Large vet's bill - advice please

Sooz00

1jim wrote: »

am glad that my post did not cause offence, it is a horrible situation to be in...... you could (if you could face it) try the local paper and see if they could run with it,,,,or someone like the consumer money reporters in observor/guardian etc may take this up

Thanks Jim. It's an option but not sure I'm in a place to deal with that at the moment. I do feel that the fact they have ignored the RCVS rules on fees and getting consent when fees increase from the estimate is really quite embarrassing for this practice....

chunkychocky

I have just been discussing this my hubby who is a vet at a specialist referral hospital. He says that everywhere he has worked it is the norm to contact a client if the bill is likely to be more than 10% over the estimate. Sometimes when complications have occurred where it is not possible to discuss it with the client before proceeding then he has just had to accept that he can't charge the correct amount and has limited the bill as discussed (or no more than 10% more). The only times that this may not be done is if the client is insured and they have sufficient limit. I guess this may be what your vet has done and hasn't thought through the fact that you will be unable to claim the follow up appointments. The vet should always contact you to discuss the situation as soon as is possible - that may be during the op, or it may be afterwards if the situation was life threatening. But even if they couldn't contact you until afterwards you really shouldn't have been presented with this huge bill unless they can think of a way that your insurance could cover any further treatment...

How does your insurance work? I know ours runs from July, so when our cat underwent expensive exploratory surgery to find out what was wrong with him (turned out to be lymphoma) and then a long stay in hospital and then started chemotherapy we were lucky that this was all in February / March / April and just as we were approaching our limit our new insurance year started. Therefore if you are due to start a new year then you may be OK for the follow up appointments and additional necessary treatment. Just a thought.

Anyway, hubby says that he would be astonished if after you querying this bill and pointing out that you can't afford follow up procedures and appointments and therefore the op has been pointless, if they still don't knock the bill back down to within 10% of your original estimate. Fingers crossed for your bill and your pet.

CFC

Very sorry for your trouble Sooz. Absolutely shocking IMO

kiwi07

How is the cat? Any news?