Washington Finest Sport Medicine

Review: Provider charging a no show fee on appointment that wasn't made due to non-acceptance of insurance ([redacted]). Provider put on schedule anyway and charged $40 for no show.Desired Settlement: Would like fee waived. Hadn't seen this provider in years.

Business

Response:

11/22/13

Dear [redacted],

Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention and giving me the opportunity to explain -what had happened on our end of the matter. This patient had called to schedule an appointment with my office. He informed my staff of his new insurance plan is and was explained to him that we no longer participate with his particular insurance plan. My staff checked his benefits to give him an idea of what the cost would be for an appointment. The patient decided to schedule the appointment and discuss the fee with his wife and would cancel if he decided it would be too much of an expense for him. Unfortunately, the patient never called my office to cancel his appointment. As a result, the patient was charged a fee of $40.00 for a missed appointment.

The patient's wife had called on 10/15/13 and spoke to one of my office staff regarding the $40.00 charge. She was very upset we had charged her husband and insisted that he never made an appointment with my office. Although it had been some time since the patient had been seen in my office, it was explained to her he had an appointment scheduled with myself on 6/ 14/10 that he did not show for. I had waived our fee for that visit as I always do for all first missed appointments; it is part of our cancellation policy, because I understand emergencies happen. It was also brought to her attention that her husband had missed three additional appointments with one of my physical therapists, which two of the fee’s I did waive for him and he had paid for the third. After my staff member had spoken to the patient’s wife she had brought this matter to my attention. I made the decision to waive the fee and she has not received another invoice from us since.

The patient was very aware of my office cancellation policy which had been signed by the patient when he became a part of my practice. We value our patient’s time and ask that my patients value ours as well. As a result, we have a very strict cancellation policy, as most medical offices do, and had been very generous waiving our fees with this particular patient.

Regards,