I Lose (Get Off My Property)

As a TMI Thursday last December, I shared a story about a trip to the doctor’s office. The appointment went well though there was some confusion about a Tetanus shot. The short version of the story is that the doctor showed a fax indicating that I received a shot from a facility called Travel Clinic; however, I never heard of the Travel Clinic, the fax did not include a patient name, and I never got the shot. The doctor asked me to clear things up with the Travel Clinic and come back if I did need the shot. Consider this part two of the story.

I returned to the doctor’s office several weeks after my initial visit and received the Tetanus shot. You would think that would be the end of the story, but if it was, this would be a terrible blog post! A few weeks later, an invoice of $20 arrived in my mailbox from the doctor’s office for the shot. When I called asking for an explanation, I learned that if I got the shot when I originally planned, there would not have been a charge. The charge was for coming back to the office on a separate occasion. Essentially, the doctor’s office made a mistake by having a random fax in my file. I called this fact to the office’s attention, but, shockingly, there were no notes of this in my file.

I decided that I wasn’t going to pay the $20. While $20 isn’t going to make or break whether or not I can pay my bills, that’s 3+ California Tortilla burritos or 2.5 days of commuting expenses (or 2 days starting in the next few months). I wouldn’t put $20 on a hand of blackjack in Vegas, so I wasn’t readily going to give it up based on an error made by the folks charging the fee. Over the last few months, I probably received 3 or 4 invoices from the office, with the final one arriving last week stating that I was going to collections. I called the office on Tuesday, and, again shockingly, there was nothing in my file stating that I didn’t need to pay for the shot. Reluctantly, I gave up. I wasn’t going to win this battle. I’m sure I sounded defeated when I said that I was switching doctors, but I don’t think they care. The only consolation is that at least I forced the office to spend $2 on postage.

By the way, 5 points to anyone who knows the reference of this post’s title (actual quote: You lose. Get off my property!)

TMI Thursday: Trip to the Doctor’s

Let me preface this post by writing that I am fine. I don’t have the swine flu, Bubonic plague or the dreaded Salahi disease.* This trip to my doctor was for my annual physical. The good news is that my weight is slightly down from last year and my cholesterol, which was fairly high a few years ago, is at a good level. The bad news is that the growth spurt I’ve been hoping for didn’t occur this year.

When the doctor completed the physical and started to leave, I asked him about getting a Tetanus shot since it’s been about 10 years since I had one. He replied that I had one recently. I did? He pulled out my record and showed a fax that I received a Tetanus shot*** on July 2, 2009 from someplace called Travel Clinic. I was confused. Did I have a Tetanus shot but forget? Where was I on July 2nd? Wait a minute. I’ve never heard of a place called Travel Clinic. And why was my name not on this fax. In fact, there was no patient name on the fax. What is it doing in my records? The doctor told me to sort it out with Travel Clinic and to come back another day if I needed the shot.

I called Travel Clinic later that day and explained the situation. They looked up their records and hadn’t heard of me either. So now I need to go back to my doctor’s office, which is 35-minutes away from my home without Beltway traffic, to get the Tetanus shot. Moral of the story: I need a new doctor!



Please visit LiLu for more TMI Thursdays. She is doing an excellent Post Secret edition of TMIT on her site plus you can visit the TMIT stories from other folks there. In addition, you can always click here to see all of my TMI Thursday archives.

* No one is going to understand this joke in three weeks.** Don’t believe me? What is the last name of the balloon boy family?

** A friend of mine wants the entire Tareq and Michaele Salahi incident to be called Gategate. I don’t think it’s going to stick. (I need a ruling from Lacochran to make sure that this is acceptable use of asterisks.)

*** Tetanus shots would be much more fun if they were Tetris shots. Imagine the possibilities of moving around squares and L-shaped pieces!