AZ Center for Hand Surgery

This is a response to your letter asking us to contact you regarding the complaint that was flied by the person referenced in the complaint number above. We have tried to work out a resolution with the individual since the day she was treated and came into our office for follow-up care....

Unfortunately, all of our efforts to resolve her complaints have been unsuccessful due to her uncooperative, threatening and extortion-like behavior. We have in place many avenues to assist patients with remaining balances on their accounts after their insurance company has made their initial payment. They include, filing an appeal, providing payment plans and discounts, hardship reductions based on documented cases of financial distress. However, she has been unwilling to even turn over the thousands of dollars that were paid to her directly by her insurance company for the services that doctor provided. While we are contracted with many insurance companies, her health insurance company is not one of them. Thus, the insurance company remits to the patient the funds for the services our physician provided to her. She sent our office a check that was for the amount of the insurance proceeds she received but added the words ''full accord and satisfaction" on the back of the check. Accordingly, we had to send the check back to her because unless and until we can complete the insurance appeal process and the financial process with her, we cannot accept any amount as payment in full on the account.

This is a response to your letter asking us to contact you regarding the complaint that was flied by the person referenced in the complaint number above. We have tried to work out a resolution with the individual since the day she was treated and came into our office for follow-up care. Unfortunately, all of our efforts to resolve her complaints have been unsuccessful due to her uncooperative, threatening and extortion-like behavior. We have in place many avenues to assist patients with remaining balances on their accounts after their insurance company has made their initial payment. They include, filing an appeal, providing payment plans and discounts, hardship reductions based on documented cases of financial distress. However, she has been unwilling to even turn over the thousands of dollars that were paid to her directly by her insurance company for the services that doctor provided. While we are contracted with many insurance companies, her health insurance company is not one of them. Thus, the insurance company remits to the patient the funds for the services our physician provided to her. She sent our office a check that was for the amount of the insurance proceeds she received but added the words ''full accord and satisfaction" on the back of the check. Accordingly, we had to send the check back to her because unless and until we can complete the insurance appeal process and the financial process with her, we cannot accept any amount as payment in full on the account. Instead of cooperating with US she has sent letters to multiple agencies that contain a myriad of misstatements about our office, She is threading to sue us. However, she will not be able to resolve her bill by taking legal action. This is because, the State of Arizona permits doctors to balance bill patients for medical services they render to patients whose insurance they are not contracted with. As recently as December 9, 2014, we prepared lengthy correspondence to the individual and supplied her with the documentation to prove that she acknowledged her responsibilities with regard to resolving her balance with our office. Instead of cooperating with us to so that we can assist her, she believes that filing complaints with multiple governmental and consumer agencies will make the problem disappear. We have been and remain willing to assist this individual but are not able to do so without her cooperation. Thank you for permitting us to respond to this matter.

This is a response to your letter asking us to contact you regarding the complaint that was flied by the person referenced in the complaint number above. We have tried to work out a resolution with the individual since the day she was treated and came into our office for follow-up care....

Unfortunately, all of our efforts to resolve her complaints have been unsuccessful due to her uncooperative, threatening and extortion-like behavior. We have in place many avenues to assist patients with remaining balances on their accounts after their insurance company has made their initial payment. They include, filing an appeal, providing payment plans and discounts, hardship reductions based on documented cases of financial distress. However, she has been unwilling to even turn over the thousands of dollars that were paid to her directly by her insurance company for the services that doctor provided. While we are contracted with many insurance companies, her health insurance company is not one of them. Thus, the insurance company remits to the patient the funds for the services our physician provided to her. She sent our office a check that was for the amount of the insurance proceeds she received but added the words ''full accord and satisfaction" on the back of the check. Accordingly, we had to send the check back to her because unless and until we can complete the insurance appeal process and the financial process with her, we cannot accept any amount as payment in full on the account.