Medical visits are three-pronged: the actual visit and diagnosis, the admin/reception, billing…read more
Acutal visit and diagnosis: really top-shelf. Five stars! Can't wait to come back! I mean truly. With a family history and an estimated 52% chance of getting breast cancer, I have been doing annual mammograms since 1995.
In those years, I've had dozens of breast ultrasounds, MRIs, biopsies, mammos. The actual medical part of Rayus did feel like I was in the Four Seasons of breast care. The doctor spent a LOT of time walking me through why they were concerned about the two anomalies and even gave me her direct phone number and even was the person who called to review biopsy results.
(spoiler alert: both biopsies were benign)
Admin / part 1 scheduling: Mixed bag; 1 STAR.
AVERAGE on-hold time was well over 20 minutes. One time I held for 25 minutes and then they hung up on me. :( Longest hold time was 38 minutes. Truly unethical, IMO. We aren't doing imaging for sport. We are doing imaging because we are searching for bad agents and/or something isn't in the right place and it is stressful and can you not pick up the phone? Good god.
Was bad enough that that I DROVE (20 minutes each way) to the nearest Rayus and walked into the reception to book the appointment in person.
Admin / part 2 referral bermuda triangle: 0 STARS.
"the doctor didn't send the referral yet" seems to be a pat answer, followed by "call back in a week; doctors always say they sent the referral but they lie." Another pat answer.
One Rayus rep went so far as to say "the referrals come in by fax; there's a pile on the floor, it takes us sometimes a week to sort through them all."
(Are you F***ing kidding me? As a weird aside, I got a nearly identical answer 8 years prior when they kept "losing" or "not finding" the doctor's referral.)
Again: I'm doing this because I have a family history of breast cancer. Must I also suffer through the indignity of knowing that my time-sensitive pre-auth form is relying on 100-year-old fax 'techonology' ?
Billing: Wait, is Bernie Madoff your accountant? -17 STARS.
I arrive for first breast MRI and receptionist informs me that my "copay" is $500 since I haven't met my deductible. Hmm. I'm not sure this is correct, but she's very concise: "If you don't pay up front, then you don't get the imaging done today." Oy. I asked who I'd contact to work this out, saying that I had already met my deductible. "Um, no, there's no one to contact. We don't give refunds."
So then I return the following week and I'm given the exact same shpiel. This time I'm told that I need to pay $335 for my "copay" and, again, no money, no imaging. "You'll need to call to reschedule."
Then they send me an invoice for $301, claiming on the invoice that I had paid them $0.
Feeling desperate (because who has an extra thousand dollars laying around?) I call my insurance company. Who, thankfully, is appalled on my behalf. "Oh, no, no. You *never* prepay imaging. That's not part of our contract with Rayus." I'm on hold about an hour total.
But the good news is that after the one hour with insurance, Rayus did refund me the $835 they 'overcharged' me (or stole from me, depending on how precious you are about word choice). Other good news is that the money was back in my account in about one week. That was one month ago.
(cue Jaws music) Yesterday I got a Rayus invoice informing me that I stilllll owe them $301 and their invoice still shows that they have received $0 from me and $0 from my insurance, which is wildly incorrect. I think between the four visits and eight procedures insurance has already paid them a few thousand dollars. And, yes, I will owe 20% for the first $1,000 billed.
But something's rotten in Denmark when the medical billing is that insanely incorrect.
Weird p.s. to all this: I got frustrated that I could not find a billing phone number for Rayus and went down a rabbit hole or two and learned that Rayus is owned by a venture capital firm that has offices in NYC and West Palm Beach. Curiouser and curiouser.
