This is a deeply unethical man who took advantage of my mother in law's uterine cancer diagnosis to steal part of her savings at a vulnerable time. After paying cash and in full, over $700 out of pocket, for office visits and tests, we were told that the lab results couldn't be given over the phone so please come by the office. There Dr Chidiac rudely and crassly told my mother she had cancer, admonished her daughter for asking simple questions (refusing to answer except with "look, I'm the doctor here",) then proceeded to scare and pressure us into paying upfront for desperately and urgently (in a few days) needed surgery that he could do. (When it came time to ask for money he suddenly became nice and actually apologized for his rude behavior in delivering the news) As my mother in law did not have the money, our family ran our credit card for a refundable $2,500 deposit to prove we could pay for surgery. He counseled us not to worry about paying the hospital, just go in the emergency room and you will never have to pay them a dime, but added "I am not doing anything unless you put down a deposit now equal to my full cost of doing the surgery." After we left the office we did some research and found out that for uterine cancer it is highly recommended that a gynecologist who specializes in oncological (cancer) cases do the surgery, and that Chidiac, who is just a regular gynecologist, was not the optimal choice to be doing such surgery. We called him to just ask some questions about how the surgery would be performed and how many cancer cases he had been involved with, and he immediately cut off the call, saying if we preferred someone else to do the surgery, he would give us our deposit back. When we dealt with a qualified gynecologist/oncologist we found out that the urgency of the surgery was exaggerated by Dr Chidiac, and that the standard in such cases is that the surgery should be done within 30 days of diagnosis. The next day when we called Dr Chidiac's office to arrange the refund of our deposit, we were informed that they could not mail me a check and that they were going to keep $250 of our money, as they were adding on an office visit charge for when they gave us the lab results. This charge was never previously discussed, and was only added on once they realized we were not doing the surgery with Dr Chidiac. Then began a long game they played, of me protesting the charge was not right, and being told I need to speak to the office manager, who when I finally get a hold of her, tells me I need to speak directly to Dr Chidiac about it, and that he would call me back. Then I suddenly get a check in the mail but $500 has been subtracted. (Note even if there was a valid office visit charge it would be $65, not $500, and $65 would be for a real office visit with an examination, not 5 minutes to rudely tell someone test results.) Of course he never does call us back, then eventually I am told that I need to come into the office to speak to him, so I get out of work early to get there in time to speak to him, but then the story changes again, he is there but refuses to speak to me, and that I am trespassing by sitting in the waiting room. I completely understand that being a doctor is a tough business, and that there are patients out there who will take services and then not pay for them. However the answer to this problem for the Doctor is not to steal $500 from the hardworking patients who do pay in full for their services. Throughout the process the office staff has been either uninformed or complicit in the theft, saying at one point "I am not getting paid enough to deal with this." Preying on patients, stealing money from them once you realize you won't be able to get any more money legitimately from them is shameful on its own. Using a cancer diagnosis and the vulnerability it creates to facilitate the act is even more despicable. If this is how he treats a 59 year old lady who has just learned she has cancer, how do you think he will treat you as a usual patient just looking for routine services? read more
