Dennis Fredrickson DDS

3/24/2016The patient and her husband were seen in our office after ownership had recently changed.  Treatment was rendered after the estimated patient portion was reviewed.  The patients did make payments towards the rendered treatments.  As part of a contract agreement with the...

previous owner, I had an obligation to apply any non-insurance based payments to the balance owed to the previous owner.  Any cash, check or card payments made by patients with a balance unpaid to the previous owner went to the previous owner.  I was not able to retain payments for treatment rendered until the patient's balance was paid in full to the previous owner or until the time limit had expired.  I had discussed this with the patient here several times in an effort to help her understand my obligations and had offered to continue with a payment plan similar to that which she had with the previous owner.  As she made payments in the office, she was paying down her balance with the previous owner and accruing a balance with me.  The main thought I have is that the patient had a balance through the business from rendered treatment.  Whether it went to me or the previous owner shouldn't matter.  What matters is that she was paying down her balance.  I offered on several occasions to work with the patient.  She refused and did not return to the office.  I pondered the situation for over a year and decided it was time to move forward with attempting to collect the balance that was due.  Since I was unable to work it out with the patient, I unfortunately had no option left but to turn over the account to collections.   Thank You[redacted], DMD