$75!!!!!! for a medical Cert???????

AprilShowers

Now I've heard of doctors charging $15 and even $30 for medical certification, which I think is insane, well, get this: a physicians office in Columbus is now charging $75 to complete a medical certification!!!! Needless to say, our employee did not return with a cert. and I can't say I blame her! Not sure what to do next... she had surgery, so we know it qualified.. any thoughts???

marc

Perhaps another doctor can do it cheaper, but be careful about making these calls without the medical cert. You will set yourself up for consistency and favoratism issues.

AprilShowers

The surgery has already been done, so choosing another doctor is now out of the question.
Thanks, though.

SMace

I don't think there is anything you can do but wait for certification. I would not get involved. It is terribly unfortunate for the employee. I would not skirt the rules and allow FML without proper certification. If I was the employee I would be FUMING and have a face to face conversation with that doctor and ask them to justify that expense after they were paid $XXXX for the surgery. The reason I say face to face is that doctor's love to pawn off problem to their administrative staff because they don't have the backbone to deal with the issue. If they got the doc face to face I would have a hard time believing they will not cave.

Rockie

I think it's ridiculous for a physician to charge at all for a certification that probably takes less than 5 minutes to complete. $75.00 is criminal! I would be looking for another physician in the future.

You are probably right about this being a call on the part of the administrative staff. Most of the time they complete these forms and simply stamp the physician's signature on it.

HR in Okla

The highest I've heard in Okla. City was $50 and I thought that was outrageous. I get some short notes on prescription pads that say "needs to be off for surgery until such and such date, etc." I accept those because people tell me that give their doctor the certification form from DOL and they don't know what to do with it.

Don D

They don't know what to do with it? Yeah, right. I guarantee you that if you stamp this sentence across the bottom of your FMLA form, you will get it returned in short order: "The timely processing of these forms will proportionately increase the speed with which your monthly medicare vouchers are honored".

HR in Okla

Sounded like a statement from someone who didn't read it rather than someone who didn't know what to do with it. I actually think it was an office staff member, not the doctor, who waved it around and acted like it was something written in ancient Egyptian, rather than English.

The ones I get rarely have much information on them. With HIPAA, doctors don't want to say anything.

mwild31

Doctor's can charge for medical cert's? Isn't that a part of the doctor's visit? I've never heard of this! It seems as though it should be an illegal practice for doc's to do. Sorry I can't be of any help AprilShowers - I'm just shocked.

mushroomHR

Shocking it is but unfortunately true. I had someone tell me their doctor wanted $15 to complete FML and STD forms. I also received a notice from my doctor's office informing me that they will charge $20 to complete these forms. Hope I don't need to have any filled out because it would infuriate me to have to pay this fee. It should be part of the service. We don't get extra pay to send employment verification letters, etc. Doctor's shouldn't get extra pay for their clerical services either.

Don D

It has become rather the norm for clinics to charge a fee for this. It could have been me, I don't remember; but, one of us suggested in a similar discussion months ago that your HR department post a notice in the breakrooms something to this effect: "This is to inform our employees that the Johnson Clinic on Broad Street now requires the payment of a $25 fee to process the paperwork that we require. With that in mind, you may want to shop around for more reasonable services." If an employee takes a copy of that notice to Johnson's Clinic, somebody there better feel the ole sphincter tighten up and change a policy. I think they might. However, some clinic managers and physicians are so damned arrogant they don't give a flip.

mwild31

I guess I've just been extremely fortunate & have never run across this practice - or perhaps there's some law on the books in WA that won't allow it. The first time that I hear one of our employees say that they have to pay for the cert. paperwork - I'm going to use your suggestion Don & post the information in the lunchroom and newsletter. Thanks for the heads up folks - again, I had no idea.

Yahoo

$75 is absolutely ridiculous. However, I can understand the smaller charges ($5-10). Most of my family is in the medical field & dr.s offices are having to hire full-time employees just to fill out FMLA/disability paperwork because everybody & their brother needs FMLA for something or the other.

SDDCHR

Yes, $75 is ridiculous! I would go ahead and put her on FMLA without the certification. You know the employee had surgery and I'm sure you know what type of surgery it was? The employee should be able to give you a verbal account as to when they are allowed to return to work. Have the employee bring in doctor's statements during their follow-ups and also a return to work when the doctor has cleared them.

marc

I would have a problem making the call without the certificate. No matter how obvious it seems that a situation should be covered for FML, how about the situation that is not obvious - except now you have a precedent established about substituting your own judgement for that of the medical professional.

Whatever

On the few occasions when the doctor's office insisted on a charging a separate fee for each form completed, the ee has given us a copy of the statement to sent to the disability carrier and we have used it for medical certification. But you have to be careful because it does contain information that we don't need.

Don D

Although it violates FMLA for an employer to ASK for diagnosis and specifics about medical situations, there is no violation if the employee presents you with a form that has the information on it, such as the disability paperwork. That paperwork already passes through us, in our case, anyway. The backup documentation for disability can indeed suffice for FMLA certification purposes.

Balloonman

I have no problem with the doctors office charging a nominal fee to complete the paperwork. To me that is $5-$10 dollars. Fact is the staff fills it out and the doctor signs it. I could live with that. Now lets look at this from another angle.........we all scream bloody murder about the employees that abuse fmla............. how sweet would it be for them to get stuck with a $75.00 bill.......of course it never works like that.

My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman