An “assignment of benefits” enables a physician who has provided services to an insured or managed care patient but has no contractual agreement with the payor to legally obligate the payor to pay the physician directly. An assignment is a legal transfer to the physician of any rights and benefits (as specified in the assignment agreement) the patient has under his or her contract with an insurer, health maintenance organization (HMO) or preferred provider organization (PPO). In such cases, the physician becomes the holder of the patients’ rights and benefits and may assert such rights and benefits against the patients’ plan or insurer, HMO or PPO. Without an assignment of benefits agreement, in many, the patient is required to pay the physician and then seek reimbursement from the payor. How in many cases, patients prefer that the physician secure payment from the payor, making the patient’s involvement in payment unnecessary. Physicians sometimes prefer this approach as well, as it eliminates the potential that the patient will fail to forward the insurance company’s check to the physician.Generally speaking, in order for the physician to receive payment from a payor with which the physician does not contract, an assignment of benefits form is needed.