This hasn’t happened in our office (yes, I knocked on wood after I typed that) but it’s definitely a possibility. Basically patient gets work done and pays for treatment. Then calls the credit card company to dispute payment by claiming the treatment was not provided. Credit card company instructs doctor to refund money to patient’s account. What an accounts receivable nightmare.
The Wealthy Dentist has a great article on how to handle this in your practice. Read it and discuss it in a team meeting – I know I’m forwarding this to my administrative team ASAP.
We’ve been fortunate that this type of nonsense hasn’t occurred in our office. Even if someone tried to pull this trick, we keep very good records of every single thing that takes place with a patient. Every phone call is documented, including quotes of what was said, in the patients chart. Should a patient attempt to pull this on our office, I’m very confident that our record keeping will save us the headache.