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Can I dispute Doctor's charges in a personal injury case?
Anonymous2 views4 answers
In December my attorney and myself had mediation with the defense. He showed me a document with the amount of doctor’s charges and attorney expenses to date that he was presenting to them. AFTER I accepted the insurance company’s offer in February and the check was sent to my attorney, he called me and said that one of the doctors charges was not accurate at the time of mediation and an additional 5 thousand in charges was being deducted. This doctor was my primary in the case and my math shows about 200 dollars per visit over a 3 year period, BUT I asked my attorney about 6 months into the lien how much this doctor was charging and he told me about 50 to 100 bucks per visit. This doctor has a strong relationship with my attorney and speaks to him daily. I know this doctor is struggling financially because he closed 2 of his 3 offices recently and even told me he was doing this because he could no longer afford the rent. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate my attorneys hard work, but I did not like the treatment I was receiving from this doctor over this time and told my attorney that I wanted to change doctors, but he begged me to keep this doctor because he wrote excellent reports and was impeccable with his documentation. I never really trusted this doctor and he has lied to me about various things in the past, not to mention the treatment I was receiving was poor. I have not reviewed these charges yet and am scheduled to do so on Tuesday when I pick up my check. I just find it unbearable to bend over and pay this doctor charges that might have possibly been created after he found out the case was settled. Do I have any legal recourse to dispute these charges or challenge them? Any specific advice would be greatly appreciated. If you are unfamiliar with this type of dispute maybe you could direct me to a website or inform me where I can do research to aid myself in this matter.
Thank you taking the time read my question.
Absolutely, you can challenge the doctor's charges. The doctor has a contract with you for services. He cannot charge more that would be allowed under the contract. Furthermore, every contract has an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The doctor is help to that standard of good faith in his dealings with you. I recommend that you request your attorney challenge the doctors fees, regardless of their relationship. Your attorney owes you a professional duty to represent you through the completion of your case. The case proceeds cannot be disbursed until you approve the distribution. Payment of the lien has to be approved by you through the signed distribution. Your attorney cannot take his fee until you approve the distribution. It is everyone's best interest that the dispute be resolved. If you already signed the distribution, then you can pursue your contract remedy. Your attorney should be willing to help you with that. Also, you can also report the doctor to your state's medical board, the Better Business Bureau, etc. Good luck.
Yes you can dispute the charges for the doctor. In fact it is somewhat common practice to have the doctor reduce his bills. In many cases the attorney will even reduce his percentage in an effort to be fair to the client. I would work with your attorney and get the reduction.
Good Luck!
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Ah. This is pretty much what I suspected the facts would show. Here is what I would do. If you have not already signed the settlement and distribution approval that your attorney drafted, have him revise it to show that the disputed $5000 is being held in his trust account pending resolution of the dispute. As I said at your first post, I question whether the doctor HAS a lien for a bill he submitted AFTER you settled your case.
Further more, I would have my attorney show me the complete list of bills from this doctor which the attorney had in hand when he settled the case, including the dates of services, and then the bills for the additional $5000, including dates of services and what the services were. That should give you a clue if the charges were legitimate. Pay attention to billing codes for the services. These codes designate certain medical procedures that insurers work with. If a code before the settlement represented a charge that is different from the amount charged for the same codes for the $5000 after the settlement, the doctor and lawyer may have a serious problem explaining this.
This kind of situation is why I have always avoided getting in to any "special relationships" with certain doctors.
Please bear in mind that whether you owe this doctor money for services provided is a completely separate issue from whether he has a lien against the particular funds in your attorney's hands. I have serious questions about settling a case based on $XXX in medical bills from Dr. Z, and then paying him $XXX + $5000 after the case is settled, not the least of which is that you never recovered that $5000 from the responsible party. This doctor does not likely have a lien for the $5000 if that $5000 was never claimed as damages in the lawsuit. I'd have to see the particular lien form you signed to know for sure though.
Good luck on this.
