If I could give half-stars I'd rate this office 2.5 stars, and I'd like to start this review by saying I genuinely like the care providers Dr. Burkhalter, Christina McCrae, and the phlebotomist here is the best one I've probably ever met. Dr. Burkhalter is thoughtful and sharp, and I always feel like she suggests treatment that's within my best interest.
However, the office management is absolutely atrocious. To be clear, I never have any issues with billing or prescriptions from specialists that I see regularly or otherwise, but every single time I have to visit this office something always seems to go wrong. The first few times it happened I write it off as everyone makes mistakes. I am not a harsh person by any means, but the last couple of experiences have made me start to question if seeing the doctor I like so much is worth dealing with the headache of the office staff.
The straw that broke the camel's back occurred over the last few weeks. I came in because they would not refill a prescription I need to take every day. Fine. That's typical, even if I don't necessarily love that it's commonplace. I told them I'd like to switch pharmacies, so Dr. Burkhalter said she's going to send it to CareMark, the mail-order service my insurance company uses. I asked her how to contact them to check on the status of the prescriptions, and she said to call the number on the back of my insurance card. While I waited to check out, I checked my insurance card. Nothing was labeled this way, so I was a bit puzzled. I asked the front office staff, and they insisted the same thing. Weird.
A week goes by and I get word through MyChart that my prescription can't be processed because they don't have an address or an account on-file. Again, strange--CVS and Caremark are one in the same, and I've been a customer of theirs for years. I ask who to call. An employee named Charea responds and tells me to call the number on the back of my insurance card. In response, I send a photo of my ID and ask which phone number to dial because there are four or five phone numbers and none of them are labeled in the way that indicates any of them are for what she describes. She responds and in so many words she says she doesn't know. Cool. I'm started to get kind of frustrated.
I call my insurance provider and spend about 30 minutes on the phone waiting to be able to sort this out. Their representative says they are going to call the pharmacy company they use. I wait 15 minutes. They come back with Express Scripts--what?! I ask the BCBSTX employee about Caremark and he says they don't use them.
At this point, I'm frustrated because it's starting to become clear that Methodist Uptown mishandled this and I wasted time because they insisted that they could not provide me with the phone number to the pharmacy they called it into (what gives?). After setting up an Express Scripts account, the BCBTX rep offers to call me back once Methodist Uptown's lunch hour ends so I can have them send the prescriptions to the correct pharmacy this time.
I talk to their office manager. She apologizes for the mix-up and offers to give me the number to Caremark and resend them my prescriptions.
Now I'm verging on anger because the front office, the doctor, and Charea all insisted that they could not give me this number because they did not have it--and they do! I recap my experience, apologize if I sound upset, but their office has told me they don't have this info multiple times. She basically just repeats she can help with Caremark. I tell her I don't really care who the prescription is filled with, and to please just send the prescriptions to Express Scripts because it would be best if we could all finally put this to rest and I'm especially tired of being on the phone over something that should be simple. At this point, 1.5 hours spent on this issue.
Charea calls to confirm the switch and feigns ignorance about our MyChart conversation. I point out we spoke. She doesn't acknowledge it or apologize.
NICE! :| Love being treated this way. read more