Distinguished Dental

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: ? I made the appointment months agoIt wasn't like I made it within a month? I had an illness with fever was bed ridden because of it? I did not have my phone in my bed with me ? Your policy has no recourse for patients who are legitimately sick and can't respond? You say you have a courtesy phone call.....Then why do you have responses ? like...Press C to confirm and N for not coming? ? You don't say ? " So and So" you have a dental appointment at such and such time?"So one might construed that if you can't press "C" to confirm you will NOT BE IN? ? ? ? I feel I am being punished for being SICK? ? I do not charge you when you are running late , I have spent one time waiting for my appointment more than minsmy time is just as valuable? All I got was an apology that I accepted? I am fighting this because patients need some way when they can't communicate they are ill and can't come in? Your phone message ? you leave is misleading, when a patient can't PRESS C to confirm ? then you should assume that the patient ISN'T ? coming in? You need to change your policy to be fair to both you and the patient.Note: ? ? You have only responded to the Revdex.com because I sent you a letter to do so? I shouldn't have to do that? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

We are in receipt of a copy of complaint *** filed on November 20, 2017, from patient *** ***Our position is that the patient does not have grounds for a legitimate complaint as the patient scheduled her appointment, accepted our cancellation policy as a condition of treatment, had
multiple reasonable opportunities to cancel per our policy, and had previously broken that policyAdditionally, the patient’s repeated violation of the policy has resulted in financial lossOur substantiation followsIn April of 2017, the patient scheduled an appointment for treatment on October 25, Unfortunately, the patient no-called/no-showed the appointmentWe make every effort to remind our patients of their appointments, including automated, electronic communications and direct phone callsTo illustrate, enclosed is a record of electronic communications with the patient going back as far as March 11, As a matter of course, the patient was reminded of, and asked to confirm, her appointment via SMS a total of times beginning October 18, 2017, which was before the time frame in question, and we tried to call her three timesUnfortunately, even with all of these attempts to reach the patient, she did not respondOf course, at any time she, or someone on behalf of the patient, could have contacted us directly to cancel, but we received no such communication in any formWhen an appointment is scheduled, that date and time is secured for that patient for specific treatment, and the appointment is held unless actively cancelled by the patient; until that cancellation, that date and time slot belongs to that patientA confirmation request is simply a courtesy reminder and an opportunity for the patient to respond to us if an issue has arisenThis is common practice in the healthcare industryA significant percentage of the patient population does not confirm their scheduled appointments yet still make their appointment timeTo schedule someone else in their place without their knowledge would be unfair to all parties involvedAs a condition of rendering services to our patients, we require patients to observe a cancellation policy that, in the event of a cancellation, gives us enough time to contact and schedule other patients who need treatment but for whom we have no available appointmentsPart of this policy is a charge to the patient of $for each hour scheduled to partially recover the costs that we incur in good faith to prepare to treat our scheduled patientsIf we are able to schedule another patient in that appointment slot, we do not assess the feeAn example that may be more familiar is the booking of a hotel roomWhen one makes a hotel reservation, the customer expects the hotel to have that room available at chetime on the scheduled dateIn return for holding that room for that customer, the hotel requires the customer to agree to a cancellation fee in the event that the reservation is cancelled by the customer within a time frame that doesn’t allow the hotel to rebook that room with someone who needs itAnother, similar example would be making a reservation for dinner at a restaurantIn advance of the reservation, the restaurant calls to remind about and confirm the reservation, but the call goes to voicemailWould one expect the restaurant to give that table to another party if that call is not returned? Typically, that is not the case; one expects the reservation to be honored and would likely be upset showing up to the restaurant and not having a table availableThe examples above illustrate common practices when businesses and customers engage in a transaction in good faith, and it is no different within the healthcare industryThe core of the patient’s complaint is that since she did not confirm the scheduled appointment, she should not be held accountable for failing to cancel the appointmentThis assertion does not follow common practices as established between customers and businessesMoreover, the lack of a confirmation is not the same as an active declination or cancellation by the patientOn April 19, 2017, the patient was given an updated HIPAA and Financial Policy to review and sign; please find a copy of the executed document enclosedIt clearly states that we require a hour notice of cancellation to avoid a $cancellation fee (per hour scheduled), and the patient initialed and signed this policyThe patient’s acceptance of the policy is valid for the date range of the complaintWe chose to assess the fee in this instance because this was the patient’s third violation of the policy and, since it was a no-call/no-show, we did not have time to schedule another patient in her steadWe waived this fee on two previous occasions in good faith that the patient would observe it in the futureThough we are sympathetic that the patient was ill, we believe that it would have been reasonable for the patient, or someone on behalf of the patient, to let us know that she would not be able to keep her scheduled appointmentIn summation, we reserved time in good faith to treat the patient, the patient was aware of our cancellation policy, and we believe that it would have been reasonable for the patient let us know that she was not going to make her scheduled appointmentAs a result, being the third instance, we assessed the fee as per the policy agreed to by the patientAt the time of this letter, the patient has not paid the fee and has an outstanding balance on her accountIf you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at *** *** or at ***I look forward to being as helpful as possible in resolving the issue at hand.Regards,*** ***
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Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: I made the appointment months agoIt wasn't like I made it within a month I had an illness with fever was bed ridden because of it I did not have my phone in my bed with me
Your policy has no recourse for patients who are legitimately sick and can't respond You say you have a courtesy phone call.....Then why do you have responses like...Press C to confirm and N for not coming? You don't say " So and So" you have a dental appointment at such and such time?"So one might construed that if you can't press "C" to confirm you will NOT BE IN? I feel I am being punished for being SICK I do not charge you when you are running late , I have spent one time waiting for my appointment more than minsmy time is just as valuable All I got was an apology that I accepted I am fighting this because patients need some way when they can't communicate they are ill and can't come in Your phone message you leave is misleading, when a patient can't PRESS C to confirm then you should assume that the patient ISN'T coming in You need to change your policy to be fair to both you and the patient.Note: You have only responded to the Revdex.com because I sent you a letter to do so I shouldn't have to do that

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: I made the appointment months agoIt wasn't like I made it within a month I had an illness with fever was bed ridden because of it I did not have my phone in my bed with me
Your policy has no recourse for patients who are legitimately sick and can't respond You say you have a courtesy phone call.....Then why do you have responses like...Press C to confirm and N for not coming? You don't say " So and So" you have a dental appointment at such and such time?"So one might construed that if you can't press "C" to confirm you will NOT BE IN? I feel I am being punished for being SICK I do not charge you when you are running late , I have spent one time waiting for my appointment more than minsmy time is just as valuable All I got was an apology that I accepted I am fighting this because patients need some way when they can't communicate they are ill and can't come in Your phone message you leave is misleading, when a patient can't PRESS C to confirm then you should assume that the patient ISN'T coming in You need to change your policy to be fair to both you and the patient.Note: You have only responded to the Revdex.com because I sent you a letter to do so I shouldn't have to do that

We are in receipt of a copy of complaint *** filed on November 20, 2017, from patient *** ***Our position is that the patient does not have grounds for a legitimate complaint as the patient scheduled her appointment, accepted our cancellation policy as a condition of treatment, had
multiple reasonable opportunities to cancel per our policy, and had previously broken that policyAdditionally, the patient’s repeated violation of the policy has resulted in financial lossOur substantiation followsIn April of 2017, the patient scheduled an appointment for treatment on October 25, Unfortunately, the patient no-called/no-showed the appointmentWe make every effort to remind our patients of their appointments, including automated, electronic communications and direct phone callsTo illustrate, enclosed is a record of electronic communications with the patient going back as far as March 11, As a matter of course, the patient was reminded of, and asked to confirm, her appointment via SMS a total of times beginning October 18, 2017, which was before the time frame in question, and we tried to call her three timesUnfortunately, even with all of these attempts to reach the patient, she did not respondOf course, at any time she, or someone on behalf of the patient, could have contacted us directly to cancel, but