Had argument with my Doctor. Was I wrong?

[kirk]

So when you visit the same Doctor over and over, the price you pay for visit goes down. It's called a follow up fee.

I originally paid her $100 for a consult. Eventually I was only paying $25 for my yearly visit to renew my finasteride script.

Anyways, my Doctor changed offices and I decided to follow her to new practice. She treated me as If I was a new patient and tried to charge me $130.
I got upset and told her that I refuse to pay that much just to get my yearly prescription renewed.

She has never 'treated' me other than look at my head. She never recommended blood work or even asked me probing questions about my health. I told her if she wanted to keep me as a customer she would charge me a fair rate. Then she recommended me to go back to other practice to continue 'treatment'.

Her 'reasoning' was exactly this: "I can't charge you one fee and my other patients another". She refused to acknowledge me as a follow-up despite my many years seeing her for same issue.

I wanted to rant a bit to see if you guys think my logic is sound. I feel like I was wronged by this Doctor. Thanks

 

[Notcoolanymore]

I agree with you. It's not like you are a new patient of hers. I am not sure where you are from, but in the US is happens all the time. Especially if you have insurance. You have to realize that every visit you make to the doctor gest charged to your insurance. It doesn't matter if they see you for 5 minutes. They still want to charge your insurance company for the visit. Dr's scam insurance companies all the time by billing for nonsense. Happens all the time.

 

[DoctorHouse]

So when you visit the same Doctor over and over, the price you pay for visit goes down. It's called a follow up fee.

I originally paid her $100 for a consult. Eventually I was only paying $25 for my yearly visit to renew my finasteride script.

Anyways, my Doctor changed offices and I decided to follow her to new practice. She treated me as If I was a new patient and tried to charge me $130.
I got upset and told her that I refuse to pay that much just to get my yearly prescription renewed.

She has never 'treated' me other than look at my head. She never recommended blood work or even asked me probing questions about my health. I told her if she wanted to keep me as a customer she would charge me a fair rate. Then she recommended me to go back to other practice to continue 'treatment'.

Her 'reasoning' was exactly this: "I can't charge you one fee and my other patients another". She refused to acknowledge me as a follow-up despite my many years seeing her for same issue.

I wanted to rant a bit to see if you guys think my logic is sound. I feel like I was wronged by this Doctor. Thanks

You have good reason to be upset but if the doctor went to another practice and she is employed by another doctor who owns this new practice, she has to charge you a new patient fee because you are new to that practice. The doctor that owns the practice is charging you the new patient fee. Your previous doctor does not decide how much she can charge you if she actually works for someone else. However, if this "new" practice is just a relocation to a new office which I doubt, then you truly would not be a new patient. That's why she told you to go back to the other practice because you are a previous patient there which is considered an established patient and those policies there may differ from the new practice. When you are an employee, you have to follow the employers rules and sometimes its not a great idea to ask for special exceptions if you just joined the practice.

Also if you don't see a doctor for more than three years, the doctor can actually charge you as a new patient fee even though you were a previous patient. That has to do with medical coding laws.

 

[kirk]

Thanks to both of you. Well thought out responses. Sometimes the craziness of the medical world makes me question my own common sense.