Relatively new to the country, I am not sure if I should just ignore it or do something about it. Let me explain:
There is only one clinic in the village, and they recently hired a new pediatrician.
During the exam for the younger kid, I asked if I can ask something about the older kid, both of them are long term patients of the clinic. The doctor said they are busy, and that I should talk to the nurse. The doctor actually didn’t touch/examine the younger kid, but I was like ok as it was just regular vaccination. I know nurses do most of the work.
I explained my question to the nurse, she said let’s schedule you a phone call with a doctor. During the phone call, the same doctor immediately said “I can’t discuss about the kid I didn’t see in person”, and we finished the call in 2 minutes. I got the bill for that phone call.
I sent my feedback to the clinic, explaining nicely that they scheduled a phone call, not me. I didn’t ask any questions, it was a short email with the explanation.
I didn’t mention the bill, I just wanted to make sure we are on the same page.
I got a short reply back to schedule an exam in person if I want to, and I got the second bill (with date of their reply email), same new doctor.
Based on these bills, the doctor provided 3 services so far.
My gut feeling is the most important property of a doctor is do they care about the patient. My worry is if I mention these interactions could have be done in another way, I might lose access to the clinic.
You shouldn’t ignore it because it won’t go away. Firstly, depending on the health insurance model you have for your children, don’t you have to simply send the bills to them? Although it does sound like it’s an administrative charge for the callback and the email.
What sort of amounts are we talking about? Is it worth just paying it, chalking it up to experience and learning that doctors don’t provide any service for free, including phone calls and emails. In future, I would just make an appointment for each child and discuss any health concerns purely about that particular child at each appointment.
I guess the above tells you what you need to know.
Organise the in person visit and take it from there.
I had a terrible pediatrician who over-charged for everything and tried to milk patients for all that they could as well as being bad at their job.
I quickly changed doctors and everything was much better. Fortunately, I had the luxury of multiple pediatricians to choose from. In smaller towns and villages, you might not have that option. In which case, you might want to check out what is the nearest next closest option.
Maybe it’s some new law or something, but I also noticed that I started getting bills for short calls with the pediatric practice (like, to consult with an assistant if I have to make an appointment or wait few more days etc). I called them much more often when kids were smaller, but I don’t remember getting bills for that.
Doctors in general do not like to discuss a second patient, even a sibling at an appointment.
They probably have the notes open for the original patient and have run through any patient history win case it is relevant to the current appointment.
Having said that - there are some terrible doctors here like everywhere else.