"Nickel-and-diming"

"Nickel-and-diming" is American slang for charging numerous hidden fees for virtually no product...paying for nothing. Its an older term to refer to when nickels (5 cents) and dimes (10 cents or 1/10th of a dollar) were worth a lot more. So to "Nickel-and-dime" someone was when a merchant would ask for an additional nickel or dime from the customer when the customer wasn't expecting it or it was not disclosed before the purchase.

$120 bill.

So yesterday, my wife and I received a $120 bill from our doctor for a service that was rendered in July. We both looked at the bill, did a little research, and it turns out on that date, my wife went in for an annual physical preventive exam, which is 100% covered by our insurance…so no cost to us.

So we were confused what the $120 was for. We looked at our insurance paperwork and the doctor labeled the exam as an office visit instead of preventive exam, and an office visit is $120 and preventive exam is free to us. How did a preventive exam turn into an office visit?

Turns out that my wife asked the doctor to fill a prescription, the simple asking the doctor to fill a prescription turned a preventive exam into an office visit, costing us $120. There wasn't any medical advice, no question that the doctor answered, just a simple request to fill a prescription that was already diagnosed, so no work except for a couple of clicks on the computer.

5 months late.

Plus, we got the bill 5 months late. This has happened to us in the past as well. Couple years ago, I went to the emergency room. Instead of 1 bill that was mailed to us a week later, we received eight bills over 3 months…two of which were from doctors that I never saw.

But back to my wife's preventive exam, filling her prescription never really was on our radar of things that we would be charged for. I mean the doctor wasn't diagnosing a new problem, there wasn't any new tests, just a request to fill a prescription...and we had to go to the drugstore and pay for the drugs on top of that.

When we talked to the billing department of the doctor, the response the woman gave for the $120 charge was, “Well, everybody's doing it.” Meaning all doctors are charging patients when they ask to renew a prescription. In other words, everybody's getting fucked!

My wife talked to her friend, told her the situation, and her friend said, “you asked for something didn't you?” Implying, never ask the doctor for anything because they will charge you for it. It makes me question going to the doctor in the first place.

My message to doctors...

Don't surprise me with numerous bills over months. Tell me how much it is before you charge me, then charge me once…then I will be happy.

Stay frosty people.