My doctor is refusing to treat us anymore due to $$!

i am sorry.
its all a business now... so sad

Sorry to hear that, I wonder how many of those letters got sent to other patients? The doctor could be struggling too!

That's horrible! If I have a baby and I can afford it, I want to have it in France now.

That is really sad..But, I know how you feel

Thanks for posting on Getting to 3000 Together

I am sorry to hear that :(

I would call the office and talk to them right away. It is probably a form type letter that they sent out to anyone with a balance. Since you have been paying regularly, there is NO reason for them to turn it over to collection.

Good luck. You seem to have a good relationship to the doctor and I would go to her if need be, and have her put in a word for you with the business office.

I would just call them. It is probably more of an automatic letter.

As long as you are making efforts to pay on a scheduled basis, I don't think they can legally turn you over to a collection agency. See if you can find a legal aid group and ask them. If your doctor refuses care due to money, you probably really didn't need that particular doc anyway. Sounds like they are too money greedy.
Good luck.

money. it seems to me that the world runs on money. it runs better for those who have and not so well for those who don't. but i do agree with all the other comments above mine. that you do have a good relationship with your doctor and that your doctor should take into consideration that you have paid your substantial debt down to just $250.00. read my article on 'My Experience at A County Hospital'

I'm so sorry to hear about that and you could have bankrupt the doctor bills but didn't. I feel that your case is a special one and needs special consideration. Continue to pay what you can on the bills. Pay your housing costs, electric bill, telephone bill, food and gas first and pay what you can to whom you can second. Keep first things first.

What about financial assistance? A lot of hospitals and doctors have programs that assist people with their medical bills.

I would hope if you talk to them that you can work something out. Also.. for future reference (having been in your situation)... always pay the Dr off first.. that is a 'small business' where the hospitals can sustain themselves easier and often write things off. Also with the hospital you could have asked for a hardship exemption or a settlement amount. The hospital would not be able to turn you away in the future like your Dr can.
I'm sorry you are in this situation and I hope you are able to work something out with them. Give em a call!

I bet it was an automated letter, maybe even sent by someone new in the office or an accountant trying to close the books on old debt.

As far as I know as long as you are making payments they cannot turn you over to collections. Collection is for people who do not pay their bills.

I wouldn't even fret until I actually called and spoke with the doctor's office - letting them know that you are and have been making payments all along and are surprised over this notification.

I'm sorry to hear about this Tabitha. It sounds a bit strange that you would get such a letter, even though you have been paying regularly. I agree with the others, give them a call.

Insurance is covering less and less. When I had my son 14 years ago, I think I paid less than $200 out of pocket. And no copays. Get a Doc with compassion and kick this one to the curb.

Sadly it is the way of the world. I was going to a doctor once, and did not have very good insurance, so I made sure I paid everything with her office right after every visit. The last time I was there I was charged for my birthcontrol shot, about $85 and the office visit, about $30. And I asked if that took care of everything because I was changing employers and I wanted to have everything taken care of. She told me, I was all paid up. A month later I get a bill from her office for over a hundred dollars. I called... OH well the prices went up and they were not required to tell me that. We had many words then I said ok...I'll pay it just to keep my credit good, are you sure that is all? Yes that is all. That was a lie. I ended up paying them another $500 for back office visits and stuff that my insurance didn't cover and no one told me I owed. I ditched that office and fast!

It is my undersatanding that as long as they have been taking payments from you that you have rights. However, if you did not formaly make the arrangements you may not have a case. I would send a repsonse that lists the payments you can make. Include the exact dates and amounts and sign it. Include 2 originals with your signature and a place for a representative of the office to sign. Also include a SASE for them to send you one original back for your records. Be sure to send everything certified mail. All correspondence regarding a debt must be kept in your record..even if they do not agree to it. You can even request that a copy of the letter be included on your credit report if they do not accept and it goes to collections. Above all else pay as you promised following the letter. Good luck. Oh and by the way it is illegal not to include all of your debts in bankruptcy. You are still allowed to pay off the things you want to...but you HAVE to include them. I hope the fact that you knowing excluded them doesn't hurt you later.

We were in that situation once with a doctor. We told them we could not possible come up with the full amount in the time given. We also said if they turned us over to the collection agency the damage to our credit record would already be done, so they would get smaller monthly payments. Therefore they would get their money faster by working with us and we told them what payments we could make and were very careful to do what we said we would do. They backed off and accepted our payment plan. Not to say that your doctor would do the same but if you have no choice....

Wilma- FYI: Many doctors have affiliation contracts with a hospital network. They are bound by the agreement to collect on accounts...even if they do not want to.

