<p>I have an appt with my reg. Doctor for my yearly check-up. When I called to make the appt several weeks ago, receptionist informed me that if I cancel the appt I will receive a bill for $25. Keep in mind that I am an established patient, with full medical coverage and have never cancelled an appt before. I politely informed the receptionist that if the Doctor decided to cancel, I would expect to be paid the $25. The way I see it, this works both ways. Needless to say, she said that she would inform the Doctor. Now, I can understand that a doctor’s time is valuable. However, my husband (an attorney) considers his time just as valuable and does not charge his clients(many of whom are doctors) when they cancel much less keep them waiting in the waiting room for hours sometimes. None of my other doctors have this rule and certainly I would understand it if I was a patient that had cancelled before. What do you think?</p>
<p>I have encountered many professionals who charge for “no shows.” But I’ve never heard of being charged for a cancellation. Any chance you misunderstood?</p>
<p>When health care providers or insurance companies would bill me for services for which I had already paid, I started billing them $50 per encounter. I would type out an official-looking invoice, with date, and whether it was a phone call or a letter. If I read their bill, it was $50; and if I responded, it was another $50. I applied 18% per year interest. I started sending them “statements”, with a note that said they were being charged for the statement as an encounter, and that failure to respond within 7 days would be viewed as acceptance of the charge. If they responded (but hadn’t cancelled the bill), they got charged another $50.</p>
<p>Needless to say, I never collected a single dime. Neither did they.</p>
<p>I agree with OP. I hate it when doctor’s office assume their time is more valuable. Some particularly culture think it’s ok to let patient wait(1-1.5 hours). I switched doctor after this happened a few times and made it clear to my new doctor the reason why I switched. I never have to wait more than 30 minutes for the new doctor.</p>
<p>No, I did not misunderstand. In fact, receptionist told me that she had surgery with an Neuro and had to cancel one of the follow-up appts at some point and was charged $40! I told her that I certainly understood that she did not make the rules, but that I felt that these doctors were taking the cancellation policy just a little too far. My former doctor, now retired, used to discount his bill if he kept you waiting in the waiting room. Also, I can remember being called by his receptionist early in the morning if he knew that he was late or had an emergency to give me a choice of rescheduling or to plan to arrive later that day. I guess there just aren’t very many of these kinds of doctors around anymore!</p>
<p>My current doctor is like that, more respectful of patient in terms of time, advice, everything. Most people I talk to in the waiting room speak very highly of him. He just graduated and only work as a doctor for less than 2 years but he now takes no new patient. He is not greedy, I think, budget enough time to be with each patient and not rush them.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t beat up the doctor too much. Most MD’s are now employees, not sole proprietors. They do not make the decisions on these matters, the CFO does. It’s out of their hands.</p>
<p>So again you have an industry where the decision makers never have to deal with the ripple of their “decisions”, some poor receptionist does. </p>
<p>We always are crappy to the little people for decisions the big fish make. </p>
<p>If I were faced with a policy like this the first person I would call would be the cfo. They are like vampires, drag them out into the light of day and they pretty much disolve.</p>
<p>I used to think that doctors’ cancellation fees were reasonable. But last winter, I broke my leg, and I repeatedly cancelled office appointments with my orthopedic surgeon because they happened to fall on days when it had just snowed. There was no way that I would be able to get across an icy parking lot on crutches. </p>
<p>Perhaps other people’s reasons for cancelling are as good as the reason I had for rescheduling those appointments last winter.</p>
<p>I have walked out of a doctor’s office, if I have had to wait more than 10 minutes. I tell the receptionist that I will have to reschedule as I cannot continue to wait. Emergencies are one thing, but chronic mis-scheduling in the belief that my time has no value sets me off.</p>
<p>It is not a problem with my current internist. I left the last one for other reasons than the waiting room annoyance, but that was one of my dissatisfactions. Not all practices are run that way.</p>
<p>I have a 30-minute rule. If they don’t see me within 30 minutes of my appointment time, I’m out of there. That said, if the receptionist/nurse tells me he/she was just called to an emergency, that’s fine. One day it might be my emergency.</p>
<p>I have left doctors (and hairdressers!) for this exact reason, and I’ve told them why and requested my records be sent to a different doctor. Don’t know if it made a difference in the way they practice, since I’m no longer a patient.</p>
<p>I’ll give them 30 minutes, but I won’t wait longer than that–for anybody, much less a doctor–unless the person notifies me that there’s been some unforeseen emergency. After 30 minutes, I also walk right out, and simply reschedule. </p>
<p>I did receive a dentist bill once for a cancellation I made-- within 48 hours of the scheduled appt. I was stunned to receive the bill in the mail and called and told him I wasn’t about to pay it; he eventually started talking court dates; I said, fine, and then went on to tell him that I knew how much a dentist, working by himself, depended on good word-of-mouth (so to speak), and I’d be sure to let all my friends know about him and his cancellation policies. He immediately backed off, apologized, and also sent me a follow-up apology letter, incredibly groveling. I obviously never went back to him, never paid the cancellation fee, and <em>still</em> told everybody about him and his inane cancellation policies. In fact, whenever the word “dentist” comes up, I tell this story, and I always name names. ;)</p>
