Heather's Doggie D'tails

May 22, 2016The statements made in my initial response were accurate to the best of my knowledgeObviously, do not have any first-hand knowledge regarding the events reported by [redacted] ***It was my intention to speak with her when she came to the office on May in order to hear her side of the storyShe was no longer at the office when came out of a patient exam room and I did not have the opportunity to speak to her.It is certainly not the manner intend to have my practice runThis situation will be addressed with both employeesI will instruct Ruth to contact the collection agency on Monday morning to reverse the charge.Sincerely,Emily WMatin

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the responseIf no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
Complaint:
I am rejecting this response because:I am truly appalled by the actions and comments of Ms
MatlinFirst of all, MsMatlin refused to have any conversations with me
about this incident and her letter dated May 10, contains many omissions
and errorsLet me go back to the beginning to correct her accountI called her
office at 11:on January 4, to cancel my appointmentI spoke with
someone named RuthTo my surprise, I received a bill dated February 18, for
a missed appointment fee of $I contacted the office after I received this
billI again spoke with Ruth who immediately became very impatient with me
over the fact that I was disputing this billFinally after less than minutes
of conversing, Ruth said “I will take care of it” and hung up on meI stupidly
assumed that this meant the charges would be removedTo my dismay I received
yet another bill for the $on March 18, Again, I called the office
and spoke with RuthI said “Yes, I spoke with you last time I called and you
said you were taking care of the bill and hung up on me” to which Ruth replied “And
I’m going to hang up on you again.” Then she hung upI did not get a chance to
discuss my reason for contacting the office that dayAt this point I did not
know what, if anything, Ruth was going to do about this but since she wouldn’t
even communicate with me I decided to wait and see if she would come to her
senses and remove the charges
This incident culminated in an event that is the impetus for
my filing with the Revdex.comOn May 3, I received a notice from a collection
agency for the billThe next day called the office again and was hung up on by
Ruth as soon as I said my nameI called more times that day and no one would
answer the phoneAfter they didn’t answer the phone, I traveled miles (one
way) to visit the office in person to question the billWhen I got to the
office on May 4, and told the receptionist my name, Ruth immediately called
the police on meShe did not ask what my reason for the visit was nor was I
even asked to leaveI would like to note that I have video evidence of this
Additionally, I have video evidence of Ruth acknowledging that I did call to
speak with her on the previous occasions about my bill which is a direct
contradiction to MsMatlin’s account of what transpiredI also have video
evidence of Ruth acknowledging that she hung up on me multiple times because I
was “persistent” in her wordsI absolutely will continue to be persistent with
this matter because I did call to cancel the appointment and I called each time
I received a bill and have been continually harassed about $of
charges
One more point to add is that while MsMatlin did send me
the new patient letter that was attached to her correspondence dated May 10,
2016, she neglected to add that in addition to this letter there was a set of
new patient paperwork that I was to fill out and send back to the office before
my appointmentI never completed the paperwork so I was never a patient of Ms
Matlin’sI had no intention of ever beginning treatment with MsMatlin so I
can’t be held liable to a set of service fees that she stipulates
Lastly, I would like to add the tremendous amount of stress
that MsMatlin and her staff have caused meI am currently pregnant and my
pregnancy falls into a high risk categoryI made her office staff aware of my
pregnancy on May 4, and I feel harassed by the treatment that I have
received by her staff at her directionThe continued harassment that her staff
is causing me is increasing the risk of my pregnancyI am appalled that she is
a medical providerShe has numerous negative complaints about her and her
staff on various online forumsHer staff has called the police on me for simply
inquiring about a billThey have wasted my time and local law enforcement’s
time because they refuse to simply answer questions about a billI have lost
time at work over this matterI have done my due diligence as a potential
patientI have given the office plenty of notice before canceling my
appointmentI have followed up with her office EACH AND EVERY TIME I received
correspondence with her officeI have been told the bill will be taken care
ofI have been hung up on when I callI have been treated like a criminal and
had the police called on meI find it offensive that MsMatlin questions my
credibilityWhy would I lose time at work to travel well over an hour to
question a bill unless I was serious? MsMatlin’s office policies are criminal
and she is a liarI have video evidence that directly contradicts statements
she made to this officeShe allows her staff to bill people who are not
patients for services not rendered and I will follow this complaint up with a
complaint with each and every licensing and/or state agency she is affiliated withI
just want this matter resolved and have excessive, unfair charges removed from
my bill
Regards,
*** ***

May 22, 2016The statements made in my initial response were accurate to the best of my knowledgeObviously, do not have any first-hand knowledge regarding the events reported by *** ***It was my intention to speak with her when she came to the office on May in order to hear her side of the storyShe was no longer at the office when came out of a patient exam room and I did not have the opportunity to speak to her.It is certainly not the manner intend to have my practice runThis situation will be addressed with both employeesI will instruct Ruth to contact the collection agency on Monday morning to reverse the charge.Sincerely,Emily WMatin

May 10, 2016This letter is in response to the complaint issued by *** ***On November 11, this patient was referred to my office by Dr*** ***, We were able to contact her by phone on November 30, and schedule her new patient consultation for January 11, She was
advised at the time of the initial phone call about our no-show policy requiring one business days notification or a $fee would be incurredA letter was sent to the patient on November 30, which also included this information.On January 4, a reminder phone was made to the patient's cell phone number at 11:AMThe message at that time again reminded the patient of our no-show policy, requesting business days notice, if you are unable to make the appointment*** *** did not call back and state she was unable to make the appointmentOn January 11, when she did not show for her appointment a message was left on both her cellphone and work phone number requesting she call back about her missed appointmentShe did not cat back regarding her missed appointmentAs per the office policy, she was billed on occasions for her no-show fee, the third bill (sent on March 18, advised the patient her account would be sent to collection if we did not hear from her in days*** *** never called after receiving these billsin early April *** *** called (for the first time), claiming she had canceled the appointment week prior to the appointmentShe called again on May and again was raising her voice and was told my employee would not continue to argue with her, This is a very small office and there are only employees and either employee spoke to this patient JanuaryWhen she did calf and the conversation seemed to be going nowhere (*** *** was raising her voice and being repetitive she was advised the conversation was over and Ruth would not continue to argue with herShe then left a message or our answering machine stating she was coming in to solve this issueOn May 4, at about PM she arrived in the office and stood at the intake window and began videotaping my employeesShe was asked to have a seat and advised that I was seeing patientsShe would not sit down and my staff could not wait on the patients that did have appointments and had showed up or timeThe police were contacted and they escorted her from the propertyThe following day a gentleman called identifying himself as her husband, He repetitively told Ruth she was not asked to leave and that she is pregnantHe began to request personal identifying information about my employeesHe was told his phone call was felt to be threatening and that the police would be notified.My position at this point is if *** *** asserts she did cancel her appointment, why did she not call when she received a confirmation call, when she received phone messages regarding her missed appointment or when she received consecutive bills, I would find her story more credible if she had called when she received the confirmation call or certainly after she received a phone call stating she missed the appointment It took her months to callNow, in addition to losing the one-hour allotted to her for her appointment, she has taken up a tremendous amount of time and created a tremendous amount of stress for my office staff.Enclosed please find a copy of her welcome to the practice letter, which again advised the patient of our no-show policy.Sincerely,Emily WMatin