This doctor won't take CASH MONEY. Unbelieveable!!!!!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

I walked into this guy's office today to make an appointment.

They said they would only take insurance.
I said I had cash. They said they didn't take "self pay".

They had a VISA and MASTERCARD logo on their window.
I said "I have x dollars in the bank and you won't take it????"

Another woman said "well if you have to have surgery..." It didn't make sense.

I have never seen such a thing. I think that is illegal to not take "Legal tender for all debts public and private" as it says on our money? Is that illegal???


:wtf: :banghead: :wtf:

There was a doctor's office on the other side of the waiting room and I made an appointment with him.

[laylah]

1. WTF is right!

[provis99]

2. It is not illegal.

I don't understand why people think this. He didn't give you a service, so you don't have a debt to pay him.

[KarenS]

3. I agree with you on this,,,,

my daughter ran into it last year ~ insurance patients only.
Someone here asked if it was a specialist (it was).

Amazing, tho, huh???

Good luck to you.

[valerief]

4. I guess all doctors are not created equal! nt

[TwilightGardener]

5. I know. I thought I was in a time warp. I'd read this thread earlier, with responses--

and then it all of a sudden appeared again--this time fresh and new, no responses.

[valerief]

6. Oops. I decide to change my post before I saw yours. Sorry! nt

[TwilightGardener]

7. That's OK. I'm still scratching my head as to where the first version of this went.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. The mods deleted it twice.

Because I identified the town and the doctor by name.
They said I could repost it without identifying the doctor. You are not crazy, they did delete it twice.

So I reposted without the identifying info.

:D

[TwilightGardener]

12. LOL, thought I was losing my marbles for a minute.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Anyhoo, maybe they don't like to keep cash in the office or have to deposit it?

That's my best guess--I think it's a lame and possibly discriminatory policy.

[Johonny]

9. I think if you are found to need extra care

they feel without insurance they may not get full payment for all the care. You might feel you need x care for x dollars, but sometimes the care and tests can go well beyond what you thought. A check up can get vastly expensive if a real problem exists.

Just a guess:
Before the doctor examines you, they can't tell how much care you will actually need. Without insurance they may feel they can't be confident they will be paid for all the care you require. They however once they start care will feel required to see through all the care they determine you need. Thus for them the only moral thing to do is not see you. You feel the moral thing is different. The doctor may volunteer at free clinics for those without insurance and thus feel he has made a moral and proper business decision.

This is why people favor universal insurance so these business versus ethic decisions don't need to happen.

[mysuzuki2]

10. Maybe he takes chickens?

[MedicalAdmin]

21. It is likely that as a specialist that they can charge more to insurance

Than you. It's strictly a business decision. We accept every kind of payment: cash, check, trade of services, produce, and credit cards. And that is our order of preference.

Specialists increasingly find a niche where they can milk the system and stick to it to the exclusion of everything else. Although milking the system when the system is a fucked up as private insurance is not necessarily a bad thing.

[walerosco]

13. This same thing happened to me when

I wanted to rent a car. I don't necessarily agree with it but I can understand why a business would want to do that.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

14. He won't get any of my money. Because it's not any good to him.

[Generic Brad]

15. Maybe he does not want to risk getting robbed

That's one of the risks of accepting cash payment.

[sammytko]

16. Exactly! And they might not have change

I have a three dollar credit with my PCM because they didn't have change for my fifteen dollars. Copayment is 12.

I don't care. I trust them. probably a pain for them to make a bank run when they have sick people to take care of.

[RB TexLa]

17. Who the hell wants to handle cash? It's 2011 not 1911.

We really should get rid of that stuff.

[MedicalAdmin]

18. Really, really bad idea.

Cash is portable and can be off the grid if you need it to be. If we go to straight electronic money then TPTB can and will shut your money off at a whim for any reason.

[RB TexLa]

19. And the black helicopters follow you all day, don't they?

[MedicalAdmin]

25. And you've bought the Brooklyn bridge ... twice, haven't you?

Just like electronic books bought under license can be modified at whim by the publisher on all copies simultaneously if they so desired.

Electronic money has no tangible audit trail. Paper money does ( at least in theory). I think electronic banking is a great idea and I like it, but the system, much like electronic voting, is a bad idea if applied exclusively.

Now get back out there and earn your 20 pieces of silver.

[Elwood P Dowd]

20. RB is a worshiper of giant corps and billionaires.

Just look at some of his posts on fake free trade deals and outsourcing. I don't think its ever occurred to him that millions of Americans have no health insurance, no credit cards, no debit cards, and no PayPal.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

22. I would have written a check. It would not have bounced.

Stupid idiot.

[WinkyDink]

28. Yes! We should just let computers, never known to fail or be breached, keep

ALL our records!

