I often let bad experiences go but in this case I can't because I believe there was a potential financial scam going on and I plan to alert the BBB and other relevant authorities. Since a lot of elderly people seem to go here it's a real concern.
I called to get an appointment at the Mott St. office for new contact lenses and made sure they knew I had a complicated prescription. I was told the visit would take 1 and 1/2 hours and that the earliest they could take me was in three weeks' time. I was also told I would be charged a fee of $150 for the contacts exam, which is not covered by insurance.
I arrived early to get through the mountain of paperwork. After 35 minutes, "Judy," at the front desk told me she had talked to my insurance and that I would have to pay $150 for the office visit even though my standard co-pay was $50 for a specialist. She said the reason was the doctor might perform "procedures" that would have additional costs, but she could not tell me what those procedures might be. She warned me that it might end up costing me a lot more, and that it would be better for me to just pay the $150 and not submit it to insurance because it could end up being a lot more out of pocket. She mentioned the dollar amount of my high deductible repeatedly, and the fact that I was nowhere near meeting it.
So I paid the $150 for the office visit on top of the $150 for the contacts (which Judy insisted on treating as two separate transactions) and then waited another 20 minutes for the exam. I was finally called in to an exam room by a young guy with ripped jeans, sneakers, a gray hoodie and a Justin Bieber haircut. He didn't greet me or tell me who he was so finally I asked and he said he was the technician. He put some drops in my eyes and said he needed to touch the surface of my eye with an instrument that he had brought in and put on the desk. (I later found out that this was a test for glaucoma, and that the drops he used stains the eyes and makes it impossible to try on contact lenses).
After a few other tests he brought me to another room to see the opthamalogist, Lily Chin. I said that I was concerned about what I'd been told about "procedures" and that I would like an explanation of what was being done and what kind of cost would be incurred. I asked for a list of costs but they were not able to provide one. We also discussed contact lenses and Dr. Chin explained that they don't have a lot in stock and it would be difficult to do a trial because I have a complicated prescription and they'd have to special-order it (although perhaps the real reason was that they had given me eye drops that prevented any trials). She was clearly discouraging me from doing a contact lens exam so I said I would cancel that if I could get a refund. After some discussion I agreed to proceed with the regular eye exam, which meant that I had to have my eyes dilated which took another 20 minutes.
Before I left (after 2 hours in the office) I decided to call my insurance company about the co-pay. The agent I spoke with said I should only have been charged $50 for the co-pay, and she read me a note on file showing that "Judy" had been told this when she called 2 hours ago. We then got on the speakerphone with "Judy" who denied that she'd been told that but agreed to refund the extra $100 I'd paid. I also got my money back for the nonexistent contact lens exam.
In addition to contacting the relevant regulatory agencies, I will be in touch directly with Dr. Wilson Ko to make sure he knows how his office is being run. If he cares about his reputation (and license), maybe he'll do something about it. read more