Paragon Medical Associates

03/01/2017   Response back to complaint [redacted] From: Paragon Medical Associates, complaint number [redacted]   My name is Marcie C[redacted], I am the Practice Manager for Paragon Medical Associates.  We pride ourselves in assisting our patients with great medical care in our...

office.  We always want to assist our patients with their healthcare needs as best as we see fit. This complaint came as a very big surprise to our office.  I  am actually quite confused with a few things that were mentioned in the complaint. There are some things mentioned that are not valid facts.  I am not going to go into a great length of detail due to the privacy issues as well as confidentiality issues.  I spoke to Mr. [redacted] back on 02/10/2017 and we had a very lengthy discussion regarding his past billing statements that had been sent out to him for collenction of debt owed to the practice.  We sent them out as a courtesy to allow the patient to have the opportunity to bring the account status current.  He was sent out billing statements over a period of time.  During the time the mail went out to him he had moved during that time. We did not have his current billing address for his statements to be sent to the correct address.   In having the wrong address on file for him that could have caused issues as well as it could have caused delay in him receiving the statements in a timely manner.  He also switched his insurance plans a couple times during his duration at our practice.  That is normal for a patient to do since they can select new plans at open enrollment periods during the year.  We still have the previous insurance plans information on file for him.  I also made him aware of that information when I spoke to him on 02/10/2017 and I also offered to give him the plans phone numbers as well so that he could indeed call the insurance plans to verify the amounts that were given to him by our office.  He declined to receive this information and stated he doesn’t have time to run around chasing insurance plans and that his work schedule doesn’t allow him time to do so as well.  I told him if he felt that he would ever need that information that he could contact me and I will provide him with that information for his previous plans.  The medical insurance plans also provide copies of this information to the patient by sending out EOB’s that are sent directly to the patient’s address.  This is a way that the insurance plans advise patients to keep their own records so that they know what balances they may owe to their doctor’s office.  He didn’t’ want the information given to him when I spoke to him.  He declined at the time to be given that information.   Mr. [redacted] and I spoke further and we did resolve his balance over the phone.  He paid $48.00 over the telephone with me on 02/10/2017.  I advised him that I would be willing to settle his account with accepting the payment of $48.00.  His account is current and at a zero balance and there is nothing owing on his account or his daughter’s account.  I did also verify his address and that is when I discovered his address was incorrect in our system.  The patient continued to thank me and told me he appreciated me taking the time to speak to him.  I again apologized to the patient and helped him to understand that there are several items from this matter that could have been dealt with differently to make it a lot easier and would have made things get resolved smoother.  He didn’t agree with me and he continued to disagree.  Cheryl my billing specialist handled her call with Mr. [redacted] in a professional manner and did not violate office protocol.  She never hung up on the patient, I have other employees that were aware of this situation as well.  We don’t like to see things end this way and like I said at the beginning we pride ourselves with caring for our patients.  We feel it is unfortunate that this matter has turned out this way.  We were not expecting this to escalate to this type of measure.  I am may be contacted at [redacted] if there is anything else needed from our practice.  Thank you!   Marcie C[redacted]