Doctor's charge for Certification Form

cali_chavs

Has anyone run into this situation?: employee does not want to provide certification because the doctor is charging them $20-30 for his time to fill out the paperwork. That seems like a high price to take 2 minutes to fill out the form; especially when you know filling out the form for you patient will help them keep their job. Where's the love? There must be a way to get around this without the employee having to pay the money. Is it even legal to charge? The employee makes only $8/hr and has been out of work for a few weeks, so money is tight. Reaction?

Gillian

Wait until you get a whole raft of negative reactions about the doctor, print them out and send them to the doctor. There just isn't any "right" motive for a doctor to do this. Thank goodness it hasn't happened to any of our employees.

POPEYE

We have had a few instances of this happening but the highest any of our employees have quoted being charged was $14.00. The other thing that upsets some employees is that the DR's office will tell them it will be 10-14 working days. The first thing I hear is "Will that be too late?" At least I know that our employees are reading their requirements for the 15 day reporting.

LindaS

It happens to the employees in our town frequently. The charge used to be $12.00 - $15.00 but I'm not sure if it went up or not. Not all doctors charge but some do. As far as I'm aware it is legal to charge for this, the same as they charge for copies of medical files. The insurance doesn't cover this either. I live in a relatively small (10,000 people) town and we (some of the larger employers) are working with the physicians to put together a more generic form that provides us (the employer) with the information we need for FMLA and something they can fill out quicker, or even turn over to the medical records people for. Whether or not this works remains to be seen!!

I think it stinks and have voiced my opinion to various medical professionals about it.

Don D

The way I look at it, rather than helping the employee keep his job, the doctor's relationship with the patient is actually paying for the Mercedes and both SUVs. We have had some of this too. I recommend immediately to the employee that they move to another physician, although I know that's not always practicable. Since medicare has tightened down, the medical professionals have got to discover alternative ways to replinish the bank accounts and this is just another of them.

Stacy36

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-14-03 AT 08:32AM (CST)[/font][p]I just wanted to touch on something that POPEYE posted. I read somewhere on the DOL's web site that the 15 day rule does not apply if the ee can show that they are doing everything they can to get it filled out in a timely manner. If the physician has a stated policy about how long it will take to get the certification filled out you, by law, have to allow them more time.

I have also heard of charging ees for the certification. I actually agree, to an extent. What would you do if on a Friday afternoon you had to pull thirty charts and fill out all those certifications? It could be a bit time consuming but I don't agree that it's worth $20 or $30. When did they legalize rape?

watrsflo

I've encountered this "exploitation/opportunism," as well. I too reside in a small rural town. Previously, in "the city," where I worked before moving here less than a year ago, I had never encountered this issue. Frankly, I think it's wrong. I don't care if it's Friday and the poor, overworked doctor is going to be late for his tee-off; for the most part the doctors make far more money than our lowly employees will ever see, short of winning a lottery. They can fill out the d*** paperwork; they're well educated and presumably bright enough; they should be able to whip it out in a matter of minutes.

Rockie

The way these forms are designed, it only take a moment to complete. For the most part, the staff completes the forms and just has the doc sign off. Greed comes in all forms. Them that's got, wants more!

Margaret Morford

We managed to put a stop to this when we put up a memo to our employees that stated in order to put them on FMLA and protect their jobs, we had to have medical certification. It has come to our attention that the following doctors in our community were now charging $X to spend two minutes simply filling out the paperwork necessary to protect you. While we can't stop them from doing this, we wanted to warn our employee about this new way to make money off them. If any of these physicians are your doctor, please be aware that they will charge you for a service that is provided free of charge by most other physicians.

If there are physicians in your area who do not charge, you can also list them in your memo as well. Several doctors (who were charging) called to protest. We told them the minute they quit charging to let us know and we would take their name off the list. Worked like a charm. They all quit charging.

Hope it helps you.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

Galestorm

When the doctors started charging our members for forms we started asking for a note written on a prescription pad that states the 1st day out, the member's name, the possible duration of recovery, etc. We also do this with the release to return to work. If there are restrictions listed we send an additional form to verify the restrictions. So far, we've not had any problems with this. The doctor's office faxes these notes over to me on the same day the employee is seen. Works out for us! Some doctor's were charging as much as $35.00 to complete the FMLA forms.

FMLA is an unpaid leave. Perhaps this is one of the items needing addressed by FMLA law which would not allow an added expense for completing forms!