After hearing rave reviews from just about everybody and their dog, I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Burnett, expecting to be wowed by his greatness. I was pregnant, had recently been rear-ended in a car accident, and in a lot of pain. A LOT.
The appointment was so-so. The front-desk lady was oh-so-sweet in a nails screeching down a chalk board kind of way. No matter. I wasn't there to see her. Finally it was my time to enter the "the room"., with all the other people, sitting on adjustment beds, waiting there turn.
The wait wasn't so bad, but, I wasn't crazy about the doctor coming by to see me for 2 minutes, then walking over to another patient, then returning 10 minutes later, then repeating the rotation, until finally done with me.
Considering how much pain I was in (and that no pain medication of any sort could be taken during this time, due to the pregnancy) I was eager to hear what Dr. Burnett thought might be wrong, how he planned to go about fixing it by way of treatment plans, and the like. Couldn't get much out of him there. However, he was quite interested upon hearing I'd been in a car accident, and left the room to return with a piece of paper courtesy of the same front desk lady regarding the accident. He asked me to fill it out and return to the office. By my third and final rotational visit, and no word on what he thought might be causing the pain, or what to do, except come back next week, I was eager to go. When I went to the desk to pay, the woman said I owed nothing, and that all payment would be collected when the car accident settlement went through. I insisted on paying for the $67 office visit then, citing that I had yet to even start interviewing lawyers, and wasn't really interested in their no money down lots of interest charged later payment plan. Done.
The next week, I called in and cancelled my upcoming appointment with Dr. Burnett, and was off to see the physical therapist who I'd heard could fix me without a lifetime commitment of weekly "adjustments". Case closed here, right?
The following week, I sat in my midwife's office during our routine prenatal with my hubby. She said she needed to talk to me at the end of the office visit, and it sounded serious. Uh-oh. I pressed her to tell me what was up then and there. And so I heard of how Dr. Burnett's oh-so-sweet office lady called my midwife's other midwife friend, looking for me. Claiming I owed them money. That same midwife friend happened to know my name, only because I'd interviewed her before choosing her friend, and let her know when I made the decision to go with my current midwife instead of her. During my office visit at Inner Sun, the first thing Dr. Burnett asked was how I'd heard of his office. I told him that my midwife had referred me, and who she was.
I called Inner Sun as soon as my prenatal ended, and asked what was going on, reminding them that I had made a point of paying for my visit the same day I came in, and declined to fill out the form entitling them to a stake in any future car accident settlement.
"Oh, yeah, that's right, sorry." Was all I got. No explanation as to why they hadn't called me first, before calling around to various Austin area midwifes trying to find me and claiming I owed them money (patient confidentiality, anyone?). In that Inner Sun Chiro had called ME more than once in the course of scheduling and returning my call to cancel my second visit only a week before, I know they had my phone number, and I can only assume they lost or misplaced my patient paperwork with the number, screwed up the payment sheet in their database.- But, happened to kind of remember that I had said something about some midwife in Austin, and figured they could hunt me down that way for the whopping $67 they mistakenly thought I owed them.
My midwife was given the impression that something pretty bad was going on. Why else would the office of Dr. Burnet have gone on a wild goose hunt trying to find me? I can only assume that was the impression Dr. Burnett's office gave her, her friend, and any number of other midwives who they may have called before finding one that happened to know me.
Not professional. Not only did I not owe them money, but they absolutely had no business calling anyone, period, to claim that I did, without my consent to discuss anything pertaining to my care with anyone, but me in the first place.
To top it all off, when my lawyer sent a request for my *record* from them (couldn't have been much more than a piece of paper with a scribbled note on it, cause I only saw the guy once, for less than 10 minutes), they charged me $35. For a piece of paper. More than anyone, including the PT who sent over 50 pages of treatment notes on my case did. What a joke. Bringing my reimbursement for the $67 treatment fee down to $32. Thanks Inner Sun Chiro!!! Had to get your hands into that settlement somehow, didn't cha!?? An oh-so-sweet reminder to finally review you, indeed. read more