Bill Shock

[artme]

Had to see (another) specialist. Wife rang to make appointment and asked for cost of consultation - $250.

Had appointment and was deemed not to have dementia or Altsheimers! Sweet relief!!

Paid bill of $525!!! Bloke had thereby caused me to become demented!

Seriously though, where do these people get off? Every other specialist I see costs $250.

To cap it off the HICAPS gizmo played up and we had to go to Medicare.The medicare people looked up
the consult on the computer and found the details had gone through but that the payment to us was not
in our account.

Now in order to sort that out the specialist's secretary (wife) was told by Medicare that she had to cancel
something to set the record straight. Her first response was "But what about our money?" Her second
response was "But what about our money?" !!!!!!!!!! THEY HAD BEEN PAID BY ME!!!! Their money, ie. too
much of my money was already in their account!!!!

Obviously patients don"t count!!!

[DaveTTC]

Makes you want to name and shame lol. Not that I'm advocating such.

Obviously they dont go by the doctors oath. Cant remember what its called - hippocratic oath? Ironic it sounds so much like hypocrite.

Your hip pocket sounds like it was rather hurt

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[chambezio]

Over a weekend some time ago I had a tooth that was giving me curry. The wife rang Outpatients at the Hospital and was told I would have to see a Dentist (in private practice) who was on a roster for that weekend. This was Sunday morning. I rang this bloke who sounded annoyed that I was interrupting his "day off". Then first thing he said about dealing with my tooth was that it would cost $150 (I think), well he must have told me 3 or 4 times that he NEEDED the payment there and then.
So into town I go. The surgery was open at street level so I went in. The first thing he says was (You guessed it) "how will you pay". He did the extraction and had to fill out the cheque because I was too shaky.
I apologised for interrupting his weekend but he still seemed annoyed.
The $ figure could have been more. I just can't remember exactly, but I do remember I thought it a lot of money for a half hours work.

[dai sensei]

Consider yourself lucky if you can get a specialist for $250 . A lot of mine are available at the public hospital luckily, so are free, but the others are usually $450 and up.

[dazzler]

Could they justify the extra cost? (more tests, longer appointment etc)

If they qouted $x and charged you $y then you should make a complaint to the medical association.

[bsrlee]

The last specialist I went to just bulk billed everything, and he has an arrangement with a large private hospital who also bulk bill for their services. The only out of pocket I had was for the two anesthetists - he took two goes to get a kidney stone removed - not fun.

[artme]

Could they justify the extra cost? (more tests, longer appointment etc)

If they qouted $x and charged you $y then you should make a complaint to the medical association.

Trouble is quote was over the phone and it would be a case of their word versus ours. Big no win methinks.

[rrich]

I have a dentist that will do a root canal any Saturday or Sunday that it is necessary to avoid a wedding. He has offered a place to sit on the couch in his office and watch football while drinking beer. I only have to bring the beer.

[wheelinround]

I'd be doing a lot of questioning some things not right $400+

Could be just he high cost of higher education.

[dazzler]

Trouble is quote was over the phone and it would be a case of their word versus ours. Big no win methinks.

Depends. If you know who you spoke to at what time and you were clear then you still have a contract.

All the best.