California has filed suit against a South Pasadena plastic surgeon for her aggressive billing tactics, including lawsuits, taking out liens on clients’ homes and damaging their credit, according to the Los Angeles Times. Jeannette Martello, who owns a private practice and used to provide emergency services to Huntington Memorial Hospital, is being accused of using unlawful methods to obtain “reasonable and customary” pay for out-of-network services. The California Department of Managed Health Care called the suit against Martello the first of its kind. State officials allege that she collected or attempted to collect more from patients than insurance companies paid. Martello’s lawyer said she was “very persistent” about collecting bills, but added that she lawfully pursued her rights to recoup fees for her services.

Source: beckersasc.com/asc-coding-billing-and-collections/california-
sues-plastic-surgeon-for-aggressive-billing-tactics.html

I live and work in a crazy state. Authorities in California have validated this statement by suing a plastic surgeon for trying to get paid. Dr Jeannette Martello was foolish enough (as I was for over a decade) to offer emergency plastic surgery services and believe that she might be paid fairly for them.

I have discussed before the process I went through for the fourteen years before I gave up emergency room call. Dr Martello went another route by more aggressively seeking payment when services were not reimbursed fairly. Take into account that medicine unlike most other businesses is afflicted by the notion that a third party should decide what a service should be paid. Insurance companies pay what they want and the government has supported them.

Most good plastic surgeons eventually figure that emergencies are a ridiculous proposition and stop accepting them. After all, who seeks to run around at ungodly hours and not be paid reasonably or consistently? No one who is sane or solvent.

I can’t help but root for Dr Martello on this one.

Best Regards,

John Di Saia MD