I hope this is the correct area of forum, if not please feel free to move to more appropriate forum.
My wife was working for an oral surgeon who as a policy (not sure if written) did free surgery on all family members as long as the employee worked for him.
Our daughter in March 3rd had some Wisdom teeth pulled; my wife was currently employed by the surgeon.
Three weeks later an employee of my wife asked her if she had read the local paper that weekend as her job was being advertised in the employment section, this didn’t really surprise her as 80 percent of "added responsibilities" had been taken away from her. She asked around and with in 2 weeks (4 weeks after the surgery) had landed a new job.

Today we get a bill for the wisdom teeth surgery.
My question is what do we do?

There is no way we can afford to pay it and was an employee in good standing at the time of surgery.

Any help would be great
What steps can we take or what should we do?

Thanks

Unless she has a bona fide contract that guarantees that she will receive free treatment, he is free to pull the benefit at any time. He is not required by law to offer his employees free treatment and an employer may change his benefit policy at any time.

Unless she can make a case for implied contract, and she will need an attorney for that, she's out of luck. You'll have to figure out which will cost more; paying the bill, or suing him for breach of a contract that you don't have in writing.

Would an affidavit or statements from other employees both former and current stating that this "no charge surgery" was considered a benefit help any?
I personally had work done and we were never billed, this isn’t precedence or a set understanding
?

The problem is, it's not a matter of proving it was a benefit. It's proving that he was REQUIRED to provide the benefit to her. As I said, he is not required to offer that benefit and he is legally entitled to change or amend his policies.

I don't think it was fair of him not to let her know in advance that the work would not be comped. But unless she can prove a contract (and as I said, she will need an attorney for that) unfair is not illegal.

Please note that I'm not saying an attorney will not be able to prove an implied contract. I'm saying that the cost of proving it might exceed the cost of just paying the bill.

Many attorneys will give free or low cost consultations. It wouldn't hurt to run this past one.

Thanks much

He obviously was intending on Comp’ing the procedure, which is why I thought if 9 out of 10 employees wrote a letter stating that yes it’s a common un-written fact that family of an employee gets work comp'd that it may help. (the 10th Employee being his wife in charge of billing :)

I fully understand the written aspect

Thanks again

I really think you ought to get an attorney's opinion. If s/he thinks the letters will help, go ahead. But as I said, proving that the benefit existed isn't the issue. It's proving that she was entitled to the benefit at the time.