Dollars, Dollars, Who Pays the Dollars?

Question: The Internal Revenue Service wrote that they had audited our return, and that we owed, with interest, another $199. Our return is done by an accountant, and he found that the IRS was wrong and answered the letter for us. He then charged us $40 for his additional time. Is there any way we can collect this from the IRS? Why should I have to pay for an IRS mistake?--V.B.

Answer: No is such an ugly word and no way is sure no improvement on it. But that, alas, was the reaction of Rob Giannangeli, the public affairs spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service here. There is a provision for at least partial recovery of costs that are litigated, he added, but not for your accountant’s $40 add-on. If you were a business, of course, and the accountant’s service was a legitimate cost of doing business, then there would be at least subliminal satisfaction in adding this onto your tax return next year as another deduction.

“But an individual,” Giannangeli said, “can only lump it into ‘Miscellaneous Deductions’ on Page 2 of his return if the total of those deductions exceeds 2% of adjusted gross income.”

It’s a good question: Why should you pay for a mistake that was made by the IRS? The question, in fact, is a whale of a lot better than the answer: Because that’s the way it is.

Q: Because of severe arthritis of the legs I decided it would be a good idea to have one of those handicapped placards, or license plates, that the Department of Motor Vehicles issues. I called my doctor to see if he would authorize this and was told that I would have to get, and fill out, the form from the DMV and that he would sign it.

I did this and then took it to the doctor’s office and gave it to the nurse and then went back to the waiting room. After the doctor signed it, the receptionist told me that they would bill Medicare for a regular office visit.

Was it legal or ethical for the doctor to bill Medicare for a regular office call in this instance when I didn’t even see the doctor?--R.T.

A: You didn’t even have your pulse taken? According to a spokesperson for Medicare Beneficial Services in San Francisco, which handles the financial administration of Medicare claims, the only office calls for which payment is authorized are those that are “medically necessary.”

Admittedly, this is rather loose terminology, and while at least a casual perusal by the doctor is implied in an “office call,” there might be instances where you didn’t actually see the doctor himself but received some sort of medical attention from his nurse. Still and all, it would still be under his supervision.

Certainly excluded from the “medically necessary” category, the Medicare spokesperson said, would be office-call bills submitted for the simple signing of a DMV form and, by the same token, “medical advice given over the telephone.”

In other words, “take two aspirins and call me in the morning” does not constitute an office call. On balance, then, your doctor’s submission of an office-call bill was not only on shaky ethical grounds but wasn’t even legal.

“We flatly wouldn’t pay such a bill,” the Medicare spokesperson said, “if we knew of the circumstances.” But it’s a big “if,” she conceded.