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June 4, 2011 at 7:54 pm #599184
jaymanMemberI don’t know about you but I haven’t in all my years of visiting dentist been charged for a missed visit until recently. As it turns out if you miss a visit with Lloyd M Tucker at the Renaissance Center on California Ave you will be charged $100.00. When I called to dispute the charge they informed me that it was my second missed appointment and therefore warranted the penalty fee. I had called in the morning before and had left a voice mail about missing that days appointment due to illness. Now you have to wonder if there is some leniency to this policy? I wrote a letter informing the office that I would have gotten sick all over the office if I had showed. So I’m being charged $100 for being sick that day. What if I had been in a car accident, or a loved one had been hurt and needed my help? What if someone close to me had died? All these situations of a missed appointment would have cost me $100. Which now has been sent to collection with interest. My advice. Stay clear of Llyoyd Tuckers office.
June 4, 2011 at 10:48 pm #725901
KatherineLParticipantDid they warn you ahead of time about a fee for a missed appointment? As someone with frequent migraines, I’m wary of places that charge me for being sick.
June 5, 2011 at 3:03 pm #725902
flowerpetalMemberSorry, it sounds like a difficult situation. I am a long time patient of Dr Tucker. I believe that any medical/dental professional I work with has a similar policy. I’m glad they do. Imagine how difficult it would be to run a business if people were forgiven for not showing up for an appointment. Business still goes on, employees need to be paid, etc. We seem to be at a time when people are just not courteous about keeping appointments.
June 5, 2011 at 4:07 pm #725903
JanSParticipantI realize that professional offices have to have this kind of policy. I have one, although not strictly enforced, as I weigh the circumstances. I prefer that clients not come if they are ill, and if they rebook. I have no problem with that. The OP claims to have cancelled by leaving a voice message in an early phone call. If it was a same day call for an early appointment, I suppose I understand the charge, but $100 seems steep. It pays to know what the policies are. And it pays to have a good relationship with the doc’s office. If you are truly ill, if it’s an emergency, maybe a live phone conversation would have been better? Instead of a message? So they know you’d want to rebook as soon as possible?
June 5, 2011 at 9:03 pm #725904
anonymeParticipantI used to manage a medical practice and this is standard procedure. You would have signed a document as a new patient advising you of your rights and responsibilities as well as the office policies. You were already given a break by not being charged for the first missed appointment. The second time, you left a message the morning of the appointment, far less than the 24 hour minimum required by most practices. Dental work is time consuming, and this would have left a big gap in the schedule that could have been used by another patient had you given adequate notice.
Clearly the bill went unpaid long enough to go to collections. Is that when you challenged the charge? I don’t see that Dr. Tucker’s office is at fault here.
June 6, 2011 at 5:43 pm #725905
happywalkerParticipantI work in a dental office…You mention what if you or a loved one were in an accident etc. Of course we would not charge for some unforseen circumstance. It’s NOT to make money but more as a deterrent to for future missed appointments appointments…or if it happens several times, maybe to find another dentist. I happily write it off of your account and adious!
June 7, 2011 at 5:01 am #725906
jaymanMemberThanks for all the constructive comments. It is difficult to encounter a situation where you feel you have done all the right things 1) cancelled the appointment when I woke up sick that day 2) followed up with a phone call upon first receiving a bill for a missed appointment 3) followed up with a letter to the dentist after the phone call to the office …and now it falls into collection. Obviously Dr. Tucker is not one to budge when it comes to charging for an empty dentist chair. So I’ll swallow my pride and pay.
The kicker is he miss diagnosed me in the end, If I would have stuck it out with him, I would have lost my natural front tooth. Thanks to a rescheduled appointment else ware, I save thousands of dollars and still have my tooth.
So …so long Tucker… and a word comes to mind that rhymes with your last name …hum??
June 7, 2011 at 5:34 am #725907
chrismaParticipantwell jayman, you could choose to look at the $100 cancellation fee as a tiny price to pay for saving yourself thousands of dollars and your natural tooth. Not to mention the opportunity to find a new dentist who could provide you better care and diagnostics. That’s pretty good value for $100.
The phrase “blessing in disguise” comes to mind.
Let It Go, jayman, and see if you can find a little gratitude in your heart. Someone was looking out for you here.
June 7, 2011 at 1:57 pm #725908
flowerpetalMemberIts peculiar to me that the OP would begin this thread by wringing of hands over a $100 missed appointment fee and now we read about a misdiagnosis? There seems to me to be a credibility problem here.
June 8, 2011 at 4:23 am #725909
jaymanMemberMy statement is very credible. Just give a call to the office of C.R Anderegg, DDS Periodontist in Bellevue and ask what he found that saved Jay’s tooth. 425-747-7007. I rest my case.
June 8, 2011 at 6:17 am #725910
chrismaParticipantUh..I’m pretty sure dentists are also governed by HIPAA, so I doubt Dr. Anderegg is going to discuss anything with some stranger who called up wanting the story on Jay’s tooth.
June 8, 2011 at 2:35 pm #725911
anonymeParticipantHIPAA prevents practitioners from even acknowledging that an individual is a patient under their care. Dr. Tucker, or any other medical provider so named, can’t even come on this blog to defend themselves as to do so would violate confidentiality.
The only thing to be accomplished here is that Dr. Anderegg can now be alerted to the fact that he has a new patient with a history of unpaid bills, missed appointments, and an inclination toward the public airing of grievances.
June 8, 2011 at 2:50 pm #725912
JoBParticipantWhoa Nelly…
I can understand a charge for missing appointments because you are thoughtless of other’s time.
but when did waking up ill.. and possibly contagious.. become a foreseen circumstance?
i wouldn’t want a dentist that didn’t want a patient to cancel an appointment because of the kind of illness that would have them spewing vomit.
I count on the medical professionals that i see not to expose me to contagious patients just because they think that enriches their bottom line.
June 8, 2011 at 3:38 pm #725913
flowerpetalMemberAgreed JoB. I have been a patient of Dr. T’s for four years and this post does not match with what I know.
June 8, 2011 at 4:21 pm #725914
skeeterParticipantMy 2 cents – building up a relationship with a quality service provider is time and money well spent. I’ve been seeing my dentist for over 10 years. I’d bet my favorite baseball cap that if I cancelled an appointment even just one hour beforehand she would not charge me. Even though she could.
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