Patient left doctors office wioth out paying for services?

patient was seen and treated in the officey medical doctor . was given prescriptions and instructions, patient told the secretary that he will go to thebank and come ack with money to pay for the service he received, He never returned,
Should the doctors office notify the police,

Are you in the US or Canada? If you are in the US, you can call the police if the patient gives you a check written on a CLOSED bank account. Your office needs to have a firm, specific policy on new patients. Patients with insurance must have their insurance verified BEFORE they see the doctor. You can do this online or by calling the 800 number. New patients must show you a government issued i.d. (passport or driver's license) at the time of registration BEFORE seeing the doctor. Ppl with no insurance must pay BEFORE seeing the doctor. OK, you might not know which labs the doctor will order, but the patient should pay for the office call and for the labs that will likely be needed. Yeah, it's a pain to ask ppl to pay, but if they are not willing to pay before they see the doctor, they are not going to pay after getting the service (as you found out). If you are an employee, your office needs to get together with the doctor and you need to discuss what happened. Hopefully, the dr. or the office manager will show some leadership and come up with some kind of coherent policy. Everybody working in the office must know what the policy is on collection (of fees). Collection is a very important part of the practice and your office can quickly go broke if you do not have a coherent collection policy. Even established patients should pay their copayment at the beginning of the office visit. Take my advice to heart. Most ppl either don't know what to tell you or they just don't care if your office goes broke.

Here in Canada you can't steal a "service". The only service related criminal charges are fraud in relation to fares (not paying cab) and fraud in relation to food (dine and dash).
The doctor would have to pursue the patient in small claims court for the money.

(Mind you, in Canada there would be no charge for the medical appointment in the first place.)

Interested in what my American colleagues have to say.

no, it is a billing matter. Mail the bill and if they don't pay then send it to collection. But I don't think you can call the police on it.

Forward a bill first. Then it's the collection agency. Depending on where you're located, it may considered theft of service. You can double check with the Police.

No it doesn't work like that
first step the doctors office will do is to send the patient a bill to his address
if the patient didn't pay then the medical office will forward its claim to a collection agency
if the collection agency couldn't collect then it will be shown on the patinet credit history

Unless you have different laws, generally you cannot be arrested for theft of services. The doctors office can sue for payment.

I agree with my fellow Canadian never can figure you Americans out Why do you put up with not having medicare for everyone

Why are you so concerned with what ANOTHER patient does. Frankly, it is none of your business.