If a patient is rude to a dentist office, do they have the right to be rude back to the patient?

In my office we always over-estimate copays because we are out of network for all insurance companies, and we dont know exactly what the insurance will pay on a procedure, but we do know that the patients will usually have a higher copay coming to us than they would at an in-network dentist. We had a woman come in a couple of months ago for a limited exam and a single x-ray. We had her pay $60.00 for the visit, told her we would file her insurance, and once they paid we would refund her any money that she was due. Most patients have no problem with this, as we always give them any money owed to them. This woman kept calling over and over wanting her money. We kept telling her that her insurance had not paid yet, so according to her account she didn't have a credit, she actually had a balance. She got her EOB showing what they were going to pay, and assumed we had gotten a check from the insurance and were keeping her money, which wasn't true. We hadn't got the check yet. She kept....

saying that it was sad that we thought it was funny to keep her money, that we were crooks, and thtat she was going to show up at our office this afternoon and demand her money. We even called her insurance and found out that even though she had gotten an EOB, it could take up to 2 weeks to get the check. We actually got the check in the mail today and called her right away to let her know, and even offered to show her the postmarked envelope to prove to her that we had just gotten it today. No matter how rude she was with us, we were never rude back to her, but I feel we would have been within our rights to do so.

A day at the dentisit office....
Isn't it great that all days are different??
I have had patients yell and scream at me (but never the dentist ... LOL). I just tell them not to shout at me and maybe they should call back after they have calmed down.
Some patients seem to enjoy being a pain in the butt. Seems she wouldn't be happy if her treatment were free. Thank goodness there are more nice patients than bad..
You know you are doing a good job, stick to your guns!!!
Keep smiling!!!

well ,see that's really interesting because like carma or whatever....what goes around, comes around, but the people who work there should still be civilized and the customer too, but its the workers job to be a bit civil and try to keep the situation calm. Dificult question i will admit.

You (the owner of the business) have the right to be as rude, obnoxious and verbally abusive as you like, however even if totally justified, it is a poor business practice to return a customer's rude behavior and will eventually deteriorate your business.

It is nice that your office goes to such length to help people. There are rules the insurance companies have in place. When you have enough of her, just send the patient a letter to terminate her as a patient since she is not happy and she might find better service elsewhere.

Never, EVER be rude to your patients, no matter what the problem is or how rude they are to you....

How can you possibly not know how much insurance companies will pay for treatments rendered? Why aren't you keeping a log of what MetLife, Aetna, Empire, etc... pay for certain procedures such as a limited exam and xray?

Was the woman told that the benefits would be received within six weeks? And was she told that she'd receive a copy of the EOB before the check was actually received? More communication on your part could have avoided this entire situation/confrontation.

I'm sure you've had other patients that had the same treatment with the same insurance company... couldn't you just have looked on thier EOB to find out how much the payment would have been?

It sounds like your reimbursements to patients are high, this can be avoided if you take the time to list who-pays-how-much.... seems like over-estimating the copayments is not cost-effective to your office.

...it might be time for some continuing ed classes.