Would You Pay For This Kind of "Treatment"? (LONG and involved)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve got a question.

The Scenario:

About a year ago, I got an abcess, or “polinidal (sp?) cyst,” at the top of my…er…screw it…butt crack. (Right where the cleft first begins, almost at the bottom of the back.)

I thought it was a bug bite so I ignored it for a couple of days until it grew to massive and painful proportions and then I went to the local Med Clinic for treatment. They sliced it open and stuffed it with gauze to let it “drain and heal” from the bottom up…no pun intended…and I had to go back for three more days so they could restuff and regauze it. (In case anyone is wondering, this was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced, to the point that I couldn’t even breathe b/c it felt like small, dull knives were stabbing me. Ugh.)

It healed up within a week or two and Life Was Good.

It then returned, almost exactly six months later. (Apparently these things have a habit of recurring.) I caught it very very early–at that point I was cautious to the point of paranoia about that whole area–and since the Med Clinic was closed when I got off work that day (I bartend), I went to the local ER. (And don’t laugh at me for this; the one thing I wanted more than anything in the world was to head it off before it started. I didn’t think the ER was “too drastic” at all.)

I waited for about three hours before the doc saw me; this was at six o’clock in the morning. He drew me behind a curtain and did a perfunctory “feel” of the area, said it looked early enough that antibiotics might kill it, and said he’d write me a prescription.

Then he gave me a pregnancy test (even though I was menstruating) because, he said jokingly, he “didn’t want to get sued.”

Then he and the nurse sat around chatting for awhile about what they were going to do when they got off work…the nurse filled out some paperwork, so did he, more chit-chat…I realized I was their last patient for the day when the nurse grabbed her backpack and the Doc followed her out of the exam room.

I had the paperwork he and I had signed. I’d heard him mention he was going to prescribe Keflex, so I assumed that amidst the paperwork was a prescription for it.

I followed the still chit-chatting nurse and Doc out of the room and towards the payment area. I saw them leave.

After paying the $150 ER fee, I was told that the Doc would be billing me later, and that this was just the ER fee.

I then went upstairs to the pharmacy to fill my prescription.

The pharmacist looked at my paperwork and said I didn’t have a prescription. Just the generic form you fill out when you see the Doc.

So I went back downstairs, pretty angry at this point, and told the nurse in triage (sp?) that the Doc I just saw failed to remember to write me a prescription, and that since he had already left for the day, what was I supposed to do?

She ushered me into the same exam room ASAP, where another doctor was talking to someone (I don’t know if it was a nurse or a patient or whatever b/c I was too damn angry) and then I explained the situation to him.

So he glances over my paperwork, and on the strength of that, and my recollection of the word “Keflex,” writes me a prescription for it. And makes soothing noises about, “Oh, you know, these things happen!”

Well, no shit, Sherlock. But I don’t appreciate it when the Doctor’s so eager to beat rush-hour traffic that he forgets to write me a prescription! Gee, don’t I feel like he took my condition seriously!

So I get my prescription for Keflex and go home, taking it religiously for four days…but the abcess doesn’t improve at all. It gets worse, to the point that I can’t even walk. I’m beyond broke at this point b/c I don’t have health insurance so all this was out-of-pocket, having missed four days of work, having paid for the prescription and the ER bill, but I know I need to get it looked at again, so I go back to the Med Clinic b/c I can’t afford the ER again.

The doctor there tells me a few things.

a.) On a scale of 1 to 10 re: The Worst Abcess He’s Ever Seen, mine’s a 7. In four days it had absolutely ballooned.

b.) He’d never have prescribed Keflex for a recurring abcess of this nature, or for much of anything, b/c it’s so out-dated on the scale of antibiotics that it might as well be candy. I asked him why doctors still prescribe it, and he said b/c it’s cheap. (The ER doc knew I didn’t have insurance.)

c.) I need to go back to the ER, he says, and have this thing surgically attended to, b/c the chances of it healing on its own are pretty slim. He refused to treat it on those grounds, b/c they don’t do surgery of that type at a clinic, of course…but he did give me a free week’s supply of Augmentin, the most effective antibiotic on the market, he said. The Big Guns. He also wrote out a detailed diagram of the area, and told me to take it with me to the ER to show them.

As it turns out, the abcess “broke” that night, and drained itself (with a lot of help from my oh-so-understanding SO) and healed up on its own within a week. The clinic Doc said that it might do that, but he’d doubted it. (I still need to have it surgically corrected, b/c it might still return again, but I haven’t had the money.)

A month later I get a bill for $28.00 from the ER. I assume these are the fees the lady mentioned.

About a month after that, I get another bill. For $178.00. Which is the doctor’s fee. (The $28 was apparently the pregnancy test?)

I don’t want to pay that doctor. I feel like he totally screwed me. He was so eager to leave that he didn’t even write me a prescription–another doctor who didn’t even examine me had to do it for him after he left–and what he prescribed me was basically a sugar pill! After I told him it was a recurring abcess and that I wanted to do whatever it took to “catch it” early. The clinic doctor said that Keflex might as well be candy! What kind of crap is that? He just prescribed me the cheapest antibiotic on the market and then didn’t even write it down! Just left the hospital! I would have paid for the “good” stuff…this is my health we’re talking about here, I could have borrowed the money from somewhere…but I didn’t even get the option. I spent four horrible, excruciating days where I couldn’t even stand up straight, but hey, at least I saved a little money! Augmentin is $120 a bottle. (Augmentin is what I was prescribed for the original abcess six months previously, as well as what the clinic doc gave me for free, after telling me I might as well throw away the Keflex.) Keflex is $12.

