Still more BS from the old OB's office.

Ok, so when I made my initial appointment with the new OB, they asked me to call and have Dr. Clark's office fax over my records. I called Dr. Clark's office and asked them to fax my records to Dr. Burstyn's office. They said they can't- that they'll have to photocopy them and I'll have to come pick them up. And the cost for photocopying would be.... 75 CENTS PER PAGE!!! I told the woman I was speaking to that 75 cents was really steep, so I'd have to think about it and probably wouldn't get everything copied (the chart consists of ACOG sheets, labs, and ultrasounds). The lady that handles the copying of records there wasn't in that day, so the other lady took my number and said she'd have the other lady call me the next day. Ok, cool.

So the next day, the records lady called me. I explained to her that I was unemployed and 75 cents was a LOT to charge to photocopy one page of information. I asked her to price things out different ways (everything, ACOGs only, and ACOGs/labs). After she gave me the prices, I told her I'd go with ACOGs only ($12.75!!). She then says to me, "OK, well, I already copied everything. I'll just take out what you don't want." Really? I mean, I'd assume that charging 75 cents per page was their way to pay for the toner in the copier, and here this woman is, just copying things all willy-nilly, and now she's just wasting paper and toner. They then told me that, in addition to paying $12.75 for the records, I'd have to pay the rest of the co-pays ($45) I owed them before they'd give me the records. (Keep in mind, I only owed them for 3 service dates that they hadn't even billed me for yet, and that didn't appear as balances due on my checkout sheet. AND when I started going there, I tried to pay my co-pay at my visit, but they told me I couldn't because they weren't sure what my insurance was going to charge each time. They'd have to wait until the claim was submitted to and processed by the insurance company before they could tell me how much to pay them, even though my co-pay is always $15 for an office visit. Then they'd send me a bill a month later.) Sooo... I thought "fuck that- they can shove those records where the sun don't shine, and I hope they get a papercut in the process." I didn't go pick them up, but instead called Dr. Burstyn's office to tell them I couldn't get my records because of the other practice's extortionist fees.

The receptionist at Dr. Burstyn's office said "Don't worry about it. When you come in for your appointment, you can fill out a release here and we can fax it over and request them from Dr. Clark's office." Awesome. So that's what I did, and Dr. Clark's office had my records faxed over within 20 minutes at that appointment. So why the fuck did Dr. Clark's office tell me they couldn't fax the information over? They never said anything about filling out a records release request and having my other doctor send it over. They just straight up told me that they could not fax my records to them.

Sooo... fast forward to today. I get a bill in the mail from Dr. Clark's office. I'm thinking, "OK, this is probably from my last 3 office visits, which they haven't billed me for yet." WRONG! It's a bill for $12.75, and in the "Description" column, it says "Medical records". ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS??? They're billing me for having to copy my records, when the lady, of her own accord, copied them all before even talking to me to find out what I needed??? I'm not paying them. I didn't want physical copies of my records in the first place- I wanted them faxed to another practice, but was told I HAD to have them copied. Dr. Clark's office can SUCK IT.