Private consultation fee-medical

Grumpy_chap

The extent to which the OP chooses to fight this fee might depend on the extent to which further medical treatment is required or likely to be required.  One would not wish to suffer unnecessary health concerns over inability to access the appropriate medical resource.

sheramber

Grumpy_chap said:

The extent to which the OP chooses to fight this fee might depend on the extent to which further medical treatment is required or likely to be required.  One would not wish to suffer unnecessary health concerns over inability to access the appropriate medical resource.

The OP said

Given that the consultation cost is so high, further testing is out of the question. Had I known the cost for the Zoom call I would never have gone ahead

ThumbRemote

Ectophile said:

The obvious defence for the OP is that there is no contract.  The professor never said that there would be any fee.  The OP never agreed to pay any fee.  So the only reasonable conclusion was that it was a free initial consultation to see if the OP is a suitable patient for the professor.

Lots of professions regularly give free initial consultations - lawyers, financial advisers and so on.

This is exactly what I'd say. Don't pay, see how much they are willing to pursue you for it. Let them take it to court and fight your corner there too. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Where no price is given for a service only what is reasonable can be charged (perhaps this amount is, I don't know).

Where no price or how the price is to be calculated is given the consumer isn't bound by the contract but I'm not sure what that means, especially as you've had the benefit of the service. 

As someone else pointed out, there are certain things where rocking the boat isn't the best idea and if you are going to rely on this person, their organisation or others connected to them for further medical help might be best to think about how much resistance is a good idea. 

eskbanker

mummygray said:

I have received an invoice for a private consultation that I had with a professor over Zoom. It was a 20 minute call and the invoice is £290.
When I made the initial enquiry, I asked about fees, with no response to that question. When I booked the appointment I asked again if there were any charges and what they would be. Again, no reply regarding charges. Just a thank you for booking etc.
Where do I stand with this charge? Can I dispute it? Given that the consultation cost is so high, further testing is out of the question. Had I known the cost for the Zoom call I would never have gone ahead. 

To return to the original question, yes, you can dispute the charge, but that doesn't necessarily change anything.

If you highlight that you asked twice about the charges but without response, and that if you'd known the cost then you wouldn't have proceeded, then those are reasonable arguments to make, but not necessarily compelling - however, all you can do at this stage is ask, and ascertain how much scope there is for adjusting the cost.

As above, playing hardball is also an option, i.e. simply not paying the invoice and seeing if the professor pursues you for the money, but if the matter was ultimately to be decided in a court, it would play out better if you'd made efforts to resolve the issue first, rather than simply staying silent.

LightFlare

How much did the OP think it was going to be ?

They must have done some research to find the clinician in the first place, so must have some idea of the expected cost

That would be a reasonable place to start with any dispute

Given that they think this is too much and makes any further testing prohibitively expensive, one wonders what costs they were anticipating 

Exodi

The cost seems about typical.

I have an ongoing heart issue and a 30 minute consultation with my cardiology consultant costs about £200, and he's on the lower end of prices across all consultants in my area. Even more specialised consultants would obviously charge more.

Ectophile said:

The obvious defence for the OP is that there is no contract.  The professor never said that there would be any fee.  The OP never agreed to pay any fee.  So the only reasonable conclusion was that it was a free initial consultation to see if the OP is a suitable patient for the professor.

Lots of professions regularly give free initial consultations - lawyers, financial advisers and so on.

I mean, I guess, but is that relevant to medical consultations? Lawyers can also operate on NWNF arrangements, but I don't expect you'll be able to refuse to pay a financial advisors invoice if you don't get the desired outcome from your investments, or if an operation was not successful. Apples and oranges.

While I'm certainly no expert, from my limited first-hand experience it appears to be commonplace to charge for medical consultations so I'm not sure that it is would necessarily be reasonable to conclude it was free. The cost is also reasonable. Though I accept Joe Public might not know that, the devil in the detail would be the response to the OP asking how much it was, as presumably they would have said it was free, if it was free.

While I think there is some mitigation in that the provider did not give the price when asked, the OP still proceeded and received the service. I think there is some responsibility apportionable to them both.

LightFlare said:

How much did the OP think it was going to be ?

They must have done some research to find the clinician in the first place, so must have some idea of the expected cost

That would be a reasonable place to start with any dispute

Given that they think this is too much and makes any further testing prohibitively expensive, one wonders what costs they were anticipating 

My thoughts too. I fortunately have insurance, but I can see consultations and catch ups have been a couple hundred, tests have been several hundred, minor procedures have been several thousand and major procedures has been five figures.