Can I dispute with a physician?

Question

This doctor has somewhat lied to me when I called him. He has two offices. The reason that I chose him was that he has office in Location A, and he speaks my language. However, he said for initial consultation, I will have to come to Location B.

At the end of initial consulation, he said "I don't see patients at Location A, so I will have to look in to that, but you won't be coming to me that ofen so coming to Location B shouldn't be a big deal."

I did not like that kind of explanation. I decided to stopped going to him because I didn't feel he was competent enough.

However, I still have to the bill for the inital consultation. Insurance took care of some of it, but I still have balance, but my issue is he has done nothing for me, and even made me to waste my time by not being truthful enough about him not seeing patients at Location B.

When I'm getting paid, I had to have provided money worth of work, but is this the system? Can I dispute this from an ethnical standpoint? What do u think?

Answer 1

He did spend time with you, right?  You did talk to him about your care, etc.  Whether you felt he was competent or not, he was using his best medical judgment in advising you.  So yes, you do need to pay him for his time, even if his advise stunk.  

The issue her is that you made the appointment expecting to get a certain value for your money.  You chose the doctor based on location(supposedly) and on language, not necessarily his expertise.  You assumed his level of expertise would meet your expectations.  He is the kind of guy who gives doctors a bad name with false advertising and a lure based on shared language.

He's not a very ethical man, but that is no reason not to be unethical yourself.  Besides, he'd hand it over to a collection agency and then you would be harassed and your credit would suffer.

I'm sorry that folks like that are allowed to practice.

what you can do is complain to the state licensing board- all docs have to be licensed.

Answer 2

My experience is that you can dispute all you want, but then his office turns over all unpaid bills to a collector who then does his bill collecting, so, disputing the doctor gets you nowhere since the doctor's no longer involved.  Sometimes, however, the doctor "writes-off" unpaid bills as a tax benefit, and so he is "paid" that way, although that's not a dollar-for-dollar write off, so, it's not as profitable for the doctor to do that, but it's better than getting nothing from an unpaid bill.  And then sometimes the bill collector can be a real pain in the assss, so you can pay them a small amount ($25-50.00 per month) until you're all paid up.  It's your choice.  God Bless you.

Answer 3

Just pay the bill.  :)