“This is Doctor Oppenheim,” I repeated several times
before hanging up. Caller ID identified the Doubletree in Santa Monica, so I
phoned to ask if someone had requested a doctor. Someone had.
“You answered, but you couldn’t hear me,” said the
guest. “So I called the front desk again, and they gave me a different number.
Another doctor is coming.”
That was upsetting because the Doubletree is a
regular. When asked, the guest gave me the 800 number of Hotel Doctors
International, a service based in Miami.
“How much are they charging?” I asked.
“I don’t know. They just asked if I had insurance.”
That was a red flag. Many hotel doctor agencies charge
spectacular fees and then assure guests that travel insurance will reimburse
them. Forewarned of our rapacious medical system, foreign travelers rarely make
a fuss – and foreign travel insurance generally pays outrageous fees. But
American insurance doesn’t.
I told the guest, an American, that my fee was $300
and that he should call the agency and ask what it charged. It turned out to be
$650 (far from the largest I’ve heard), so I made the housecall.
Afterward, standing on tiptoes to peer over the front desk, I saw the colorful business card of Hotel Doctors International stuck on the counter. The clerk, who had insisted that mine was the only number she knew, expressed surprise when I pointed it out.
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