Pre-Certification is the approval in advance by the Company for a medically necessary and covered medical procedure or service, or an elective admission to a Hospital for care. For certain procedures or services, your healthcare provider must receive prior approval from Colina. Procedures or services requiring Pre-certification or Pre-authorization from the Company, prior to services being rendered, are outlined in your Schedule of Benefits.  Your provider office will typically obtain the required Pre-certification, however, it is ultimately the Covered Person’s responsibility to ensure that the Pre-certification requirements have been met. We appreciate that there will be times when it will not be practical or possible for a Covered Person to contact us for prior approval, like in the case of emergency hospital admission. In circumstances like these, we require you to obtain Precertification within 48 hours after the date and time of admission, or as soon as reasonably possible thereafter. If you fail to obtain Pre-certification, Colina will only pay 50% of Usual, Customary, and Reasonable Charges (URC), after you have paid your applicable out-of-pocket expenses, and you will be responsible for the balance.