<p>Opie, all of my doctors own their own practice with others or just by themselves. I never or haven’t had to go to doctors that work for place like Kaiser( as example) so there is no CFOs involved.</p>
<p>“Opie, all of my doctors own their own practice with others or just by themselves. I never or haven’t had to go to doctors that work for place like Kaiser( as example) so there is no CFOs involved”</p>
<p>As B Dylan sang… The times they are a changing…</p>
<p>How old are your md’s?</p>
<p>My current dentist also owns his own practice, with a partner. He is around 45; she is in her mid-thirties; my primary physician is in a practice of 4–also not connected to any larger group (ie, Kaiser). The 4 vary in age, from one just out of med school, two in early 40’s, to one in late 50’s. The one just out of med school did just replace someone who retired. I also have never gone to a doctor or group that worked for, or is owned by, a bigger organization/corporation.</p>
<p>The family practice we’ve been using for almost 15 years (we began seeing them within a year of their finishing their residencies) finally gave up the fight of running their own practice, and now are employeed by the hospital corporation where they had privileges at. That’s what many doctors are doing now… being employeed by a hospital corporation, so the CFO would be whoever runs that hospital. In practicing this way, the physician’s salaries go up (believe it or not, on their own, they don’t make as much money as people assume - especially family practice docs), and all the support staff, are also employees of the larger corporation, meaning the docs don’t pay them from their profits. </p>
<p>But back to the question at hand regarding how docs handle no-shows or late cancellations, and those of you who will only wait a half hour - and this may sound picky, but what constitutes that half hour? From the time you walk in the door until the doctor walks in the examination room to see you, or the walk-in time until you’re called back. I’m sure we all have stories of being taken to a room, asked to change into a examination gown, then left for way longer than a half hour for the doc to show up. At that point, do you just get dressed and leave?</p>
<p>My point is that my doctors aren’t employed by insurance companies; they’re employed by the hospitals themselves.</p>
<p>I agree with posters who don’t make a stink if it’s an emergency that creates the tardiness, because I think we all want our physicians to be immediately available to us when we have an emergency.</p>
<p>Very often when a doctor is late, it’s because a lot of patients usually want more information or more care than the time allotted for them. Instead of just addressing the specific problem they made the appt for, they take out a laundry list of other ailments they want the doctor to address. Sometimes they would even bring a parent or a child with them and say,“Can you just take a look at this for my mom (child)?”</p>
<p>Patients usually judge their primary care doctors by the time spent with them. They usually don’t think that every extra minute they go over their allotted time, they are making others wait.</p>
<p>If doctors are paid by time spent (like attorneys), I’m sure the waiting time will be a lot shorter.</p>
<p>teriwtt: Good question; for me, that 30 minutes includes everything. I’ve definitely gotten up and left an exam room and have had no problem doing so.</p>
<p>For those who leave after 30 minutes, what do you do? Go to another doctor or just let whatever it is untreated?</p>
<p>I have also. Generally speaking, if my appointment is for 2:30 PM, I expect to be talking to the doctor no later than 3:00 PM. I have put on my clothes and left after waiting in the exam room.</p>
<p>My current experience with doctors is, however, very good. My worst experience was with an orthopedist, after my son broke his arm. Waited an hour and 20 and was just about to leave when they ushered us into the exam room. They THEN took x-rays, which they could have done while we were waiting. I gave the doc a piece of my mind and, as I was leaving, he waived the co-pay. i wrote him a nasty gram telling him that I was perfectly prepared to spend the co-pay but I was not prepared to have my son and I spend a collective three hours in his office waiting.</p>
<p>To add insult to injury, however, I later got a bill for the co-pay, and had to argue with his staff that he had really agreed to waive it.</p>
<p>I ain’t going back there. Ever.</p>
<p>It depends what the issue is as to whether I go to another doc or leave it untreated. obviously, if it were something critical, I’d see another doc.</p>
<p>I believe if there is a cancellation policy, the patient must read it and sign it if they agree to it. If you don’t agree, or if the policy turns out to not be what you agreed to, that is the time to walk way. Some doctors refuse to work for large groups because they want to decide how much time they will spend with potions. Walking way means accepting all of the risk. The risk of having to pay your vent, your employees, your insurance, even when your not getting paid. In some specialties, and in some populations, the risk of not getting paid is huge.Each doctor who tries to run his own business has to figure out how to make it work. Some double book, some extend their day to accommodate all the intangibles, and some bill once they have “sold” their time, and can’t get it back. This may be a stretch, but I believe this is how hotel and airline reservations work. In exchange, the customer knows he has a seat on the plane.</p>