Short Version: I would not recommend this organization for vision care needs. This office staff…read moretook financial advantage of me and has continued to string me along for months, while providing different stories each time I speak with them.
Please be mindful of your loved ones and friends who may be targets for this office, as they do serve a large senior citizen clientele who may sometimes be particularly vulnerable. And as this demographic is less likely to speak up and share about their experience online - I think this review is especially important, hopefully it helps inform people who are looking for vision care for themselves or others. I have posted here and on the local social media pages for Sun City, Surprise, and surrounding communities, nextdoor and FB. In those posts I have included the copies of the emails between myself and the staff so people can see the whole picture for themselves.
Long Version:
The questionable accounting practices of NW Valley Eye Care have lead me to warning people from my community and my organization against trusting their vision and wallet to NW Valley. They improperly billed me, resulting in an overpayment that I discovered. Later, they noted they would refund me, but then never did.
I caught on my VSP bill that I had been overcharged by this office months earlier. When I called NWV to resolve this, the office said they chose to not use my VSP benefit for my visit, instead the office charged me outright. Karen told me that they charged me based on the fact that they were "saving the usage of my benefit for when I ordered contacts".
This is so unsettling, as I don't order contacts directly through NW Valley (never have), since VSP discounts the contacts I order from their "Eyeconic" website, directly. *Also, for me, I had LASIK a couple weeks after my vision exam, so I certainly had no intentions of ordering contacts from anyone.
The office staff emailed me back on July 16th that I'd be getting my refund in 1- 2 weeks. Did not address the issue of the missing portion of the reimbursement whatsoever.
Didn't hear from Northwest Valley for 5 weeks, so I reached out on August 21. I got an email back saying Karen sent the initial message to the accountant staff initially.
On August 22 the office called me back and said "we never reached out to you or sent the reimbursement because the authorization from the day of your visit per your insurance doesn't show coverage for a contact fit, just for a contact exam".
This part is hard to believe, as why would NW Valley not have subsequently called or emailed in an attempt to notify me, as I am their patient and the last communication they sent was telling me to expect the reimbursement due after the overcharge. So, either they're so disorganized/ negligent that they will overcharge you to cover their billing errors, OR they are willfully engaging in less than scrupulous business practices.
I had already covered my bases by the time of the August 22 phone call - I work in medical billing but all insurances are different, so I had already reached out to VSP twice about this specific matter. During these calls VSP confirmed eligibility, services rendered/billed and that amount I was responsible for versus what I payed.
Opinion: To be fair, the optometrists at NW Vision were very pleasant! But for me, it's not worth it. I'd rather not have to deal with worrying about someone purposefully overcharging me, and the ensuing battle to get back my own money.
I never wrote anything negative about them before, but I feel like sharing the experience is the right thing to do. I know I'm not the only person who has been treated like this, but I might be one of the people in a position to get the word out to social media etc so others don't have to go through it too.