What does that tell you? And what do you think? How can I go about contesting that bill? I don’t think I should have to pay almost $200 for the services of a doctor who blithely prescribed me a sugar pill, and then was so eager to get out of work he didn’t even remember to write the prescription himself. I don’t want to sue him or anything (although I do hold him partially responsible for the extended and painful nature of the abcess, since I saw him when it was so early and there’s a chance it could have been “saved” at that point) but I don’t think I should have to pay his fees, either. Prescribing me a cheap antibiotic, failing to write down the prescription, and then leaving the hospital before I did really makes me think that he wasn’t paying attention to me at all; I was his very last patient and it’s obvious he wanted to bail. And I don’t think that kind of treatment is worth $178 bucks.

The Question:

Would you guys pay his bill? Am I overdramatizing here? Should I just pay it and get over it, or do I have a legitimate gripe?

2

You may not like this answer but I think you have to pay. Services were rendered and you have to pay the fee. If you feel the services were substandard or inappropriate then you can sue to get your money back. I know you said you do not want to sue but that’s how you have to approach it.

For a $178 it is hardly worth the aggravation to sue. If you have a friend who is an attorney see if they’d be willing to write a letter on your behalf. It’ll cost more to pay an attorney to do this so you need to cal in a favor. Discuss with the attorney whether a threat of malpractice is supportable. This isn’t so much to actually prosecute on this basis but to get the doctor to back away.

See who blinks first…

3

Something not so horrible, but moneywise happened to me. My son had an ear infection and I had to take him to the emergency room, which under my company insurance policy was supposed to be 100% covered.

Shortly after that, we switched insurance plans. The hospital began billing me, eventually turned it over to collections, I fought it for years, even going back to my old company who tried to claim that that’s not what the employee coverage had been (it was, I still had the employee manual).

Long story short? Yes it was on my credit report for several years, but when potential lenders asked about it, I wrote a letter of explanation.

It was only 65 bucks, but it was the principle of the thing. Eventually the bill was “written off” by the collection agency.

Now, I don’t know how much chance you have, but you know the old saying? You can’t get blood out of a turnip? They can turn over your bill to collections, but that’s about all they can do.

I disagree with Mole, it doesn’t sound to me that the doctor rendered services, at least not appropriate ones. The pregnancy test? WTF? His whole performance sounds weird, flakey and bordering on malpractice.

I’d fight it if I were you, even if it ends up on your credit, it doesn’t mean you can’t get lenders and such if you write letters of explanation.

Good luck.

4

The services rendered here seem woefully inadequate. The hospital may find it in their best interest to drop the fees instead of having you sue them for the doctor’s mistreatment. If you have a lawyer friend then speak to them! You have a legitimate gripe IMO but you need to balance that over the hassles they will cause you. If you want to fight be prepared for them to draw it out.

I had a friend who worked in the collections division of a hospital local to us. He said they almost never sent patients to collections but your hospital may as other’s have attested.

Also since you don’t have insurance is there a state run insurance program you can get? Here in MA whenever you go to the ER with no insurance they hand you a free care application and direct you to mass health if you can’t get free care.

I feel for you with that cyst! My friend had one and he described it as the most awful pain ever experienced. It came back with increasing frequency and more severe infections until he had surgery to remove the offending follicle. The surgery sucked but the cyst has not been back since (many years) We did make lots of beavis jokes about the crack in his butt though :slight_smile: What are friends for?!

5

One thing you CAN do is pay the bill off V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y. I did that once; a few years ago I’d banked a whole pint of my own blood prior to surgery, and the surgery got rescheduled so the blood got tossed. THEN I found out that the blood had been stored at the WRONG HOSPITAL, which was not covered by my insurance, so I got a $300 bill for storage!!! (This was not as scary as the $9000 hospital bill I got when there was a problem with the insurance company after the surgery. Eeek! The insurance eventually paid up.)

I paid it off five or ten bucks a month. Eventually it went away.

6

If you believe you have received sub-standard service, I think you can (and probably should) file a complaint with your state’s medical licensing board. It’s hardly going to get his license revoked, but it will be lodged as a formal complaint against him. I doubt it will do anything about the bill, but I’d sure as hell feel better knowing that the asshole is getting the “black mark” that he deserves!

Good luck and keep us posted.

7

I agree with Avarie - don’t just not pay the bill. That just makes you look deadbeat; he knows you don’t have health insurance or else he wouldn’t have prescribed you a cheap antibiotic.

I’d report his behavior to the hospital, the company that owns/runs the hospital, etc., and cc him on all the letters. It may not be successful in the end, but if you’re insistent upon not paying (and not suing), you need to let them know why. And don’t make them ask first.

8

Audrey, I don’t know what the clinic doctor was talking about Keflex being worthless. It saved my life after my first son was born. I developed a post surgical infection that was spreading so fast that it would have killed me without my even knowing anything was amiss. Fortunately a home health nurse was checking me daily. One day I was fine and the next morning it was so bad that I was immediately sent to the hospital to spend the next three days on a Keflex drip.

9

Maybe Keflex was useless for your particular situation. However I’ve taken it for stuff and it worked fine.

Augmentin friggin rules, though, I gotta admit.

How good is your credit? If it’s good, you might wanna just suck it up and pay it and keep your credit intact.

If it’s already bad, inform the hospital that you’re not paying it and tell them why. There’s really not a whole hell of a lot they can do to you. MAYBE they can garnish your wages, but it’s doubtful. Or you can do what someone else says … pay it off really slowly. As long as you pay it regularly, say $5 a month, they can’t really touch you.