Sorry to hear that. I think it is worth a call to the doctor directly; can't hurt. Doctors are usually separate from the collection/money part, but can make allowances if they know of the issue. It may depend on partners, how the business is set up, or whatever as well though. All I know is I had a problem once years ago, and the doctor intervened for me to allow me to continue to see her through a rough spot in my finances. Good luck.

It's too bad that your doctor is treating you so poorly since you are trying to pay her back the money you owe.

A couple of years ago I didn't have any health insurance and my sister was diagnosed with colon cancer. I had to get to the doctor to pick up some prescriptions for my sister. The doctor called me into his office and said he needed to check my blood pressure because he hadn't seen me in a while and knew that my sister's illness was taking a toll on me.

I told him I didn't have any health coverage and couldn't pay him. He looked at me and said, "After all these years of knowing you and your family don't you think that I can be your friend too and watch out for your health without being paid?" I was very surprised and went into tears. He checked my blood pressure, gave me meds for it and told me to return in two weeks and that he was not going to charge me.

I now do have health coverage and still go to him. I will never forget how beautifully he treated me.

That's terrible ... Just shows how much money means to people these days.

I think as long as you are consistent and have agreed upon a set amount you will send each month and they agree to it they can't put it in collection. I would be getting on the phone and talking to them.

That is really wonderful to hear Sharon K.. all docs are not like that.

Have a face to face with the MD. Unfortunately, medicine today is all about how much money can be made instead of working for the greater good.

I would do as Wilma suggested

Ouch! I would definitely call. Explain it. Unfortunately, it is business. Doctors don't get paid all that much anymore. Is there somewhere you can go for help? Pretty sad when you have insurance and still can't afford medical care. I hope you can work it out.

We had the same thing happen to us. I loved the pediatrician we had. He was awesome. He stopped by when my last son was born. We didn't even call him. He saw the name and checked himout knowing he was ours.
We have Blue Cross also and they suck at paying their bill. The only DR. office in Fernley wanted to stop taking people from my work because they never get paid.

Tabitha, how horrible for you. We will hear about this more and more. I think we expect and hope that health care will serve with compassion however it is big business. In fact it is one of the bigger businesses in our country. I agree with the other posts that recommend that you contact the doctor. Yes, they do let office managers make those decisions but if your doctor can put in a good word for you, that would help. Health care frowns upon people treating themselves but really, we are all being forced to do that very thing.

you should call and talk to them,if your showing payments and making an effort they cant turn you over like that.. thats bad business.

You should talk to them by phone, stay calm, try not get upset. Once you are connected to the right person, say, "Will you help me?" I think that the majority of people want to help others, so I think you might get farther that way. Make sure you know how long you've been sending money and how much. Tell them that you fully intend to pay them and would like to continue making payments, ask if a payment plan could be officially set up. If the phone call doesn't work go down to the office and ask to see someone about your bill. If you would be able to bring a letter stating that your payment have been made and that you are looking for someone to help you this may get you a lot farther. Sometimes if they see a face it makes a difference. I wish you the best and prayer that this issue will be resolved. It's a tough world out there these days.

That's rotten.

I'm so sorry to hear this. Try calling the office & talking to them. It may help! Your payment history shows that you are trying. Even if they say no, you've lost nothing by trying.

Sounds like she should change her hippocratic oath to the hypocritic oath seeing how money comes before patients. If you need assistance in the future, go to a hospital's emergency room. They can't turn anyone away for any reason when they're in need of treatment.

That is why there are so ,many non emergency cases in the emergency room too. Then the patients with real emergicencys cant get in . I agree with Rob about the Hipocritic Oath. Is there a county agency that helps when you cant afford to go to doctor? You do have to take all paycheck stubbs. Medical payments. Show your expenditues just for housing and utilities and medical bills are more, than your income.

Running an independent doctor's office is costly. I understand the malpractice insurance is astronomical now. Sometimes I wonder why people would even want to be doctors.

I feel your pain, though. I have excellent health insurance through my government job; however, I've had two family practice doctor's drop me in the last two years, not because I couldn't pay, but because the paperwork requirements from my insurer were "too onerous." What? I'm on my third doctor in three years. Both of the doctor's that dropped me also dropped patients on other health plans because either the plans lowered payments or because the insurer was not paying the doctor at all. It makes me wonder.

I'm definitely going to give them a call on Monday.

P.S. I did include the bills in my list of debts for the bankruptcy, but did not ask to have them dismissed.

Tabitha - I'm with John S. Most of the doctors don't really know what all goes on in the office. I too have had this happen with one of my doctors and come to find out he didnt know that I had even gotten the letter or what state my account was in. After trying to talk to the business office and seeing no results I talked things over with him and he talked to the business office and got it all straightened out.

