Why Do Doctor's Offices have so much trouble making change?

Question

I am now at an age where I have doctor's appointments on a regular basis. One thing that seems common to all the offices is this: If you don't have exact change to cover your co-pay, the receptionist makes you feel like you ruined their day. They open a drawer, pull out a wrinkled envelope, find that there's little money there, and tell you to wait until they can find a way to give you your change. I can go into a Mom and Pop candy store and buy 11 cents worth of candy, hand them a $20 bill and have no problem getting change. I go into a doctor's office that makes money faster than a coke dealer and they can't change a $5 bill. What's up with that?

Answer 1

Medical practitioners would rather scalp your insurance company than have you pay cash. You should see all the phony stuff that gets billed by hospitals to insurance companies. You'd think you went in for brain surgery instead of having an appendix removed!
The amount of fraud that insurance companies let slide (because it costs money to investigate and prosecute) is immense; thus, medical costs are outrageous and unaffordable for most Americans. If it were not so easy to fleece insurance companies, medical costs would go way down. They are all thieves, in my opinion.

Answer 2

Believe it or not, few offices actually keep a large amount of money on hand, especially in coin or small bills. The average office co-pay is typically $10 or $20 or a percentage of the office visit, which the office won't know the exact amount of until they get the EOB back from the insurance compay telling them what they consider to be "usual and customary". Keeping in mind that a co-pay is rarely an odd amount, it doesn't make sense to keep a lot of change in an office.

Answer 3

It's pretty rare for your average doctor's office to recieve cash as a payment (most patients generally pay with checks, debit, or credit cards). I think that they would prefer not to deal in cash (risk of robbery, employee theft, staff isn't really trained to handle cash) so they make it a big deal in the hopes that you will eventually get the hint. Truthfully, most doctor's offices don't see much cash at all, since the big money comes from the insurance companies' checks.
Hope this helps!

Answer 4

HAHAHAHA...
doctors are more into mental imbalance due to patients pressure.
they are very lazy but still dedicated to their work. their mind works only to remove the problems of a patient. they usually carry only dollar notes. not much coins.. hmm tats y they work hard and 4get the world for sometime.
but they should not be soo rude as to tel u that u ruined the receptionist's day. u can humbly complain this behaviour to the manager of the hospital.

Answer 5

They are so used to bilking insurance companies and folks that use credit cards that they've forgotten how to use real money.