Worcester Eye Consultants

Missed Appointment FeeOn Friday October 10th I tried calling Dr [redacted] office several times to cancel my Monday October 13th appointment due to a change in my work schedule but it kept going to voicemail. Finally around 4pm left a voicemail explaining my situation, that I would like to reschedule and to please call me so I could schedule another payment. I did not hear anything back from the office so on Tuesday October 14th I called to reschedule and made an appointment for Monday November 10th at 3pm. During my phone call I again mentioned my reasoning for cancelling the appoint via voicemail and nothing was said by the person on the phone. On Saturday October 18th I received a bill from Dr [redacted] office for my last appointment on September 15th at 2:40pm plus an added 50.00 missed appointment fee. Today, Monday October 20th I drove over to his Office to address the situation and pay the 13.60 balance from the last bill. After explaining the missed appoint fee situation to one of his employees they said they would go over it with Dr [redacted] and call me back. Around 10:15am this morning she called me back and said Dr [redacted] said " there is no way someone in my Office did not answer the phone, make him pay the fee". Well, I was upset and said " I don't appreciate being called a liar, cancel any remaining appointments with your Office, then hung up". Around 11:59am I went back to Dr [redacted] Office to pay the fee and get conformation on letterhead that I had no further appointments scheduled. The woman at the desk informed me she would talk to Dr [redacted] and to please have a seat. After about 20 minutes and her talking to Dr [redacted] on two separate occasions their final decision was.... Pay the fee and Dr [redacted] does not verify anything like that. I decided to just pay the fee so my credit would not be affected, I don't agree with it nor was my opinion valued at any point by Dr [redacted]. I have found a new Dr already and called Dr [redacted] office to get my records, they want a 15.00 processing fee plus 25cents per copy... WOWI'm Disabled, feel he took advantage of me and performed tests that were already done just to be able to bill Medicare.Desired SettlementHis office needs to be investigatedBusiness Response November 21, 2014[redacted]Revdex.com 6 Park Avenue, Suite 100 Worcester, MA 01605Dear Ms. [redacted]I wanted to respond to the complaint raised by Mr. [redacted], case # XXXXXX. Mr. [redacted] was examined in my office twice and also returned once for visual field testing. His first visit was on 8/21/2014 and he received a follow-up appointment on 9/2/2014 which he also attended. He has a severe eye condition requiring frequent follow-up care and was given another appointment 10/13/2014 which he missed after calling to cancel on the day of the appointment. He was given another appointment for 11/10/2014 which he subsequently cancelled, stating that he would not be returning and would be seeking care elsewhere.Mr. [redacted] was advised of our same day cancellation fee and charged $50 for cancelling his 10/13/14 appointment with less than one business day notice, a policy clearly posted in our reception area. We charge this not as a penalty, but simply as a way of recovering our cost for the wasted appointment slot. Patients who cancel on short notice usually do not understand the difficulty and waste caused by short notice cancellations and perhaps Mr. [redacted] may be one of these individuals. My practice is a subspecialty practice which cares for patients with severe eye disease, often requiring follow-up appointments to be made within a short time frame to treat their disease as was required for Mr. [redacted]. My hours are long and often I must book patients late in the day. We typically see patients over a 10-12 hour day. When a patient cancels on short notice, this wasted appointment slot is one which may have been used by another patient who perhaps otherwise received an appointment later in the day, further lengthening my patient schedule. We incur the cost of wasted appointment times and must pass this on to our patients who cancel on short notice. It is a simple economic matter as opposed to a penalty. When one purchases a ticket to a sports event and does not use the ticket, the purchase price is not refunded.I reviewed Mr. [redacted]'s complaint stating that he tried calling our office on Friday 10/10/2014 and received only voicemail. Either Mr. [redacted] called during lunch (we have a clear message stating we are at lunch), or he called the incorrect number, or he is quite simply lying. Our telephones are staffed during business hours on every weekday and go to voicemail only during lunch and after hours.Regarding our charge for copies of the medical record, we charge less than the maximum allowed amount for copies of the medical record. The maximum charges are specified by the state of Massachusetts and can be found online. Making copies of a patient's medical record is expensive and time consuming. We charge for copies as does any other practice.Mr. [redacted] should be very careful when making false accusations out of anger and should stay on point when making a complaint. I respect his right to complain about same day cancellation fees and medical records charges, but not to make false accusations out of anger. He states that we performed unnecessary testing just to be able to bill Medicare. In fact we charged Medicare only for medically necessary services. I plan on asking my attorney to make contact with Mr. [redacted] so that Mr. [redacted] can be more specific regarding the testing which he alleges we performed just to bill Medicare. He also placed an online posting on a physician rating site accusing me of overcharging Medicare. We billed for 2 patient visits, a gonioscopy exam, a pachymetry measurement, and a visual field exam, all necessary testing and charges to evaluate a patient with glaucoma. I expect Mr. [redacted] to be able to specify which of these charges were unnecessary when I take him to court to seek damages resulting from his false accusations. I hope that he will reconsider his ignorance in making such false claims. I plan to make an example of him on behalf of all physicians whose time is wasted by no-shows and careless same day cancellations and whose unreasonably angry patients make false online claims when they are asked to pay their bills. He may be able to change my mind by promptly sending a letter apologizing for the false claims and removing the untruthful online posting.I hope that you will send a copy of this letter to Mr. [redacted] so that he can review it as he contemplates his letter of apology. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond to his frivolous and misleading complaint.Sincerely,[redacted], M.D. Worcester Eye ConsultantsConsumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)I consider the response belligerent, threatening and of a [redacted] nature.