[JoeyT]

39. Yeah, when I just want to buy a dollar coke,

the store should really have to pay a buck and a half to a credit card company or bank to process the transaction.

The cash free system would positively crush every retailer that wasn't part of a large corporation. We *could* design one that wouldn't, but there's too much incentive not to.

[FiveGoodMen]

41. Just remember: You'll have to blow someone if you want a bag of pot.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

42. LOL

[jberryhill]

23. Cash is filthy with germs

[MedicalAdmin]

24. Compared to your face or your digestive system money is clean.

What is your point?

[jberryhill]

34. Well, dang my dog, I know what I'll be using to wipe my face with now!

But not since one night in a bar in Tijuana do I handle small bills with my bare fingers.

When mom said, "You don't know where that money's been"... I think I found out.

[MedicalAdmin]

35. Bwahahahahahaha. LOL.

OK point made.


Senor, dos cerveza por favor!:toast:

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. The Visa and Mastercard logos are likely for the copays

[WinkyDink]

27. Because there is no "padding" available with "cash money." ;-) There are no "codes" to be used with

"cash money." ;-)

[themadstork]

29. Strange

as I thought cash represented a chance for a higher profit margin for most docs. The specialist or future-care angles mentioned by others seem most plausible. . .

[LWolf]

30. The real question here is, imo:

Why? What is the reasoning or purpose behind refusing service to those who want to pay with actual money?

[metalbot]

31. Two issues

First is nonpayment. It's hard to know what services are going to be needed before the doctor sees you, so how do you get someone to prepay for those services? If they don't prepay, what happens if they don't have enough money after the doctor visit? In order to make this work, the doctor would need to know exactly how much each service was, explain this to the patient, and take payment before that element of service was performed.

Second is a cash issue. If you are going to take cash, then you need to have change. Someone has to be in charge of making sure you have sufficient change at all times. Someone is going to have to take the money to the bank periodically.

I could easily see a doctor who is not hurting for business decide to take insurance patients only - and it's not an unreasonable choice. There are other doctors who will take cash.

[LWolf]

33. Those seem like fairly small issues.

If someone is paying cash, you can have them put their cash deposit upfront.

If making change is an issue, put the change on account for the next visit, or tell them to bring the right change for the deposit they are putting up.

In reality, how big a problem can this really be? How many patients would bring in actual cash, rather than a debit or credit card?

Are there other possible concerns?

[Yo_Mama]

32. If you need further care and don't have insurance

The office is morally obligated to follow through - but that will cost them a great deal of time and money.

I volunteer at doctor's office for just this purpose - it can require days of work to get someone in for care they can't afford to pay - you have to write letters and certify a bunch of stuff, and document why you think the patient needs the care.

So for a doctor's office, taking uninsured patients can be a huge money-loser. If the person is well the office can just take their money for the checkup, but if the checkup reveals a problem, then the office might well spend a huge amount of time jumping through bureaucratic hoops to get it for the patient.

Areas differ; I don't know the details of yours. But I am pretty sure this is the reason.

You rack up huge deficits just dealing with patients with crappy insurance - it took three weeks and over two days of staff time recently in this doctor's office to get an insured patient with a clearly visible lesion of the pelvic bone a biopsy. Two different radiologists had labeled it highly suspicious and recommended a biopsy (suspicion of bone cancer). But none of the prior doctors had spent the time to force the insurance company to authorize it, so this women had been limping around for a year thinking she might be dying. It was found when she was 20.

Fortunately it turned out to be benign, but for a payment of about $40, this office spent about $30 in direct expenses and about $280 in man hours figuring $10 an hour, including the doctor's time to get a biopsy authorized. BC/BS was the insurer.

You have no idea what is happening to the US medical system. It doesn't work any more. Insurance doesn't necessarily get you medical care. Cash doesn't get you medical care.

[randome]

38. Looking for optimism on this issue.

(Not for me personally, just in general.)

Do you know if the Health Care Reform Act will alleviate some of this complexity when the rest of its changes go into effect?

[BlueIris]

36. It is virtually impossible to do anything without a credit card anymore.

For obvious reasons.

[Sheepshank]

37. Well...one is paying cash if one has a Health Savings Account

and hasn't hit their out of pocket max.

It's a ludicrous policy

[Manifestor_of_Light]

40. I called the Urgent Care clinic today and told them about this guy.

I went to the Doc-in-the-Box yesterday and I described my problem. They said they were baffled, and referred me to the guy who won't take legal tender. I assured them I was not mad at them for not seeing me as it would have been a waste of time. I needed to see a specialist.

So I called them today and told them this guy won't take legal tender, only insurance, and the lady said she was making notes.

Is this guy getting kickbacks from insurance companies or what? I am too honest to think up these crooked scenarios.


:wtf: