Allied Pain & Spine Institute - What can I say about them? If I could give them Zero Rating, I…read morewould because the office staff, the patient care coordinator and billing staff are INCOMPETENT.
My appointment with Parish Vaidya, he spent 10minutes with me and said, "let's start with an MRI". I informed him and Melanie (his patient care coordinator) that since I had maxed out-of-pocket for the calendar year, I would be grateful if they are able to expedite the precertification since it would be 100% covered by Aetna. MRI's cost ~$500. However, little did I know that Melanie/other office staff members involved, would be negligent in handling my precertification and reconsideration.
They were delayed in submission due backlog of submissions (they only have one person i.e. Melanie who submits for precert and administers patients), they did not include comprehensive notes/supportive documentation, sent the paperwork to an incorrect fax number and were not aware of the reconsideration timelines (hence, missed the due date for that too).
During this entire process, I called Allied Pain daily to unblock and correct things between them and Aetna. All my phone calls would go to voicemails (once you choose Parish Vaidya option in the menu) with no one ever calling me back. Hence, each day, I would call them two-three times, till someone answered the phone.
When you call, the first person to answer (if you are lucky) is the front desk staff (who's role is to schedule/change/cancel appointments, nothing else). When you ask to speak to patient care coordinator or office manager, they send an internal email and tell you "they will call you back", with no one ever calling you back. If you want to speak to billing, you must call a different number (not an extension) because their billing is outsourced.
Ultimately, the MRI precertification was not approved, and Aetna informed me that I would have to either appeal or wait a while to reinitiate a new precertification. Even at this point, no one called me from Allied Pain. Hence, I was done with their negligence and, I cancelled my future appointment.
However, wait, there's a surprise!! Few months later, they send me an invoice asking me to pay for no-show appointment. The no-show fee was for the future appointment that I had cancelled. However, their INCOMPETENT staff didn't seem to have canceled it. No surprises! I called the Billing company to sort this out, spoke to a lady and thought that it was resolved.
However, I was wrong, there's a surprise again!! Yet another few months later, I receive an invoice asking me to pay for no-show appointment. The same appointment that I had already cancelled.
