PATIENTS BEWARE: where to begin...it all started with that "need" for a just-turned-50 colonoscopy. I called United Healthcare before starting the process to confirm that all colonoscopy costs start to finish were covered under preventative care. UHC made two separate inquiries with Fiman's office and the surgical facilities he was contracted with to confirm that everything was in network so covered 100%.
(1) Upon my consult visit to Fiman, his office charged me $100+ for the visit despite my insistence that the visit was covered. It took me SEVEN MONTHS to obtain a refund from Fiman's office.
(2) My colonoscopy was booked w/Fiman at the Physicians Endoscopy Center (an in-network facility). Upon receiving my Colonoscopy Report, I noted TWO outright errors and had to make SEVERAL phone calls to have a corrected report issued.
(3) And then the bills started rolling in. Despite using an in-network doctor and being at an in-network facility, I received out-of-network invoices totaling $1500+. WTH? After almost a year and hours upon hours of frustrating phone calls/communications with Fiman's office, Physicians Endoscopy Center, two pathology labs, and the anesthesiologist's office, UHC and I were able to reduce the cost to $350, but that was still $350 that I should not have had to pay when I researched Fiman and signed on with an in-network physician/facility. Fiman's people said that I signed something along the way accepting that there may be out-of-network costs. The same form I suspect every physician/facility has their patients sign in case of an absolute emergency and an in-network provider is unavailable under extenuating circumstances. In 15 years w/UHC and after multiple family broken bones, surgeries, and doctors' care, etc. we have NEVER, EVER been charged out-of-network by an in-network doctor/facility.
So PATIENTS BEWARE! It would be a cold day in H-E-double hockey sticks before I would recommend or set foot in Fiman's office again.
PS Oh ya, and one more thing we discovered way after the fact...my husband, who is an Iron Man (2x), had been to Fiman years ago on a turned-50 colonoscopy consult. Fiman told my husband that training as such was detrimental to his health and would result in cardiac arrest. read more