I'd talk to your doctor. Sometimes things like that happen on the admin side that the doctor isn't even aware of. If you talk to your doctor and are still not welcome find a new doc. My sister had a period were she didn't have insurance and didn't have much money. Her doctor told her to pay what she could but her and her kids health was more important to him.

As many have suggested, speak to your MD personally, you have nothing to lose. You have been showing good faith, by making payments, which is more than many would do, so that should go in your favor. Also if possible perhaps he would consider reducing what you owe. I myself have wrote doctors offices asking for a reduction and at least got one response. Never hurts to try.

Wow, I have been turned over to collection agencyies so many times for medical bills. But I cant pay them so what do you do

I agree that it was probably a form letter. Hopefully when you call on Monday, they'll get it all straightened out.

This absolutely sounds like an automated letter. If you've been sending in payments regularly and only have a $250 balance, it would make no business sense for the doctor's office to hire a collection agency to nag you. Accounting software systems are often set to send letters worded like that when there is any balance due after a certain period of time. I'm sure that's what happened. Don't get flustered, just be sure to call the doctor's office Monday morning and explain the situation. If you keep sending them something every month, they won't bother with a collection agency.

it doesn't seem like your insurance does much for you

You make me feel old. My insurance didn't cover maternity with my first pregnancy. My doctor asked me to pay before the baby was born. $300.

I agree with the others - call the office and see if they'll work out something.

Your ob/gyn also works as a pediatrician? Is this something else I need to feel old about? I've never heard of this.

I remember a few years back, my doctor had a new receptionist... I had a balance on my account. When I went in for my regularly scheduled appointment, she would not let me see him until my bill was paid in full.
I just stood there stunned as he as always told me not to worry about it as long as I was paying what I could.
As I was walking towards the door he happened to enter the receptionist area and asked where I was going... I told him right in front of her... she was never seen in his office again.
He is now in a new office with his old standbys for receptionists, nurses, etc. And there are signs clearly posted that if you have financial issues something will be worked out.
He has even had me record my blood sugar numbers and then he comes out to the waiting room and 'talks' to me while looking at my numbers - hence, no office call.
He is so super!!!

I also have had this happen to me, when I didn't have insurance. Hospital for three days, tests, doctors from all specialties. After $20,000 I told everyone I would pay them $20 dollars a month, like you. Then finally out right asked if they could come down on what I owed. They actually cut their bills in half. Some just wrote the bill off and I was thankful.

Make sure you tell them all your story. Maybe they will have heart and let you go. It's always worth a try. Good luck.
Rose

Another of the tens of thousands of reasons we must insist on universal health care under the next administration! I think ALL private health insurance companies should be closed down and we should revert to the original relationship between doctor and patient: doctor treats patient, patient pays doctor. We never need a middleman to handle that transaction before the insurance lobby bought the legislation that now insists upon having an intervening, interfering business handle our medical needs.
BTW, don't be too hard on the doctor. My wonderful GP has had to close his office two days a week because Medicare makes him jump through so many hoops to collect from them, he's been living and paying his staff from his personal savings. It infuriates me that the first thing you are asked when seeing a doctor for the first time is not, "What is the nature of your illness", but what is the name of your insurance company. Sickening!

i'm sorry your having trouble with your dr. i hope things get better for you soon.

I'm glad you posted this, Tabitha...because it's not about health insurance. It's about health care. All the insurance in the world won't save you if the insurance company is screwing you -- and they all try.

Find another doctor, this one is just in it for the money! Find one that cares

I am sorry to hear that! It is sad when doctors put money over their patiences. I hope you find a way to work things out. If not maybe you can find a better more understanding doctor.

that's really sad that a doctor's office would allow this to happen. i could understand their situation IF you were making zero payments but at least some payments show that you are trying and therefore they should accept the insurance payments for now... I'd write a letter directly to your doctor, addressed to his/her attention and marked PERSONAL without your return address on the front... this will insure that nobody opens it to see what it's about (ie, sister-in-law) and he should get it directly.. perhaps he's completely amiff bout what's going on in the office and especially this situation

I have known friends in this situation, the circumstances are always very different as to why the decision was made. But I do know this, it is not the doctor that makes these decisions, it is the people that are hired to take care of the billing statements. Doctors do not have a say in these things. He is a employee hired by the hospital, and the hospital has their people who they contract to collect the money after a reasonal time. It is my understanding that Blue Cross and Blue Shield is very good, can you not go to another doctor or do they have the last call as to who you go too? Good luck my dear.

