Waiting at the dentist office to resolve an overdue bill. I paid what they said I owed after some work at the beginning of October. Never heard another word. Yesterday I get a notice in the mail that I have a past due balance, late fees and my account will be turned over to collections in 30 days from the date of the notice. Yes, insurance and providers sometimes don’t get it right on the first try, fine. They did this once a few years ago and I asked at the time if it were to happen again would they please call me. “Oh sure, we can do that!”

This kind of shit infuriates me. It doesn’t help that I’ve been waiting 30 minutes to talk to the office manager.

My wife is a health service provider. She is an independent contractor, working in a practice owned by somebody else. They take a percentage of the payments for services that she provides.

In return for this percentage, they provide physical office space and "front desk" services. There is constant turnover with the front desk people, the only really competent person there was so aggravated that she resigned, and mistakes are now common, daily, events. Patients are angry about these errors, and about being kept waiting.

I have to concentrate on remaining calm in these situations. My credit is perfect and it didn’t get that way by not paying my bills. Waiting like this makes it much more difficult to remain calm.

A couple of years ago received a notice that we were being sent to collections for a bill at our local hospital. This was BEFORE I even received the bill from the hospital!!
I went in and calmly (unusual for me) talked with the office manager. We have always paid our bills on time. She called the collections agency while I was standing there and took care of it.

PC

Sounds like the dentist’s business manager is incompetent. When I was working and had company insurance, it wouldn’t quite cover my dentist bills so I ended up with an outstanding balance of 3 or 4 dollars after each visit. They’d mail a bill for it weeks later after the insurance reimbursement came and I’d mail a $3 check using a 50 cent stamp. Decided that was silly so I gave them $20 during one visit and asked them to put that as a credit on my account and reimburse themselves for the small balance out of it whenever necessary. No bills and no return payments necessary. Told them to let me know when the balance was running low whenever I had a visit and I’d replenish the credit amount.

Worked great for years until I retired. Since Medicare doesn’t cover dental, now I just hand them a credit card!

This balance is almost $200 so leaving them enough to cover that isn’t something I plan to do.

Let them turn it over to collections, then negotiate with the collection company. Seems that medical types are happy to accept far less going this route instead of collecting more via reasonable communication.

Medical debt can't be reported to your bureaus until it is 6 months old.

I would advise meeting with the dentist himself and explaining the issue. Busy professionals often do not pay enough attention to this sort of thing. I would not deal with the office manager.

You can choose not to pay, but I would not suggest if you want to see the dentist again. BTW if you are in a small town word does get around.

Sadly that happens sometimes. Work with the dentist office to get it resolved and get the name of anyone you talk to and document it including time and date just in case they don't follow through as expected.

I got a letter one time from a radiologist office that a $10 debt was being sent to collections in 30 days even though I had paid the bill and had the cancelled check It all worked out in the end.

It took nearly an hour for the “office manager” (one dentist that got pressed into double duty) to come talk to me. Tried a few excuses before I finally just said, “Look this hasn’t got a thing to do with anything except the fact that your billing practices need a review. I’ve always paid the full amount I owe up front. You can check check my payment history if you like. All it would take is a quick phone call and the matter would be resolved immediately.” She agreed, removed the late fee and I paid the amount due. As long as I waited it would’ve been cheaper to just pay the $3 and change late fee.

It’s the second time in 12 years so I suppose it could be much worse. I hate dentists in general but I like this office so I’ll cut them a little slack. Still not happy about it but what can you do?

quote:

It’s the second time in 12 years so I suppose it could be much worse. I hate dentists in general but I like this office so I’ll cut them a little slack. Still not happy about it but what can you do?

Yeah stuff like this happens. Sometimes you can ask for a free cleaning or something to compensate you for your time. The dentistry business can be pretty competitive.

I quit a Dentist that I really liked due to the practice's office.

All of the office staff was replaced, virtually all had a very poor command of English.

Started out with them double billing, they submitted an insurance claim for services and were paid. The next month after I received confirmation from my insurance company a bill arrived in the mail. Same date of service, same amount stating overdue. That one got cleared up with a personal visit.

Next time they screwed up the date for preventive care by one day. Insurance company rejected the claim, they attempted to bill me for it. Their first line was "If you don't pay we send you (exact syntax) to collections" to which I replied "You set the date, you looked at the calendar, your mistake, not mine. See you in Small Claims Court". The office manager said "We will write it off as goodwill".

All heart they were. Once, ok, mistakes are made. Twice, I'm seeing a pattern. Third, Nope.

I've been with my dentist before he retired last year for over 25 years.

His office manager was always helpful. They outsourced their billing but she would tell me ahead of time how much my portion will be. I would let the bills carry on for 90 days to give time for the insurance stuff to sort things out, then I pay.

But I suppose that's why I stayed with them for over 25 years.

My Dentist is a great guy but is in a three Dr. busy business and they haven't entered the computer age yet. All records are hand written. Call to confirm an appointment and it may take a while, while they look through a huge book with tiny hand written names in time slots, some that have been erased and changed!

I have no dental insurance and pay in full every trip before leaving and get a nice cash discount. Due to the crappy records I wasn't surprised when they past due billed me. I had paid with a credit card and could show the entry... they quickly apologized.

quote:

My Dentist is a great guy but is in a three Dr. busy business and they haven't entered the computer age yet. All records are hand written. Call to confirm an appointment and it may take a while, while they look through a huge book with tiny hand written names in time slots, some that have been erased and changed!

There are advantages as you can make an appointment if the computer is down. If the people are efficient they can often make an appointment quicker by hand. He just needs to hire older office staff who can flip the appointment book pages like a pro.