The Flip Medley

This entry is about the (moral) victory I had today. Still a colossal waste of time to do something simple… and looking back on it, I probably should have been a bit less flexible — but to make a long story short, I was sued in Prince George’s county civil court for an unpaid bill to my anesthesiologist’s group (First Colonies Anesthesia). The lawyer representing them (Herbert A. Thaler, Jr.) filed the suit back in August — and I wound up paying the “health company” price for my service as opposed to the “full price” they tried to stick me with.

My rationale was simple — I don’t begrudge my anesthesiologist for the work done. A fair price would be fine by me. However, they billed me for the “full cost” simply because Care First PPO had not negotiated a contract with them. As a result, they tried to pin me down for the full cost. Communication between myself and First Colonies was bizarre — I’d receive bills for the full amount, but when I spoke to folks in billing on the phone, they recommended I push CareFirst PPO and let them sort that out.

After a few months, it went to a collections agency that demanded the full amount. I contacted First Colonies and was told that it could be sorted out… but no invoice was ever sent for any adjusted amount.

Finally, I got a (threatening) letter from a Mr. Thaler, claiming that I’d be seeing him in court if I didn’t pay up. A call to Mr. Thaler’s office netted a really nasty conversation with a lady named “Tyra”, who was incredibly rude and who simply got all the “piss ‘n vinegar” in me ramped up to the highest level — she made statements like, “Sir, if you would pay your bills instead of being a deadbeat, we wouldn’t have to come after you!”.

So today, when I wound up in an impromptu conference with Mr. Thaler and a gentleman from First Colonies, we began with them asking for the full amount. I told them that given the circumstances, and how much crap I’ve had to put up with — I see no advantage in taking a day off from work just to hand over the full amount.

They then mentioned that my credit rating could suffer if a civil court ruling was made against me. I pointed out that I have the house I always wanted, the car I always wanted, and absolutely no desire to finance anything that would be affected by my credit rating. Given the generous salary I receive from my employer, I really have no reason to capitulate and pay them the full amount.

I pointed out that I had no problem paying for the services rendered, but it was simply the amount that was bothersome — I knew that an insurance company would not pay that much, so why should I?

The First Colonies representative gave me an example of how much the service would be if it were billed to an insurance company , I said, “Well I’d gladly pay that right now!”

I pulled my checkbook out of my shirt pocket, and paid the bill on the spot.

That said, I feel pretty good about how this was resolveed — yes, I paid more than I would have if CareFirst PPO had stepped up the plate and paid the anesthesiologists — but I feel it was fair to pay people for the work they performed. I’m a healthy, happy person after that surgery — and I can’t complain that the anesthesiologist had made any mistakes in my care.. so they deserved to be paid.

The only thing that bothers me (personally) is that it had to become a matter of principle — and that lawyers and courts had to get involved. If someone had simply followed up with me months (if not a year) ago, I would have paid the same amount I did today. Instead, we had to go through a lot of litigious crap to get to a reasonable solution.

The other thing that bothers me (socially) is that the civil court system seems to be geared towards pounding the accused debtor. On the plus side, if someone sues you and they don’t show up to present their case, you’re off — the matter is over, and you owe nothing. I saw a few cases where the plaintiff did not show up and the defendant was literally off the hook for all the money being contested. However, given the weight of the legal power brought to bear on the individual, and looking at the people in the court room today — I realize the “justice” I had was simply reflected by the fact that I was well off enough to not have to care about the threats to my credit rating, and I could focus purely on fighting on principle.

And it appears that fighting for matters of principle is a luxury that is available to people who have the means to fight it.