Dr. Howard J Kass

It is always my goal to ensure that each an every patient is happy with the care I provide. I have been practicing Optometry for over 40 years and I am happy to say that most are!!  Doctors offices are not required to accept patients insurance and only bill claims as a courtesy to our patients....

Unfortunately if a persons insurance does not pay their claim, it becomes the patients responsibility and they are sent a bill.  With regards the [redacted]s visit, I did not tell them they would be covered as I personally do not investigate what coverages a patient has. I have never told the [redacted]s or any patient that they are definitely covered for their office visit because I have no way of knowing that. It is the patients responsibility to contact their insurance provider to confirm whether or not a doctor in in their insurance network and what their coverage is.  If a patient has a medical problem, a background medical problem, or voices a question which requires a medical diagnosis then the office visit is medical nature and is not covered by a patients “routine eye exam” benefit. It is not only an eye injury that would be considered medical in nature. HIPPA does not allow me to discuss the particulars of these 2 patients. Optometrists do more than just prescribe glasses and all medical conditions must be considered before a final action or eyeglass prescription can be given. In this case, the patients’ insurance company has not paid our office for Mr. or Mrs. [redacted]s’ office visit. Proper coding, diagnosis and processing was employed and the insurance claims were submitted correctly. In fact the claims were each submitted several times to avoid sending a private bill to this family. The patients received EOB's (explanation of benefits) from their insurance company each and every time the claim was submitted providing total transparency dating back to October of 2017. After many months of non-payment from their insurance company, our office did send the patients a private bill. Our billing agency sends invoices every month and in this case 6 previous bills were sent and ignored. Our office policy is well stated. Any unpaid invoices over 90 days will be sent to collections. In this case they have not been sent to collection and the letter to them was a final courtesy to avoid the collection action. Please note more than 150 days have gone by without any payments from any source yet professional services were rendered by my office. I also did not receive any messages from this patient until the final demand letter was sent to this patient after more than 150 days of non payment. If messages were left with the [redacted] staff, unfortunately the information was not forward to myself or my billing agency. Had we received a message the patients would have absolutely been contacted and their concerns addressed.  Unfortunately the [redacted] location in which the patients were seen has been closed and I am unable to address this matter with them. The decision to close was a corporate decision and had nothing to do with me nor was I consulted regarding this closure. As a result, our phone number changed and our remittance address did change to a PO Box as Mr. [redacted] stated.  Unfortunately in this situation, while I understand their frustration in receiving a bill, it is due to no fault of my own or my office. Our office did submit the patients claim correctly and in a timely manner and we only sent the patient a bill when their insurance did not pay after multiple submissions. The patient ignored multiple bills and then after many months sent us a nasty email and filed this unfounded complaint.  In a desire to end this matter I have decided to write off the [redacted]’s financial obligation to pay my office and I will consider this matter now closed. I wish them the very best in finding another Optometrist to render their continued care.