Feeling bad for refusing treatment. Feedback/advice welcome

SalonGeek

Help Support SalonGeek:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Lunarstorm

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2011
Messages
377
Reaction score
7
Location
Bristol
Hi Geeks,

At Christmas, I gave a number of Gift Certificates out to local primary schools for them to give out as raffle prizes. I did this to promote myself and my new business.

Here comes the problem, yesterday, one of the raffle winners contacted me to redeem the Gift Certificate for a Luxary Spa Manicure for her daugther. Upon enquiring about the daugther age and any health issues, I found out that the daugther has cerebral palsy. As I do not know much about this condition, I rang my insurer to see if I could carry out the treatment. I was pretty sure they would say yes, as long as I had a letter from her GP or Hospital consultant. They did confirm what I already thought and informed me that without a GP's/ Consultants letter, I would not be insured to carry out the treatment on the 17 year old daugther. Also although the daugther is 17, I would still need her mother to give me written parental consent.

I rang the mother back and informed her of the information I had been given by my insurer and understandibly she was not very happy about it. I did my best to explain that unless she got a medical consent letter, that I could not proform the treatment, even though I would like to. The mother tried the "but she has had her nails done before and I never had any of this" and " it's always been fine before and this seems very extrem just for nails".

Once again I explained that all nail tachicians SHOULD ask the same questions and that most insurers would require a doctors letter. I stuck to what I know was the right and professional thing to do and refused to treat her daugther without the letters I needed. I also said I would still happily honor the Gift certificate if she wished to use it herself or give it to someone else. I told the lady that for me, this was a bad situation to be in as I had given this Gift Certificate to the school and that I really did not want to have to refuse treatment but as the situation stood, I was left no choice and could not risk proforming the treatment without vaild insurance.

The woman told me she would just go back to the lady she had used before, as she did not have this problem with her.

I know I have done the right thing but by god do I feel bad and I would have loved to have pampered this 17 year old.

I've been trying to think of a way to "make things right" and wondered if it would be a nice goodwill jester to put together a basket or something with nail related products, to the retail value of the Gift Certificate ? or should I just leave it ?

I'm also concerned about the negative impact this situation could have on my reputation. I am only just starting to get my name noticed and if this lady desides to bad mouth me, it really could do some damage.

Any advice on how to, A) honor my comment and B) smooth things over, so there is no bad feelings would be extremly appershated.

Sam xxx
 
I don't think you did anything wrong. The daughter has a serious condition and your insurance company said they wouldn't insure your treatment without the required documents. If the mother cared more for her daughter's health than those vouchers, she'd just go check with her GP anyway instead of saying "well the other lady doesn't ask this" or whatever. If anything, she should be more aware now that you've brought this type of news to her and ask the other therapist why she never asked? Manicures and pedicures involve more than "just nails". There's exposure to chemicals, massages that stimulate circulation, ect. and all that might not be safe for everyone. I would just leave things as is. Even if she goes and bad mouth you, she'd still mention that you asked for a written consent, and any parent with common sense would agree that's the proper thing to do when it comes to children. Surely any normal parent would pick their child's safety over vanity?
 
Last edited:
I would leave it and forget it.

You gave the woman's daughter every chance to have the treatment. Through her own laziness the woman has chosen not to take you up on it.

I think you did all the right things and said all the right things. The woman is not out any money at all as she did not pay for the voucher.

Best left in my opinion.
 
If the mother was happy to sign a disclaimer, I would have done it to be honest but its a hard one to call. I would have just told her i would not be covered by insurance without the letter and if she is happy with this then no problem. I personally don't see any problem doing a nail treatment for someone with cerebral palsy at all but insurers can be funny and discriminate unnecessarily in my opinion. I would be more cautious about discriminating again a disabled person by not doing it when the mother is happy for you to do it.
 
What a horrible position to be in BUT you did the right thing, you have to protect yourself. Personally I don't think there's any way you could of caused injury to her but the insurance company have said you need a Dr's letter so that's that.

You've explained the situation and let them know that it's to do with your insurance what else can you do. If the Mum was thinking straight, she should be thinking "why has the other person never mentioned this, does she not care and just wants to take my money, is she insured?"

I don't think sending a gift will ever get her custom, you could send a letter of apology and outline your reasons again.

Don't beat yourself up over it, you did the right thing. xx
 
Sam, if your insurer says no, what else can you do? You certainly don't want to jeopardize your license and your business. You've done what you had to do. If other nail professionals feel inclined not to check with their insurance companies, well let them jeopardize their livelihood. Quit beating yourself up over it. The mother can use the voucher for herself or pass it on. If she feels so inclined to slander you or your business after you've explained everything so thoroughly, shame on her.

