<prompt> Human: I am an established patient in a large, specialty medical practice. When I called to request a medication refill, I was told that they no longer accept my insurance and I will have to find another doctor to continue my treatment. I do not want to change doctors and asked about paying cash self-pay for my office visits. The practice manager said that was not possible because the self pay option is only available to patients that dont have insurance. Because I am insured, Im not allowed to pay cash; and because they no longer accept my insurance, I have to leave the practice. After pushing the issue further, they discovered my insurance policy has out-of-network benefits so I am now allowed to continue seeing my doctor. I explained that under HIPAA Section 13405 of Subtitle D of the HITECH Act 42 USC 17935, I have a right to request my insurance not be billed. They said it is their agency policy that if I have active insurance coverage, I have to use it. Now, if my insurance changes for 2018 and I no longer have out-of-network benefits, I will have to leave the practice. To get around this rule, it was suggested that I not tell them about my insurance. As an established patient, that is going to be difficult since they already have me in their system and can easily run eligibility verification electronically. I love my doctor, but Im fairly certain his practice is in violation of HIPAA and has uninformed management setting practice policy or a billing manger that doesnt know how to setup their PM software. I would like to escalate my complaint further since I am not satisfied with the managers response, this has always been our policy. I think they are wrong and need to change their policies, but Im not sure where to go from here. In the end, I want the option to use my insurance OR pay cash for services. Changing doctors is not option for me at this point in time.  <response>: Im fairly certain his practice is in violation of HIPPA its HIPAA - but more importantly your clinicians offices policy is BS, has nothing to do with HIPAA rules, theyre just attempting to rationalize their weird business practice.Despite your feelings, changing doctors is always an option, however uncomfortable - but YOU should be uncomfortable that your clinician is blithely prepared to let hisher staffs rigid billing practices harm one of hisher patients. 