Ok, so I am definitely not asking for medical advice, I am on a good track medically, but I have a question about unpaid bills. I am going to go into all of the details, so that the full picture is clear. I really hope this doesn't violate the reddit, but if it does, if there is advice on where to post this, I'd be hugely grateful.

I have (finally, after years of not knowing) been diagnosed with spinal stenosis between c5-c6 & c6-c7, as well as myofascial pain syndrome. Doing better with my current doc & PT than I have in years.

Back when I was with another doc, I developed vertigo. Because we wanted to rule out things like brain tumors, I went to a neurologist that I'd gone to years ago, to get an MRI. While catching up my neurologist with my current issues, I filled him in on the mysterious pain/weakness in my shoulder/arm/hand/fingers. He tells me that after we confirm no tumors, he wants to take on my case; he can help me. I figure "the more docs trying to figure out what's wrong with me, the better" and agree.

To make a long story short, he diagnosis me (based on my verbal reports) to have a pinched nerve in my elbow, a pinched nerve in my wrist, and carpal tunnel. He tells me to stop using my arm entirely, except when I go to occupational therapy with his occupational therapist. I do this. Nothing gets better, and I also develop a strange clicking and weird sensation in my shoulder - the shoulder that is above the problem elbow/wrist. I ask both him and the occupational therapist about this - they say they don't know why it would be happening, and it's probably no big deal.

To be sure, I go to an orthopedist. Turns out, my shoulder muscles are so atrophied from lack of use that my socket is no longer quite holding itself together. My orthopedist also politely calls bullshit on all the stuff that my neurologist said, and sends me for new MRIs of my cspine, as well as my shoulder, elbow, & wrist. I don't have any pinched nerves anywhere, or any signs of carpal tunnel. When she administers carpal tunnel tests to me, I don't respond as though I have it.

So I start going to this orthopedist and her PT group after cancelling all further appointments with neurologist and his occupational therapist. It's been over a year now, and although I'm not 100% better, I am far better than I have been in years. Part of what is making for slow progress is that the atrophy caused by my neurologist's shitty advice meant we had to start working on my shoulder (which had been fine before) before we could address the other problems.

Now, it appears that I have some unpaid bills with the neurologist. The kind of stuff where insurance didn't cover the full amount, so I'm on the hook for more than my copay. Normally, I pay what I owe for doctor's visits with a glad heart. But this doctor...I am so pissed at this doctor. He put me in a worse place than I had been before, and in the two months that I was going to him and therapy was doing NOTHING, he just kept telling me to keep trying. I honestly don't want to pay him another cent. I also want to give him a piece of my mind, in terms of his massive misdiagnosis which (and I'd love feedback on this) seems especially bullshit, since if he'd ordered MRIs of my elbow and wrist, he'd have known I had no pinched nerves.

Would it be fair to call his office and say something like "I'm not willing to pay this at all/pay this full amount, because you actually misdiagnosed me and fucked me up worse?" or something? Is there anything I can do? If you're a doctor, how would you want to be told about this?

I don't want a malpractice suit or anything like that. I just don't want to pay more money to a doctor who made my condition worse, and wasted my time.

TL;DR If a doctor gives you bad advice, that hurts you further instead of heals you, how do you tell him that is it OK not to want to pay him more money since he didn't actually help, but hurt the situation