The only thing I can see is in future perhaps on the gift vouchers put a disclaimer that some limitations apply or that some health conditions may preclude service. That covers you in circumstances such as these.

You have a business to run, Sam. If you run it haphazardly, you won't have a business at all. You did what you had to do based on what your insurance will cover.

You owe her nothing more.
 
Hi Geeks,

At Christmas, I gave a number of Gift Certificates out to local primary schools for them to give out as raffle prizes. I did this to promote myself and my new business.

Here comes the problem, yesterday, one of the raffle winners contacted me to redeem the Gift Certificate for a Luxary Spa Manicure for her daugther. Upon enquiring about the daugther age and any health issues, I found out that the daugther has cerebral palsy. As I do not know much about this condition, I rang my insurer to see if I could carry out the treatment. I was pretty sure they would say yes, as long as I had a letter from her GP or Hospital consultant. They did confirm what I already thought and informed me that without a GP's/ Consultants letter, I would not be insured to carry out the treatment on the 17 year old daugther. Also although the daugther is 17, I would still need her mother to give me written parental consent.

I rang the mother back and informed her of the information I had been given by my insurer and understandibly she was not very happy about it. I did my best to explain that unless she got a medical consent letter, that I could not proform the treatment, even though I would like to. The mother tried the "but she has had her nails done before and I never had any of this" and " it's always been fine before and this seems very extrem just for nails".

Once again I explained that all nail tachicians SHOULD ask the same questions and that most insurers would require a doctors letter. I stuck to what I know was the right and professional thing to do and refused to treat her daugther without the letters I needed. I also said I would still happily honor the Gift certificate if she wished to use it herself or give it to someone else. I told the lady that for me, this was a bad situation to be in as I had given this Gift Certificate to the school and that I really did not want to have to refuse treatment but as the situation stood, I was left no choice and could not risk proforming the treatment without vaild insurance.

The woman told me she would just go back to the lady she had used before, as she did not have this problem with her.

I know I have done the right thing but by god do I feel bad and I would have loved to have pampered this 17 year old.

I've been trying to think of a way to "make things right" and wondered if it would be a nice goodwill jester to put together a basket or something with nail related products, to the retail value of the Gift Certificate ? or should I just leave it ?

I'm also concerned about the negative impact this situation could have on my reputation. I am only just starting to get my name noticed and if this lady desides to bad mouth me, it really could do some damage.

Any advice on how to, A) honor my comment and B) smooth things over, so there is no bad feelings would be extremly appershated.

Sam xxx
Hi, I feel bad for you to be in this situation. Its difficult enough explaining to some people about not doing a tint unless they have a patch test because of insurance and the fact you want to make it safe for them.
The mum should understand as you have explained its nothing to do with you not wanting to do the treatment your just not covered without the appropriate letters. I really think its a lovely idea to do a mini package with a letter saying that if she has the letters you will be able to carrry out the treatment, but i wouldn't feel like you had to do this as people would understand but i think it may make you feel better about the mum then giving good recomendations and o show that its in no way because of you and what you would like to do.
the mum should be able to get the letters, respect your work ethic and saftey and that you are doing your best on behalf of the care of her daughter and then there would be no problem but i am sure she just must feel frustrated and won't feel any bad towards you.
you haven't done anything wrong you are being safe and people will know this if she does mention it to anyone.
hope that helps!
 
If the mother was happy to sign a disclaimer, I would have done it to be honest but its a hard one to call. I would have just told her i would not be covered by insurance without the letter and if she is happy with this then no problem. I personally don't see any problem doing a nail treatment for someone with cerebral palsy at all but insurers can be funny and discriminate unnecessarily in my opinion. I would be more cautious about discriminating again a disabled person by not doing it when the mother is happy for you to do it.

You would of done it? And you would of told the mum your insurance won't cover the treatment? That's a bit silly! What if she then decided to take you to court? She knows you have no insurance to do the treatment and it shouldn't be done with out a doctor note. You would be screwed!

Personally I follow my insurance as that's what it's there for. To protect you. What's the point of having insurance if you don't follow it.

Also they wouldn't say you need a note for no reason.
I think you did the right thing x
 
I think you did the right thing. You weren't being discriminatory and disclaimers aren't worth the paper they are written on according to some insurers.
For all you know the girl could have had other underlying conditions, you did the professional thing. Always stick with your gut instinct. The mothers reaction was not your fault and you gave her options. Its a sweet thing to consider a basket of products but the mother would think she's won and then you are out of pocket, plus how do you know that her daughter had her nails done previously?



Sent from my Transformer TF101 using SalonGeek
 
Ooh dear.
To be honest I wouldnt have given it a second thought & I wouldnt have questioned whether someone with Cerebal Pulsy was covered via my insurance or not.

