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So what happened? Did you argue with them? Did you just pay it? That sucks.
Hmm....is there anyone of hire management you can take it up with? Kind of seems odd that you asked , and they said no, then charged.
Was it a different kind of fee- like an office viist type deal. What exactly did they charge for?
@serabell: I would absolutely argue this. Just because they are the doctors office you don't just have to do what they say. If you went to a restaurant and tried to order a meal that was on the menu for $5 and then they tried to charge you $50 would you pay it? Heck no. I would refuse to pay it and find a new eye doctor stat.
My doctors office did the same thing while I was getting the HPV shot (3 rounds). They charged me a co-pay for every visit, but my insurance company caught it and demanded the doctors office refund me and that when I paid for the first visit I paid for the other 2. So I got the money back.
I would ask to see what their policys are in writing for follow up appointments and if the eye doctor owns his own practice I would talk to him again and let him know that you were charged for both visits. I could understand the first, but not the follow up. If he doesn't then I would look for whomever does and request a refund.
The people at the "billing" desk may not be looking at what you are in for, and know that the appointments are x amount of money and are just in the habit of charging. (This doesn't make it right, but that is what happened to me).
I had them bill me, so I haven't paid yet. I don't mind paying the first one, but the 2nd exam I don't want to pay.
@futuremrsmp: Well on Monday I did kinda try to argue it by saying we were told over the phone it was free, but I didn't want to make a scene. Plus she was pretty rude & DH was in a lot of pain, so I just wanted to leave so we could get him his medicine. She explained that we came in for a contact lens fitting exam but DH had an eye infection, so there's a charge. We explained the symptoms to them over the phone before we went in & they said the contact lens follow up makes it free. This time, I was like when I came in the other receptionist said it was free, but she said its $50. They KNEW it was a follow-up exam to an eye infection & there were other customers there & the same rude receptionist & the eye dr had another appt when we walked out.
@Eva Peron: Well the first one the name of the appointment changed, but the 2nd one nothing changed at all.
@Moose1209: Well we love the eye dr, its the receptionist we don't like. The eye dr is nice & helpful. He gave us free samples of medicated eye drops for DH's eye infection on Monday, when if we got the prescription at the pharmacy it was $90.
I think doctors nowadays are kind of shady. They always want you to come into the office, no matter how small your issue. Then there's always a follow up visit that you have to pay for again.
Oh and my oral surgeon was a total crook. They didn't mention a thing about me paying a cent for my wisdom teeth surgery until after I had been operated on and drugged up. As I was leaving they demanded $400 that would be 'sent back to me' once they were reimbursed by my insurance company. Well you can guess what happened. I followed up every day for 3 months and they stopped answering the phone once they memorized my number. They kept claiming they still hadn't been reimbursed by my insurance, but I knew they had been. But both the dr. and my insurance company kept pointing the finger at each other, and I can't afford to hire a lawyer so I eventually just gave up.
@dallasbride2012: That's a good idea, thank you. Yea I'm not going to try to fight the first visit, but I will try to fight the second. I think when I go in to pay the first visit, I'll talk to them about the policies & see if the dr is there. & I will try to talk to a different receptionist person, or I'll ask for the billing person.
@moderndaisy: Aww wow that's a lot worse than my issue :(. That's horrible, they charged you while you were on wisdom teeth drugs? Can you fight it through your bank? Weird thing is, DH & I haven't ever had eye issues (except for needing glasses/contacts) & we've been to that eye dr 3 times in the past year for eye stuff & they never asked for a follow-up. Its just DH's eyes were horribly bad Monday, like he couldn't keep them open for more than a few seconds. Eyes are the 1 thing we'll go to the dr for.
@serabell: I worked for an eye doctor, and for us we charged for the first visit but the follow-up was generally free. If one receptionist told you one thing, and another receptionist told you another (and you can't work it out with them directly), I would call and ask that the eye dr to call you and talk to them directly, or wait until the doctor has a free moment and talk to them in the office in person. Tell them what you were quoted, and see if they'll work with you, because they are in charge and need to know if their receptionist is wrongfully charging people.
We've had people do that with one of our opticians. She had a stroke a few years ago, and still works well, but sometimes if she has to learn something new or think quickly she becomes extremely stressed because her brain can no longer handle certain situations and comes across as rude and abrasive to patients. Since it is her personal problem we try to keep it private unless a patient becomes insulted by her behavior and we have to explain. There may be something like that going on or the receptionist could need be evaluated by the eye doctor concerning her ability to work politely with patients.
Regarding the comment about Dr's telling you to come in when you call..this is standard practice now because SO many people are sue happy. Lets say you were having a pain in your leg, they told you keep an eye on it, and then it turns out you had DVT, you may sue them for negligence. I work in the veterinary field and its the same way, many new grads are TAUGHT the CYA (cover your ass) method above anything else. Which ultimately translates into "come in if youre concerned".
@moderndaisy: I understand how you feel, but please try to remember, doctors usually need to physically look at you to know whats wrong. A red eye can literally be caused by about 20 different things, its UNBELIEVEABLE!! (this is what I'm going to school for) Until you actually physically look at it and sometimes until you test it, a doctor can't prescribe anything because it will make it worse if they guess wrong (which over the phone that's all it would be, a guess). My eye dr always says "I can't diagnose over the phone" which means you have to go in for every little thing, because if they guess wrong, and you get worse, they'd get sued.
As for the oral surgeon, that was extremely bad practice and against ethical policy. Maybe you can get in contact with his state board license committee and ask them to investigate? If his business essentially stole money from you, they should be required to do something and maybe revoke his license. That or they may have some helpful suggestions.
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DH's eyes were red on Sunday after he wore his contacts, & Monday they were still red so we went to the eye dr. We were told the exam was free, it would be a free follow-up to his contact lens exam he had about a month ago. It turned out DH had an eye infection. So we leave & we were told we had to pay around $50 for the exam. I understand its not their fault he had an eye infection & wouldn't have minded if they had told us that sooner. It felt kinda sneaky but whatever, we would've gone even if it wasn't free.
What makes me mad is they told us on Monday to come in on Friday (today) for a follow up. So we go in & ask BEFORE we see the doctor if we would be charged for this. They said there should NOT be a charge, its just a follow-up. So we do the exam & when we leave we're told we had to pay again for this exam. This is what made me upset. If we were told we would be charged, we would have canceled the exam because DH's eyes looked completely fine. All they did was look at his eyes again & say "keep doing what we told you on Monday & come back if it gets worse".
We don't have insurance & to us, this is a lot of money... but its the principle of the thing. I may be more upset cause it happened twice in the same week at the same place. But seriously, that's not good business for us to be told two different exams were free & then charge us.