Let me start by saying the doctor, Hanna Ro, is the best doctor I've ever had, FIVE STARS FOR HANNA! This is not who the review is for.
I'm writing this review for the people working the front desk. The most incompetent healthcare administrative staff I've ever experienced.
I got some not-great test results from my provider Hanna on Fri Oct 13, and she said the office would be calling me back to make a CT imaging appointment. I waited until Tuesday Oct 17, still no call so I called them. I said "hey I was supposed to get a call from you to schedule a CT". The girl at the front desk said "you can actually just make that appointment yourself at any wave imaging center". So me, knowing how healthcare authorizations work, looked up the address for a wave imaging by me, read her the address and phone number of the wave imaging site and asked "can you send the referral to that location?" she said sure no problem. I assumed she had sent that referral when we talked PLUS she told me to go ahead and make the appointment, so right after that call I called the imaging place and made an appointment for 8 days later on Oct 25 (authorizations usually take 5-7 days so I figured this would be no problem.
The DAY BEFORE on Oct 24, Wave called me and said they'd never been sent an authorization. I had requested off work and my mom did too for moral support, so I spent the rest of the day calling my insurance and OC Gastrocare to see what was going on. They said my authorization was sent OCT 20TH, 3-4 DAYS AFTER my conversation with the receptionist when she said to go ahead and make an appointment. After being on the phone with my insurance, they told me my Doctor could reach out to the UM department to hurry it along, and gave me the phone number to pass onto my doctor.
I called OC Gastrocare to ask if they could pass that along to my Doctor Hanna and they said ok, so I gave them the phone number and department name. Hours passed and I called again and they said there was NO RECORD of me requesting that, but asked me for the number AGAIN and said they would have my provider Hanna call me later that day. I never received a call. I really do not believe they ever passed on the message to my doctor because it was never passed on the first time. I believe this because I checked on my authorization about a day or two after the appointment and the authorization specialist said that calling the UM specialist "was something they could do but let's wait till the 7 business days pass" which makes me think they never tried to reach out the first time.
So the day of my appointment came and went with no authorization. I rescheduled to the following week with WaveImaging, Tues Oct 31. The DAY BEFORE my appointment OCT 31 OC Gastrocare called me and said my referral went through FOR THE WRONG LOCATION AND COMPANY. And the authorization was not transferrable, I would have to just get another one created. They said they would make an urgent referral which SHOULD be approved before my appointment tomorrow, but I may have to cancel again. Because of the issues thusfar, I called back like an hour or two later JUST to make sure the referral WAS sent to the RIGHT company, and it WAS marked urgent... so far it looks like they did, but no one noticed the last address was wrong until the day before last time so honestly I'm just keeping my fingers crossed I can get my test. This last screw-up with the wrong authorization address was the last straw though. The front desk staff clearly does not pass on messages, clearly does not understand how authorizations work, and clearly do not communicate WITH EACH OTHER. I firmly believe you should not have to fight this hard with your healthcare provider. The administrative staff should be doing the work to check the authorizations, request them in a timely manner, KNOW NOT TO TELL PATIENTS TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT BEFORE EVEN REQUESTING THE AUTHORIZATION, and let the patient know if something went wrong with enough time to change things (not the day before).
OC Gastrocare, you have the absolute best doctors, do not continue to ruin your reputation with the front desk staff you have. I did ALL the legwork of checking the authorization, advocating for myself with my insurance, figuring out what numbers to give them to call, and every single step of the way they dropped the ball. If you want to go hear, I'm sure you will love your doctors but if you are not the type who can really advocate for yourself and know the healthcare system, this may be a bad choice for you.
Again, I have LOVED working with Hanna. I think she's the best doctor I've ever had. She was professional, immediately ordered tests and took my symptoms seriously. I got clear concise lab results and really feel like she was data and science-driven, rather than saying "it could be x,y, z" she ran tests before giving me definite guesses. Really just such an amazing practitioner and I feel lucky to have her. read more