Jessica Laemmle DVM

Review: [redacted], D.V.M., has repeatedly harassed, threatened, and bullied my wife and I into paying bills for veterinary services that we did not request or receive. Further, she routinely run six months or more behind in billing her clients, and has even administered medication to our horses without our permission.Specific examples of Dr. [redacted]'s misconduct include:1. Administered immunizations to our horse on 11/8/10 without our permission. Further, she did not send a bill for these services until 3/30/11 (~5 months later). Though our horse was under the care of another vet at the time (and thus received double immunizations due to [redacted]'s misconduct), we paid [redacted] in a timely fashion.2. Claimed to have administered medication to our horse at a horse show on 4/14/11 when we had never taken our horse to a horse show. Further, the bill was sent on 10/8/11 (~6 months later). [redacted] refused to dismiss the charge until we involved our trainer in the complaint.3. Sent a bill for Previcox given on 12/24/11 for a horse that we did not lease until 5 months later. Further, the bill was sent on 9/11/12 (9 months later). Though the bill was paid promptly, [redacted] sent a notice that we were being sent to collections 4 days later. On 10/1/12, we called [redacted]'s office to request a FINAL accounting of all outstanding charges on our account with instructions not to service our horses again. We received the bill on 10/22/12 and paid it promptly.4. On 12/18/12, we received yet another bill for Previcox for one of our horses that supposedly was given on 5/3/12 (7 months earlier). We never requested the medication or received it, nor has [redacted] provided any documentation to that effect. We described everything above to [redacted], but she continued to verbally harass my wife at the stable, threatens to send us to collections, and bullies us on the phone. We decided today to once again pay this bill to avoid the threat of collections. How can we stop this ongoing financial blackmail?Desired Settlement: A refund of our most recent payment of $70.76 (supposedly for Previcox provided on 5/3/12), plus formal documentation from [redacted] stating that:1) We do not owe her any money now, nor will she claim in the future that we owe her any money for services performed before today's date (7/5/13).2) She will never treat any horse of ours in the future without written permission from us.

Business

Response:

In reference to the complaint submitted on 7/6/2013. I would like to make it clear that I have never harassed or bullied this client. I have threatened to send them to collections as they insisted on not paying for services rendered but that was the extent of my threat. I will agree with them that I run very behind on my billing. While the client may find this annoying and grounds for changing service providers, I never made claims that I would operate differently and I do not think this is grounds for not paying a bill.

Now to address their specific claims numbered 1 through 4:

1) Immunizations without permission on 11/8/2010: The clients horses are kept at a training barn that is on a vaccine/deworming schedule. The standard procedure at this barn is that when they are due for services, a day for treatment will be arranged with the trainer. I will review with the trainer a list of horses to treat and whom the services should be billed to prior to administering any medications. This is exactly what occurred on the date mentioned. Permission was given by a person authorized to do so, their trainer. Trainers having authority to request medical treatment is fairly standard in the industry.

2) Medication administered at a horse show on 4/14/2013 when horse was not showing: The trainer requested a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication that is commonly used for horses in performance training. Later when the owner received the bill they asked why the trainer had requested the meds. I offered the explanation that commonly trainers like to have this type of medication for use at horse shows or other times when the animals are working harder and get a little sore. I never said that I dispensed it at a horse show.

3) Sent a bill for medications dispensed 12/24/2012 for a horse they were not leasing at the time: The client's trainer and owner of the horse in question, had requested the Previcox which was dispensed. Later when I was billing for the medications I called the trainer to ask who was responsible for charges for that horse at the time medication was dispensed. I was given this clients name. When the client complained about the bill, I went back to the trainer and asked her to reconfirm the billing information. She realized she had mistakenly given me incorrect information. Later we discussed whether to credit the person mistakenly billed and bill a different party. Our office was informed by the trainer that the party responsible for the bill had reimbursed the client we sent the bill to and so we should just leave the charges as they were.

4) Questioning Previcox dispensed on 5/3/2012: Once again this client's trainer and the owner of the horse in question had requested the medication. It was given to the grooms at the stable which is standard practice as they are the ones dispensing the medication. This is a medication that this horse routinely was receiving. There is no argument that this time the client placing the above complaint was leasing the horse and responsible for the charges at the time.

In conclusion, it is routine at training barns that the trainer discuss and request medications and treatments with the veterinarian. All treatments provided and billed to this client had been discussed with their trainer. There is no dispute from the training staff that these services were provided. The training staff are the people who would be responsible for making sure treatments were received. Owners are typically not present at the time of treatment as we try to avoid interfering with their riding schedule and medications are typically dispensed to the party responsible for administering them. I have never used insulting language with these clients though I cannot say the same about their communications with me. I do not consider it harassment to simply ask for payment for services rendered. As to their desired settlement, I do not feel I owe them a refund. I have no problem stating that currently they do not owe me any money and that there is no outstanding work not yet billed for. The client called our office and requested I not work on their horses in Oct. 2012 and I have done no work after that request. I have billed out for my services past that time so I know that all services are billed for. Lastly I gladly agree to never treat any horse owned by this client in the future.

Sincerely

[redacted], DVM

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted]. First, I do not agree with her statements about common veterinary practice. In our 30+ years of owning horses kept at show barns, we have never previously had a vet just treat our horse without an exam or our permission (regardless of requests from trainers), and we find it outside normal practices. Second, she has not agreed to refund our money for the Previcox she claimed was dispensed on May 3, 2012, even though she has no documentation showing that this medication was requested not received.All that said, I will consider this complaint resolved since she has now finally agreed that we do not owe her any further money. Note that she has not previously been willing to agree to this condition despite multiple requests from us starting in October 2012 (9 months ago), even though her last claimed date of service was July 2012 (12 months ago).

Regards,