we received no such communication in any form When an appointment is scheduled, that date and time is secured for that patient for specific treatment, and the appointment is held unless actively cancelled by the patient; until that cancellation, that date and time slot belongs to that patientA confirmation request is simply a courtesy reminder and an opportunity for the patient to respond to us if an issue has arisenThis is common practice in the healthcare industryA significant percentage of the patient population does not confirm their scheduled appointments yet still make their appointment timeTo schedule someone else in their place without their knowledge would be unfair to all parties involvedAs a condition of rendering services to our patients, we require patients to observe a cancellation policy that, in the event of a cancellation, gives us enough time to contact and schedule other patients who need treatment but for whom we have no available appointmentsPart of this policy is a charge to the patient of $for each hour scheduled to partially recover the costs that we incur in good faith to prepare to treat our scheduled patientsIf we are able to schedule another patient in that appointment slot, we do not assess the feeAn example that may be more familiar is the booking of a hotel roomWhen one makes a hotel reservation, the customer expects the hotel to have that room available at chetime on the scheduled dateIn return for holding that room for that customer, the hotel requires the customer to agree to a cancellation fee in the event that the reservation is cancelled by the customer within a time frame that doesn’t allow the hotel to rebook that room with someone who needs itAnother, similar example would be making a reservation for dinner at a restaurantIn advance of the reservation, the restaurant calls to remind about and confirm the reservation, but the call goes to voicemailWould one expect the restaurant to give that table to another party if that call is not returned? Typically, that is not the case; one expects the reservation to be honored and would likely be upset showing up to the restaurant and not having a table availableThe examples above illustrate common practices when businesses and customers engage in a transaction in good faith, and it is no different within the healthcare industryThe core of the patient’s complaint is that since she did not confirm the scheduled appointment, she should not be held accountable for failing to cancel the appointmentThis assertion does not follow common practices as established between customers and businessesMoreover, the lack of a confirmation is not the same as an active declination or cancellation by the patientOn April 19, 2017, the patient was given an updated HIPAA and Financial Policy to review and sign; please find a copy of the executed document enclosedIt clearly states that we require a hour notice of cancellation to avoid a $cancellation fee (per hour scheduled), and the patient initialed and signed this policyThe patient’s acceptance of the policy is valid for the date range of the complaintWe chose to assess the fee in this instance because this was the patient’s third violation of the policy and, since it was a no-call/no-show, we did not have time to schedule another patient in her steadWe waived this fee on two previous occasions in good faith that the patient would observe it in the futureThough we are sympathetic that the patient was ill, we believe that it would have been reasonable for the patient, or someone on behalf of the patient, to let us know that she would not be able to keep her scheduled appointmentIn summation, we reserved time in good faith to treat the patient, the patient was aware of our cancellation policy, and we believe that it would have been reasonable for the patient let us know that? she was not going to make her scheduled appointmentAs a result, being the third instance, we assessed the fee as per the policy agreed to by the patientAt the time of this letter, the patient has not paid the fee and has an outstanding balance on her accountIf you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at *** ***? or at? ***I look forward to being as helpful as possible in resolving the issue at hand.Regards,*** ***
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? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Though we maintain that the patient has yet to provide a valid case for a legitimate complaint, in the spirit of the Christmas season, we have waived the fee in question for an unprecedented third time and have zeroed the patient’s account.? Since the Revdex.com shares all correspondence with the patient, this communication serves as notice to the patientWe hope that all involved have a joyous, safe, and wonderful holiday season? Regards, *** ***
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Though we maintain that the patient has yet to provide a valid case for a legitimate complaint, in the spirit of the Christmas season, we have waived the fee in question for an unprecedented third time and have zeroed the patient’s account.  Since the Revdex.com shares all correspondence with the patient, this communication serves as notice to the patient. We hope that all involved have a joyous, safe, and wonderful holiday season.   Regards, [redacted]
[redacted]
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