Picture it: You're not feeling well, so you go to your doctor's office, where you're told you're having a heart attack. And just as you're on an ambulance gurney, the receptionist asks you for a $5 co-pay! This is what happened to 76-year-old Staten Island resident Barbara Antonelli last month.

Antonelli described her trip to the Staten Island Physician Practice and told the Staten Island Advance, "Stupid me, I gave her the five dollars. This was an emergency ... and they asked for a lousy $5. They could have billed me. I never thought they would have the audacity to ask." This while the grandmother had an oxygen mask over her mouth!

She pondered to WCBS 2, "[Is] a lousy $5 more important than a human being?" Still, Antonelli is grateful to her doctor (who didn't realize she was asked for payment) and just thinks the administrators need to train their employees better.

SIPP says it's "not our policy" to demand payment from patients who are having heart attacks, but Antonelli had not paid when she came in, the employee got a bit overzealous. SIPP's associate medical director Dr. Jack D'Angelo, who did find the employee's actions "inappropriate," explained to the Daily News, "When a patient comes into any doctor's office, you have your co-pay and you pay it when you register." We've personally never paid for our doctor's visit until after seeing the doctor - and we pay at the office or we're billed.

