Pay to park

Posted By: Adam 6 Comments
My hospital recently installed gates for all of the parking lots, and you have to pay to park for anything more than an hour. I can understand charging visitors, but the same system is in place around the corner for the medical office buildings. Both my rheumatologist and gastroenterologist are back there, and I'm already paying a specialist co-pay to see them. If my appointments start to take more than an hour and I end up paying to get my car out of the lot, I'm probably going to switch doctors – and that's pretty ridiculous. Am I overreacting?

6 responses to “Pay to park”

  1. Depends on how much they're charging to park and how much you like your doctors. SOME doctors, if you really really like them, are worth a reasonable hassle. One, check to see if they "validate"... pretty much every place i've been that charges like that, has validation for patients being seen, and you get to park for free if you remember to have the doc stamp your parking ticket; two, COMPLAIN. To your doctors, to the hospital, etc. If they dont validate the parking, maybe they will - for patients. I'm afraid they have you in a barrell... most dont have a choice about the hospital and again, arent that motivated (as you seem to be) to change doctors just because of a parking fee... so they know it will be paid, and they win... sucks, but true.

    Good luck :)

    MomT

    MomT ~ Aug 4, 2008 at 9:56 PM

  2. maybe you should have mom call and complain for you ;P

    justinT

    justinT ~ Aug 4, 2008 at 9:56 PM

  3. Wah, wah, wah! :-p

    Ed

    Ed ~ Aug 4, 2008 at 9:56 PM

  4. you can write off the parking fee on your taxes with medical related expenses- I take off for the tolls to Norfolk when Jared see's his cardiologist. Just make sure the date/time, fee etc. are on the receipt.

    MomT

    MomT ~ Aug 4, 2008 at 9:56 PM

  5. I haven't had to pay yet, so I don't know if I would even get a receipt! But I will check the next time I'm up there, for sure.

    Adam

    Adam ~ Aug 4, 2008 at 9:56 PM

  6. Well, actually, you can write it down on a piece of paper if you have to and just keep track of them. As long as they can be verified, its deductible. They would expect receipts for something more than say $25 or something (I think that's what our lower limit is at work)... but writing it down is just as good, as long as you have a dr. appt to back it up. Oh, and generally, if you ASK for a receipt, they'll give you one, whether they do it as a course of habit or not.

    MomT

    MomT ~ Aug 4, 2008 at 9:56 PM