I do not recommend Dr. Gabriella Carlos as a chiropractor. Her office billed my insurance $440 for…read moreservices that NEVER HAPPENED. Shady, messy, and disrespectful is the only way I would describe their practices and behavior towards me.
Here is what happened....
I used to see a chiropractor regularly when I lived in SF. I needed one here in SoCal and happened to meet Dr. Carlos one day when I was walking past her office. She was super friendly, charismatic, and convinced me to book an appointment that week, which would include a free back massage from their massage therapist before the appointment.
I asked the office what the cost of an initial appointment is ($150) and agreed to book an initial appointment for the $150. They said they could go through my insurance and see how much of the treatment they could cover, and I said no problem.
At the time of my appointment, they told me that the massage therapist is "not available" and that I could "book the complimentary massage for the second appointment." This sort of upset me, but I was okay with it. RED FLAG #1 -- don't promise something when making the appointment and then tell me it's not available.
When I started filling out the forms, I came across an arbitration agreement that I declined to sign. I have had physicians in the past have no problem with my declining and would treat me anyways. Dr. Carlos immediately came to me and explained that if I don't sign the form, there is no way she would treat me. She promised that nothing had happened in her "12 years of experience......etc. etc."...So I ended up signing it because I said hey, I'll give her a try. RED FLAG #2...I recommend that if a doctor asks you to sign one of these, really think about it. There are plenty of ones who will see you without signing one.
My initial appointment was what you would expect an initial appointment with a Chiro to be...not much, and mostly talking. There were no adjustments or physiotherapy because most chiropractors are unable to do all that until they see x-rays...understandable.
She asked about my medical history, how I sleep, talked about my posture, had me push down on her arms with mine, and then push against her arms with my legs to see how strong my body is, etc. We then looked at some of the services shown on her Instagram page, talked about my career, and discussed what I was hoping to accomplish with my posture.
The appointment was a thorough consultation and in the last 5 minutes, and I mean LITERALLY 5 minutes IF NOT LESS, she did this guasha treatment on my back to "give some small treatment since there was no time for the massage that day." I assumed this was in exchange for the massage like she said it would be.
5 months later, I was online viewing my insurance claims online and was SHOCKED to see my insurance had been billed $440 for over 6 services from her office.
I emailed the office to see if they can pull up my records to fix the apparent mistake.
The office manager emailed me saying they had reviewed the charges and that I was billed for "Initial Exam, Spinal Adjustments and the physiotherapy performed. There were 7 procedure codes submitted totaling $440."
I told them that there was no adjustment or physiotherapy because I had not completed any X-rays, and they responded with "Our records show Dr. Carlos did do a treatment on that day. You have not have received an actual adjustment but she may have done joint mobilization, stretching and massage as well as gua-sha."
By now, in the thread of emails, I have REPEATEDLY asked them to give me a breakdown of what an initial appointment looks like and the kept dodging the question.
The doctor tried calling me, but I said I wanted to talk through email so that I could give this to my insurance company.
Dr. Carlos now took over the email thread and responded in a highly unprofessional manner. She said I was making threats and harassing her office. NOPE ... giving them the option to contact my insurance and fix the mistake of over billing my insurance, or else I would... is NOT A THREAT.
I was reminded again with her justification of "IN THE LAST 12 YEARS... BLAH BLAH... no one has ever brought up issues like these" and then she went as far as saying I am no longer welcome to her office. I mean that was the most hilarious part of this all..... I clearly did not go back after the first visit so it was funny to see her try and salvage her ego instead of being professional and hearing out my concerns, or working to fix this.
Dr. Carlos admitted that no adjustments were done but still went ahead and told me that they did indeed bill my insurance for spinal adjustments, and other services "Spinal Adjustment aka Joint Mobilization 98941 & 98943".
She tried saying I do not understand my explanation of benefits. The reality is that her office billed my insurance for services that NEVER happened. I am very disappointed in both Dr. Gabriela Carlos and her staff.