Doctors' payments

Does anyone else hate trying to pay their doctor as much as I do?

First, you can never figure out how much you owe them. Typically, a huge bill comes first. But you know you don't owe that much, since insurance is going to cover the majority.

So you wait for your next statement to see what you really owe. But now you're past-due. And woe be to you if you visit the doctor more than once in 30-days; you'll be lost in an impossible maze of charges and insurance reimbursements.

Ok, fine. My doctor sent me a "please pay now" notice, so I'm pretty sure this is what I actually owe. No problem. While I'm sitting here paying bills online, I'll just quickly go to their website and pay online.

Except that they don't accept online payment. Are you freaking kidding me? An industry that has massive trouble collecting payments does not provide a way for patients to pay online? Yep, that's right. Ninety-nine percent of doctors have no way for you to pay online.

I could pay with my regular online bill payment service. However, it seems like I have about 12 different accounts associated with the doctors we see. So it's awfully inconvenient to have 12 different payees in my payment service.

Fine. I'll call them. Oh wait - it's 11 pm and an industry which has trouble collecting payments only has its billing office open from 9-5 on weekdays.

Fine. I wait until tomorrow. I call the business office during their advertised hours and listen on hold for 20 minutes while the voice response system tells me my call is important. After 20 minutes, it routes me to a voice mail box. I leave a voice mail. Four hours later, after receiving no call back, I call again. 20 minutes later I leave another voice mail. Four hours later after no call back, I call again. Twenty minutes of repeated "your call is important to us" later, the system tries to transfer me to an operator, but it hangs up instead.

The business office is now closed for the day. To make a long story a little shorter, after two more attempts the next day, I finally get through and pay my bill over the phone with a debit card.

In short, absolutely unacceptable.

Yes, I realize I could just write a check, get a stamp, put it in the envelope and mail it. However, that's not the point. The point is, I want to pay my bill NOW. Online. And you're not letting me do it.

No wonder you have problems getting paid.