street (via Multiplan)	PPO
Blue Cross (See Anthem Blue Cross)
Blue Shield Access +	HMO
Blue Shield HMO Plus	POS
Blue Shield Preferred	PPO
Blue Shield Preferred Plus	PPO
Blue Shield SELECT	PPO
California Children's Services	State Program
Central California Alliance for Health, Referral Only	Medi-Cal HMO
Chinese Community Health Plan, Referral Only	HMO
Choice Care/Human	PPO
CIGNA	HMO
CIGNA POS	POS
CIGNA PPO	PPO
CorVel Corp.	PPO
Coventry / First Health	EPO
Coventry / First Health	PPO
Definity Health	PPO
Great West Healthcare (Cigna)	All Plans
Great West Healthcare (Cigna)	HMO
Health Net Blue & Gold	HMO
Health Net ELECT	POS
Health Net HMO	HMO
Health Plan of San Joaquin Referral Only	Medi-Cal HMO
Healthy San Francisco — UCSF Enrolled Members Only	City Program
Humana/Choice Care	PPO
Interlink — Transplant Network
Interplan Corp.	PPO
Kaiser Permanente ASO	PPO
Kaiser Permanente Added Choice/PHCS Network	POS
Kaiser Permanente Dual Choice/PHCS Network	PPO
Kaiser Permanente HMO, Referral Only	HMO
Medi-Cal	State Program
Merced Foundation for Medical Care	PPO
Multiplan (Includes Beech Street and PHCS)	PPO
Pacific Health Alliance	PPO
PacifiCare Choice	POS
PacifiCare HMO	HMO
PacifiCare PPO	PPO
Partnership Health Plan (Healthy Families), Referral Only	Medi-Cal HMO
PPO NEXT	PPO
Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP)	PPO
Private HealthCare Systems (PHCS) (via Multiplan)	PPO
San Francisco Foundation for Medical Care	PPO / EPO
San Francisco Health Plan Healthy Families Referral Only	HMO
San Francisco Health Plan (Medi-Cal) Referral Only	HMO
San Francisco Health Plan Primary Care	HMO
San Francisco Health Plan/SF Cares for Kids	Medi-Cal HMO
San Joaquin Foundation for Health Care	PPO / EPO
Stanislaus Foundation for Medical Care	PPO / EPO
TriCare Extra / TriWest (CHAMPUS)	PPO
TriCare Prime / TriWest (CHAMPUS)	HMO / POS
UCSF Student Health Services
United HealthCare CHOICE Plus	POS
United HealthCare CHOICE	PPO
United HealthCare	EPO
United HealthCare Options	PPO
United HealthCare Select Plus	POS
United Resource Network — Transplant and Oncology Networks
USAccess/Aetna	POS