Explosive bill for 94-year-old woman: Doctor demanded 1000 francs from elderly woman for two canceled appointments

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A senior citizen and her daughter were not expecting this post at all: The 94-year-old woman had to cancel two doctor’s appointments at short notice in November because she was not feeling well, SRF reported. Every few months he has to travel to Zurich to see a rheumatologist, where he is given cortisone injections for his pain. Even though he couldn’t keep his appointments, he received a very high bill of 984 francs.

The doctor was billing her for visits as if this senior was in the office. The daughter takes care of the senior citizen’s bills. If the doctor only billed for short-term cancellations, it would be fine. “However, to collect much more by pretending that the treatment took place twice is, in my opinion, just fraud,” his daughter writes in the SRF consumer magazine “Espresso”.

Health insurance must pay for untreated expenses

Then the situation gets weird: Her daughter complains to the app about the bill. The assistant there presented the bills as a sign of the doctor’s “good will.” “That way my mom could transfer them to her health insurance company. He would have to pay for the missed consultations himself,” she says. However, the woman does not want to know anything about this.

After getting the doctor’s opinion, “Espresso” first contacts his patient’s daughter. Later in his statement he writes: “As I told the woman on the phone, her mother will not have to pay a dime for two appointments that were canceled at very short notice during my office hours.” His statement: “There was no explanation on my part that the invoice I sent to the patient could be forwarded to the health insurance company and taken over by it.”

poor judgment

With the bill, he wanted to inform people about the “greater harm” that could occur to him if deadlines were not met. “It was my mistake when I sent the invoice that I didn’t include a letter with the idea I described,” he explains.

This doesn’t seem very convincing. The invoice sent to the senior citizen included an invoice number and was printed on the return receipt. Moreover, the implementation assistant did not mention a purely “symbolic” bill.

The invoice should never have been sent this way

For FMH Medical Association President Yvonne Gilli (66), the bill is quite strange. “It should be clear on the bill that these were missed consultations.” The practice’s billing method was neither in accordance with the Tarmed doctor’s tariff nor with the law under the Health Insurance Act. Even a letter from the doctor’s office wouldn’t change anything.

Gilli says Assura, the health insurance company with which the senior citizen is insured, will likely foot the bill. From where. After all, he would have to assume that the cures were actually taking place. The invoice should never have been delivered this way. The doctor did not want to comment further on “Espresso”. (smt)

Source :Blick