But

The fact is she WILL have problems with involuntary movements due to distrupted signal messages, so its quite possible she could knock equipment over & not be able to stop herself. This poses a risk to both you & herself, so I think its right that she get some sort of GP letter so that you & her are insurance covered. I doubt this has been the first time or the last time that such a letter has been required...

As for now I wouldnt worry about it affecting your business too much. You did what you knew was best. At the end of the day you haven't flatley refused to treat her, but you chose to act in her interest. Which is only what anyone could ask for :)
 
That's my opinion thanks! You have yours and i have mine!
 
Thanks for thr replies guys, it's helped me feel a bit better about my decision and how I handled the situation.

Like I said, I knew I did the right thing and I did try my hardest to work around the problem as I really did not want to refuse this girl a treatment. As I said to the mother, my main concern is for the health and saftey of my clients and in this case, that ment I needed medical consent. I took great lenght to explain that it was not as simple as "just doing nails" and that the products and massarge etc have an effect on the body which most people do not consider.

Geeg makes a good point, the mother can not be bothered to get the requiried letters as it is too much hassle, so why should I like bad. I didn't really look at it that way at the time of posting this thread. Getting the letters would have only requiried a call/letter or doctors visit on her part, which is not that much to ask in return for a free Luxary Spa Manicure.

Gr8nailz, I think I will take your advice about adding a disclaimer to the back of my Gift Certificates to cover health condition in future. I certainly do not want to be in the same situtaion again.

Nailzilla, I was/am unwilling to take the risks by proforming the treatment without medical consent. Firstly, I would never forgive myself if something DID go wrong and this 17 year old suffered in anyway. The mother is not a doctor and therefor can not make the decision wethier or not the treatment would be safe. Secondly, even if a got the mother to sign a disclaimer, it would not be worth the paper it is written on and not hold any weight in a court of law. I would be risking both my future and the future of my business on the word of someone I do not know from Adam. If she later sued me, I'd have been well and truely stuffed.

Once again, thank you all for your support and feedback.

Sam xxx
 
You've done the right thing, your Insurance said you were not covered without a doctors note then you dont do it without a doctors note.

You would look far from professional if you ignored what your insurers told you.
 
As previously posted, cerebral palsy sufferers have involuntary movements..manicure tools can be sharp, very sharp..need I say more???
The ultimate sanction is your insurance company, they advised you then the parent was advised and chose not to get the authority required..end of story really. I won't do anything that requires a doctors note without one, consequences could be dramatic..your conscience is clear hun..nuff said ...
 
I would leave it and forget it.

You gave the woman's daughter every chance to have the treatment. Through her own laziness the woman has chosen not to take you up on it.

I think you did all the right things and said all the right things. The woman is not out any money at all as she did not pay for the voucher.

Best left in my opinion.

This exactly. I really wouldnt feel bad, you did the right thing. I would leave it at that and let them get on with it.
 
While I agree with your decision, I think you need to approach the issue a bit differently. Nailzilla raises an important issue - discrimination. Although we view this from a business viewpoint, you can well imagine that the parent of a child with a disability would view this very differently.

Speaking from the perspective of US law (ADA), it is illegal to deny someone services, or establish different conditions for service, on the basis of a disability if they are otherwise qualified. You need to be very specific in your assessment of whether the daughter was otherwise qualified, that is, does her specific disability make your specific service problematic and incapable of being altered to accommodate her disability. Others have given good reasons, lack of motor control in the presence of sharp implements, circulatory issues, perhaps inability to communicate discomfort or pain. These are legitimate non-discriminatory reasons for denying service, or in your case predicating service on medical clearance.

Also, in cases like this, make sure you have/get your insurance company's statement in writing. Aside from being able to show it to the client, if you were ever sued, you would have that as evidence of what your insurance company advised. Remember you could be sued if something went wrong in the service, but you could also be sued for discrimination on the basis of a disability. Again, this is from the perspective of US discrimination law and may not be completely relevant to your situation.
 
Last edited:
ok from an insurance point of view you were right but from a humanitarian point i'm not sure , the girl has a disability not a disease , i think i would have modified the treatment to accomodate her needs . you live and learn.:Love:
 
The insurance company are the people we need to please more than the client. If they say its fine but ONLY with a Doctors note and she goes ahead anyway then it goes wrong do you think that the mother would hesitate to sue? It's not difficult is it ...get a doctors note,go without or go elsewhere.
 
I think I would have compensated her with product, then. That's just me and I'm not saying it's the right thing to do.
 
The insurance company are the people we need to please more than the client. If they say its fine but ONLY with a Doctors note and she goes ahead anyway then it goes wrong do you think that the mother would hesitate to sue? It's not difficult is it ...get a doctors note,go without or go elsewhere.

it was for a manicure not an operation
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top