Q: Can the doctor fine me a 24-hr cancellation fee for an appointment their office mistakenly cancelled within 24 hours?
I switched insurances and because my doc was out of network I had to change docs.Then, a year later, I got a new job and she was back in my network so I made an appointment with her via ZocDoc (a 3rd party app).
The night before, I had to cancel and reschedule on Zocdoc.Unbeknownst to me, the office has auto-confirm turned on on Zocdoc and it notified me that the office accepted the cancellation and confirmed my new appt for the next day.
After my appointment, the office called and told me the doctor would be charging me $100 for their 24hour cancellation fee and cancelled my rescheduled appt. I explained that I got a confirmation from Zocdoc (and called Zocdoc to make sure) that the office accepted it. They argued that since I signed something about the policy a year earlier when she was still my doc, it didn’t matter.But no one called me to let me know that they mistakenly confirmed my cancellation.How was I supposed to know it wasn’t cancelled and I’d get fined if I didn’t go?
A: You have a good argument on your side, but a lawyer would need to see your original signed cancellation agreement to know what your rights are, plus the zocdoc policy. This review would probably cost more than just paying the $100 fee to the doctor.
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