Can a Doctor or Dentist charge for a missed appointment? I have called the day of an appointment and canceled but never have I received a bill. I would not pay if I did. What could they do to collect?
There is a difference between a missed appointment and a cancelled appointment, even if you cancel on the same day.
Lots of surgeries use cancellations to fit in people who’ve called up on the day without an appointment.
I’m not sure whether they could collect a fine if you just missed an appointment. I suspect they would simply remove you from their register and you would need to find another doctor.
I suspect the OP is in the US.
If so, then yes, they certainly can. If you don’t show or don’t cancel reasonably in advance, then you may be costing the doctor; that’s time he or she can’t get paid for. Most places will let it go most of the time, particularly if they get at least a little notice; as Wallenstein notes, they may be able to fill the time.
They can collect the bill the same ways anyone can collect a bill.
You contracted for their service. Your not showing up is your problem. They can charge you for for a service you contracted for even if you didn’t use it.
Garnishing wages, sending Bailiffs and Debt recovery spring to mind.
My parents had a $200 ding in their credit for years because my mom waited over two hours in a doctor’s office, got frustrated and left (informing the office staff) and they charged her for the visit. They never contested beyond sending a letter to the doctor explaining exactly why they weren’t going to pay. I have no idea if they could have formally contested it/got it off their credit if they’d wanted to.
I’d be curious to know if my family doctor (internist) charges for no-shows. I’ve never had to cancel, but it would be quite galling if he did, seeing as a normal wait time in his waiting room, and then the treatment room adds up to, on average, 2 1/2 hours. The shortest wait time I’ve ever had with him is one hour. I counted myself lucky.
Yes, US. yes, “managed care”.
Your parents should have fought this harder. I have walked out after an excessive wait (and a full explanation as to why I was doing so) - and I was not charged. I was given another appointment for the first slot of the morning, so no waiting would be needed.
To be fair to doctors, one reason they overbook is because people are bad about canceling on short notice, or not showing up at all. Of course, this makes a rotten system for everyone who is faithful about keeping appointments. And some medical offices both overbook and charge for missed appointments, which seems borderline dishonest.
Absolutely they can. Heck, they can charge you for appointments that you never even made! Generally, in my experience, they allow one missed appointment but then they will charge for the second, which seems fair to me. It happens sometimes that a doctor’s office makes a mistake and marks someone as having missed when it was actually someone else, so it’s a good idea to keep records.
I completely missed a dentist appointment last month - I made the appointment 6 months ago and my calendar software lost it (I think?). They were very nice, set another time, all was good. Another place I missed years ago decided to hit my credit for that and one they claimed I’d missed before. So before I even got the first bill my credit was already tagged and I was in collections. But that is about all they can do - so they lost my business and never got a cent.
Now, if we could start charging doctors for the appointments they miss I could retire a rich man.
I would suggest that absent an agreement between the two of you on what exactly occurs in the event of a missed appointment, they cannot just “bill you” and have it be your problem.
Because, you know, I had an appointment with a doctor at 10:00. He didn’t see me until 10:05. Therefore he owes me one billion dollars for “costing me my time”. Just on my say so.
When I had my upper endoscopy a couple of weeks ago, someone from the gastroenterologist’s office called a few days ahead to go over what all my insurance would pay and how much would be my responsibility, and then said, in so many words, “Will you be able to pay this?”
My only thought is that with the economy, they’ve had a rash of people showing up, finding out they owed x hundred dollars and just turning around and leaving. Since no actual procedures were performed, I imagine all they can bill for at that point is an office visit.
Absent a contract specifying they can, they can’t even bill for an office visit. You need to agree to incur a debt in order to be a debtor. Yes, you can prospectively agree to incur the debt, but you need to agree nonetheless.
It is not that simple. They overbook and have patients all day long. Then you have to get an appointment months in advance . Of course they have you sit in the waiting room for hours too. If they actually had a hole in their day because of a missed appointment ,I could see their viewpoint. If you had a 11 o:clock appointment and actually got in near 11 ,I would understand . But your time means nothing to them. In America we accept this system.
I found a way to stop your waiting for a Dr. Last year there was 2 times when I was going to have procedure done and they were behind schedule. In both cases I said “If this doesn’t start in 5 minutes I am leaving.” Guess what? They called me right back and started working on me.
If they billed my insurance for an office visit that I didn’t have, I don’t think my insurance company would pay for it. Could the doctor’s office even code it as a visit?
Kind of an over simplistic analysis don’t ya think? Say I tell a musician to show up at my house to play at a party for one hour and I will give him $200, I forget and leave town the musician shows up and waits for the full hour ready and willing to play, You really think he can’t bill me for the $200?
With some specialties, having to pay for a missed appointment makes more sense than others.
I’m thinking of psychiatrists. An entire hour is set aside just for you. They don’t overbook, and walk-ins just don’t happen. If you don’t show, you are wasting an eighth of the doctor’s day – why shouldn’t you be expected to pay?
OTOH, they generally are quite good on keeping to schedule, so if your appointment is for 10 a.m., you can be pretty sure of being in the office and talking to the doc by 10:15 at the latest.
If the musician is smart he gets a signed contract and can sue you for a no show by you. If no signed deal it would be harder for him to collect.
Do you have a cite that says making an appointment doesn’t qualify as creating a verbal contract?
Maybe if I was a dishonest person but if I admit that I agreed to pay then generally I am liable. Only certain contracts must be written and signed those under the Statute of Frauds or for real property or contracts that can’t be performed within one year and a few others but generally a contract can be proved with extrinsic evidence, signed writing is not generally required. Sure it makes it easier to prove when dealing with dishonest people but it is not a necessary element to the formation of contracts in general.