Gwinnett Anesthesia Services

Hello, Gwinnett Anesthesia Services … this is the year 2012 calling …
Oh yes, I realize it’s already two months in 2013, but that’s the reason I’m calling. You DO know what year it is, Gwinnett Anesthesia Services? Right?
We are twelve years past the millennium and the internet has blossomed with sites like:
Unilocal, but also —
Paypal and
Google Wallet, and
ONLINE BANKING, there’s that for sure!
But Gwinnett Anesthesia Services is still functioning like they are living in 1988 … MAILING out billing to patients and expecting a personal cheque to be written out, placed in a provided envelope, stamped by the patient and then entrusted to the U.S. postal service to be delivered back their Lawrenceville offices for deposit.
Whew … why so stick in the mud, Gwinnett Anesthesia Services (GAS)?
I understand that anesthesiologists spend an incredible amount of time and money learning their skills. I also suspect they are on the higher end of the wage-​earning curve in the hospital hierarchy, when one considers literally every position that a hospital system can offer.
That said, we were not able to «shop around» for the anesthesiologist of our choice when having some minor out-​patient surgery at Gwinnett Medical Center. We were randomly assigned a nurse-​anesthesiologist from GAS who turned out to be resourceful and even a bit personable. So that was lucky.
But like so many other physicians, the front-​office and billing departments that GAS surround themselves with are often lacking in the grace of customer «Service.» With GAS, they are also lacking the modern ways of obtaining payment.
After missing their initial «due in 10 days» declaration, I decided to return their bill with my credit card information included in the tiny boxes on the upper right hand side of the bill. I mean really, people, the space for the card info are only about one and a half PICA big. I have great handwriting but its still a hassle to cram that many numbers in such a small space.
Then I added my signature in the appropriate spot and fished around for a stamp and finally … I mailed the bill back to them thinking the issue was going to finished.
Wrong.
The bill found it’s way back to me a few days later … «DOH!» (that’s a Homer Simpson Doh!) … I legibly filled in my credit card number and signed the form BUT guess what? I neglected to write in the card’s expiration date. O.k., stupid me, but here is where GAS could have expedited the whole process by using another modern convenience… THE TELEPHONE!
They already had the card number and my signature, why didn’t they merely phone me to let me know I forgot the expiration date instead of mailing the whole thing back with a yellow post-​it note telling me they «need an expiration date?» Not only that but they needed the often-​important super-​secret authorization code from the back of the card too and there is no teeny spot for that on their «bill.»
So the moral of this story is … it’s 2013, my dear GAS. Spend some of that profit you are sure to be getting from the astronomical costs of modern day healthcare and get yourselves a secure website that accept payments via credit card. Or get setup with Paypal or do something other than old-​school billing through the mail because writing out Cheques and putting them in the mail has gone out with the horse and buggy … just like the rotgut whiskey that passed for «Anesthesia» in those days.