I am a 64 year old physician with no income due to vision loss. It is the standard of care for an optometrist to refer a patient to a physician for a diagnosis such as glaucoma with vision loss. Dr. Cooper, the owner of this clinic, refused to do so. Moreover, the clinic's fees are twice that approved by Medicare and they gouge uninsured patients like myself. I am very low income and asked for a payment plan and for the federal hardship waiver application. The staff refused to provide me with this as required by federal law. I was paying what I could afford each month, which would have paid off the small balance in a few months. Dr. Cooper repeatedly refused to refer me to a physician at IU because I now have Medicaid and no one else would see me. She told me I needed surgery to prevent total blindness yet refused to send me to any eye surgeon at IU, knowing that IU would accept my Medicaid! I have reason to believe she did this because she knew I was planning on filing a malpractice claims against a colleague of hers, an MD who sends her patients, and she was far more concerned about protecting her referral sources that adhering to the standard of care with me. Now she has sent me to collection, when I meet the federal hardship criteria for a payment plan and was making monthly payments. Avoid this doctor and her clinic. She only cares about money and is willing to sacrifice my and others' eyesight rather than expose the malpractice of a local ophthalmologist. If you are a physician, avoid her like the plague she obviously has issues with physicians that have nothing to do with me! No doubt she wanted to go to medical school and is displacing her anger onto me about that! read more
