I went to Dr. Ruja's office wanting to try a chiropractor for the first time. Except for some mild back arthritis which I keep in check, I have no issues with my body and just wanted to have the experience. When I arrived, his staff received me and prepped me up, which consisted of a chair massage and the staff scanning muscle tension on my back with a machine. This is where the two stars (as opposed to one) kick in: the staff was professional and friendly; no complaints about them.
So about Dr. Ruja himself: he comes off as an aggressive fast-talker who has a fixed pitch on selling you as many sessions with him as possible, and who will get pissy when you don't immediately commit to spending more money with him. He has an issue respecting personal space when talking, actually spit on me (accidentally) a few times, and has a tendency to try to intimidate you with his medical knowledge as a means of selling you more sessions. When you first meet him, part of the pitch consists of him showing you a "EMG scan" (taken earlier by his staff) and then using scare-tactics to tell you how alarming the results are and how your spine will be severely deformed in 10 years UNLESS you sign up for treatment with him. He was dismissive of my arthritis diagnosis (made at a military hospital after an MRI), and would not simply accept that I wanted to have a single chiropractor session just to try it out, instead aggressively pushing for long-term treatment.
Once he was actually treating me, I asked him to please not work on my neck, since I didn't want to risk any damage there (there is increased risk of damaging the neck area when being treated). Any normal doctor would respect this kind of request, but Dr. Ruja gave me an attitude for "challenging" his expertise and immediately ended treatment. All in all I spent about 45 minutes with him, with about 30 minutes consisting of him telling me how much I needed long-term treatment and implying I was ignorant/irresponsible for not agreeing with him.
The final part of this whole fiasco was with the payment. Prior to doing treatment I asked how much it would be if had to pay for it all myself (assuming my insurance wouldn't cover it). I was told $150, of which I had to pay $75 right there and then. About a week later I got a message from my insurance company telling me that they got billed for $300 from Dr. Ruja's practice, of which they covered $200. This meant that I had to go back to pay the remaining $25. So not only did I get lied to, but I also had to figure out a way to go there again during a weekday. Not knowing they're closed on weekends, I called the office on a Saturday to see if I could pass by. Instead I got routed to Dr. Ruja's cell phone, and after explaining the situation, he asked that I give him my credit card information over the phone. When I refused and said I would prefer to make the payment in person, he started demanding that I make the payment over the phone, so after a pretty uncomfortable back-and-forth, I just hung up on the guy.
The staff at Dr. Ruja's office is fine, and I can't speak about the effectiveness of his treatment. What I can say is that the guy has issues respecting his patients' concerns, has aggressive user-car-salesman's tactics, and will rip you off if he can. Stay away from this place. read more