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Picture it: You're not feeling well, so you go to your doctor's office, where you're told you're having a heart attack. And just as you're on an ambulance gurney, the receptionist asks you for a $5 co-pay! This is what happened to 76-year-old Staten Island resident Barbara Antonelli last month.
Antonelli described her trip to the Staten Island Physician Practice and told the Staten Island Advance, "Stupid me, I gave her the five dollars. This was an emergency ... and they asked for a lousy $5. They could have billed me. I never thought they would have the audacity to ask." This while the grandmother had an oxygen mask over her mouth!
She pondered to WCBS 2, "[Is] a lousy $5 more important than a human being?" Still, Antonelli is grateful to her doctor (who didn't realize she was asked for payment) and just thinks the administrators need to train their employees better.
SIPP says it's "not our policy" to demand payment from patients who are having heart attacks, but Antonelli had not paid when she came in, the employee got a bit overzealous. SIPP's associate medical director Dr. Jack D'Angelo, who did find the employee's actions "inappropriate," explained to the Daily News, "When a patient comes into any doctor's office, you have your co-pay and you pay it when you register." We've personally never paid for our doctor's visit until after seeing the doctor - and we pay at the office or we're billed.
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Weird and what marvelously poor judgment from that receptionist.
I always pay the Co-pay afterwards too. SIPP needs to either change their practice or people should go somewhere else.
I'd love to know what the receptionist would have done if she didn't have the $5!
Receptionist: "No, she can't go!!! She needs to pay 1st!"
Nothing surprising here. You spend more time filling out forms and waiting for these people who are still practising medicine rather than actually knowing medicine than it would take to go see a vet with what ails you.
Rules are rules though, and if you can't live by the rules, you will die by the rules.
$5.00 please.
Well, thank goodness that poor lady didn't have a debilitating stroke...
there's a queens hospital that asks for your payment while you're lying in your bed.
no class.
there's a queens hospital that asks for your payment while you're lying in your bed.
no class.
I think its worth it to be asked for a five dollar co-pay if you're in a horrific life-threatening state. Imagine the lawsuits. Her family will be set for life!
Well I'm glad I don't live in S.I.! Would Sinai ask me for co-pay as well though....
But, here's the thing, most of the time when you go to the doctor's office, it's when your sick. So if it's rude to ask for the co-pay if you're sick, they're never going to get the co-pay.
Yes, this was a heart attack, but she was presumably already given immediate first aid and treatment, after all, it was a doctor's office. She was not, as the previous commenter said "in a horrific life-threatening state." According to the article, she was just being sent to the hospital for testing.
As for me, I'd rather be able to just pay the $5 there, rather than have to go to the trouble of returning to the office to pay, or writing a check and having to mail it.
Doctor: I'm sorry, but you have only six months to live. And here's your bill.
Patient: Looks like you're not getting paid in full. It would take me a year to come up with this money.
Doctor: You have 12 months to live.
"...the receptionist asks your for a $5 co-pay!"
Jesus Christ in a Chicken Basket. Can you people at least TRY to copy edit?
this is why we need single payer universal healthcare. did she get a receipt?
#9
you must be new here.. no chance in that happening.
Get with the program. If you want perfect grammar and spelling along with some reflections on Shakespeare take a night course in proper English at NYU. Who the fuck cares if there are some errors? It's the personal observazhuns that matter.
To sum up:
She has a heart attack.
She goes to the doctor's office.
They save her life!
She gets upset because they ask to be paid the five dollars to which they are entitled.
I agree with #13. This was all over the news. It was either a slow news day or that woman knows someone in the media.
Jeez, they saved her life for only five bucks! You don't have to look far for truly sad stories of medical malfeasance.
With my HMO, I pay on the way in for general work (to see a doctor), which I pay when I check in.
When it comes to emergency treatment, I pay when I check out (at least that's the way it was last time I needed it).
Asking someone to pay in the middle is just tacky. Paying when you arrive for non-emergency treatment makes sense (on a fixed co-pay setup), as you just do it when you check-in, so it makes the check-out process easier, and otherwise pay on the way out (since you generally need to check-out anyways), but stopping someone in the middle of an visit over $5, especially when on a gurney...
My doctor's office collects the co-pay when I arrive. Ditto my occasional hospital visits. If a clerk messes up, I might get a bill in the mail. There are even co-pays that disappeared. Given the extent of my coverage (which I pay for myself), I have no complaints.
At the same time, the view from doctors' office is different. When I was getting therapy for a broken finger, the receptionist was careful to collect the $15 copay each time I arrived. She was charming and polite (and, I should note, bilingual in Spanish) and she told me that her boss explained that colecting co-pays was a hallmark of a well-run medical office.
My carrier (HIP) sent me notices of payment (primarily as a check against fraud) and I found that the co-pay was nearly 20% of the fee for a really terrific therapist. I can see why she was so obsessive about the co-pay. Over 3 months, twice a week at $15 each yields nearly $400.