I'm sure most of us have run in to this from time to time: Pt come in. Pt states they have no insurance and will be cash pay. Pt has exam. Pt purchases eyewear or contact materials.
Time passes.
Pt (or often pt's spouse/significant other) calls to inform us that WE billed them incorrectly, because they DO have vision insurance after all. Then they proceed to demand a refund for the difference.
Obviously if work was required to be done with an ins. co. lab, they're stuck. But in the cases where it was a private lab (such as EyeMed for example), often OD's will simply offer the refund out of the sheer terror of loosing their patient.
It seems to me that this would be a "live and learn" scenario for the pt, and that they should be on the hook for working with their now mysteriously present and active insurance company for reimbursement on their own. I'm curious to know how some of you may have handled situations like this in your own practices? Do you always make the refund? Do you tell them they're is nothing that can be done this time, but next time we'll all know better? Do you find an alternate middle ground?
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