We have a few patients who are over $100,000 in debt to us. Here's the sad reality, for an oncologist's office, the treatments may cost thousands of dollars and yet the doctor may only be seeing $20 profit on the treatment. This amount doesn't even pay for the doctor's, nurse's, and staff's time, let alone the electricity. Many physicians are going out of business because they are unable to make ends meet, pay for their mortgages, or even put food on the table. It may take 3-6 months to see reimbursement from an insurance company and even then, the doctor has to write off a certain amount as simply being a loss. Further, your doctor has to fight tooth and nail over not only getting reimbursement but also over getting authorization to treat you in the 1st place. I've spent 2-3 hours on the phone fighting with an insurance company simply because they didn't want to cover the cost of simple hydration. They said that the patient was there for chemotherapy and not to preserve their kidneys. Sadly, many of the drugs that save lives are also nephrotoxic (damaging to one's kidneys) and thus, proper hydration is crucial. Further, there was a recent 10.6% cut to medicare that just went into place this last week. Is health care a right or a privilege? If it's a right, we as a society need to allocate the necessary funds and resources (and no we haven't). If it's a privilege, then why are you upset that a doctor would stop treating you due to money? If you showed up to pick up a pizza from a pizza parlor and you had ran off without paying your bill the last time and you didn't have money even to pay for the pizza this time, why would you expect them to be ok with it and still put forward the time, effort, AND MONEY to keep giving you free pizza?

I'm glad Dan weighed in on this issue from a medical providers perspective. The way our health care system is set up right now doesn't seem to be working for providers or for patients.

Many people just let it go to collections, then the doctor gets less. You have shown that you will pay. I'd rather get paid, even in installments from an honorable person than drop them. But then, I'm not a doctor, just an ordinary person who has been there and paid the bill, which is what you are doing. Are you sure this isn't a mistake? Maybe an overzealous office manager or something? I hope you can get this resolved. You deserve better than this.

Seems to me that you should call them and talk to them. If you have been paying on a regular schedule, then they should accept that and keep you on. That is very rude! Also, I would talk to a free legal aid place just in case. I don't think this is legal. I would check on that. First, I would talk to them. Then if they don't back-off, I would mention that you have spoken to free legal aid folks. Any mention of legal action usually makes someone back-off (this is from experience!).

Good luck!

That's really disgusting! If you've been paying so well, I don't think they should be able to do that...

I could be wrong but I thought it was against the law to not treat someone because they don't have money. If that's wrong then I will die when I get sick because I don't have insurance and haven't worked since Dec. and can't find a job. I hate doctors anyhow. They make so much it wouldn't hurt them to reduce their payments for what they DON'T do for a person.

Thanks for posting to 3ForAllWhoEnter where I always give out tens!! Yeah Points!!

Forgive the generic message here, I'm trying to catch up as fast as I can. Have a great day all and thanks again for posting.

Dan made an interesting observation and I have to repeat - the real culprits are the insurance companies. Physicians have to follow their rules or be subject to lawsuits, etc. It is truly an impediment to both giving and receiving decent health care.

I could give you quite a long list of doctors, medical technicians, surgeons and pharmacists who have a similar lament.

Tabitha, I hope you get good news on Monday. I'm sure it's someone new in the office that sent that to everyone with a balance. It would just be stupid to turn it over to a collection agency, when you've been making regular payments because that's all a collection agency would do - work out a payment plan or offer to settle it for a percentage of the total bill.

I work for a doctor and am his billing/collection manager. I can see both sides of your situation, Tabitha. You are doing the right thing by paying your debts so GOOD FOR YOU! The letter you received was likely a form letter. Call the office and talk to someone. If you were our patient and called me we could work it out. I take payments as low as $10 a month!

As far as Dan's take on this, he is so right! The cost of running a medical office is exorbitant . Last week we heard that Medicare is cutting their reimbursement to physicians 10%. That is a huge cut. We are wondering if we will be able to keep the staff we have or even stay open. You are mistaken if you think being a doctor nowadays pays well. It doesn't.

I think in your situation, it might be worth it to give them a personal call...and explain all of this to them. Very often, form letters are mailed out based solely on the data the computer spits out with no regard for individual issues. Explain how you are faithfully paying what you can and that you did not include them in the bankruptcy because it was important to you to pay them off and keep a relationship...

Your doctor may not realize that the office sent that letter. Try to go talk to your doctor.

I have gotton a letter like that in the past. I think I should have taken some of the advice on here. I did not know any better then. It was 23 yrs. ago.

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That is awful. To have a real relationship with a doctor and over money to just not be able to go back to that doctor. That is so sad. It would be nice if you could talk to the doctor and ask him if you could go on somekind of a plan by which you could pay him a little at a time or something, because you trust him, and you don't trust any other doctor. I know what it is to have a doctor that you trust and have to go to a different one because of finances. It is not fun.

Ugh - I know they are not a charity, but it seems the secretarial staff is more angry and nasty about these things than the actual doctors are. Do you have proof that you have paid what you did so far? It sounds like you have made good faith efforts