My husband found Dr. Fass through his Cigna portal & went in for a consultation, while he was at…read morethe consultation, he was strong armed into getting orthotics. The office told him that if he didn't get them at this visit then he would have to pay another office visit to get them at a later time & since he had already met his deductible what would be the harm. So, since he was having foot problems & the doctor didn't offer any other solution but orthotics, he decided to take the professionals advice. Little did we know that we know that we were entrusting our care with a money hungry practice. In good faith he paid the $250 deposit that they ensured him would be refunded to him. We had to follow up with the office multiple times to get this refund, & thank God we finally did. Then they told him he needed to return to their office for a follow up to ensure the orthotics they made fit correctly, so again he trusted the professional.
We then received a bill in the mail for this follow up visit. We were never informed that the follow up visit would have an additional cost, if we were informed this he would not have gone in as they were fitting just fine & the doctor spent no more than 5 minutes with him. I have called multiple times to find out about this bill & have been told multiple times that the accountant was out of the office. I called today as we received a notice that they will be sending our bill to collections, which I might add is ridiculous as they were supposed to call me back to discuss it.
Finally, today, their accounting person was in. She was unable to explain the bill to me so I asked to speak with the office manager. Karen came on the phone, & this is where the experience started to go bad. I asked if she was the office manager, she told me the doctor's wife was but that she handles issues if she isn't in. First of all, Karen has no customer service skills & instead of explaining the bill just kept telling me that this is what I owed for the service. That he had free will & didn't need to come in for a follow up if he didn't want too. I explained to her that we were under the impression that the follow up was included in the $1,000 fee submitted to our insurance for the orthotics. She told me that is the cost of orthotics & it didn't include any office visits & it was all detailed in the contract he had signed. I asked her for a copy of this contract & she quickly responded that its only for HMO clients & he is a PPO client & I could check the explanation of benefits (EOB) on his portal. I let her know I would check the EOB & that I would like the doctor's wife to call me. While waiting for the doctor's wife to call me, I checked the EOB & found that our insurance was billed once but three times, & billed for surgery. Surgery, he didn't have surgery?!?! Shortly after this discovery the Doctor's wife, Lori, calls. This is when the situation went from bad to worse. If I thought Karen was unprofessional Lori was even worse! She barely let me get a word in, used foul language & ultimately hung up on me. She tried to play therapist & told me I have deeply rooted anger issues. All while she kept telling me how amazing of a doctor her husband is & that people travel far & wide for his services & how lucky we are to have him as a doctor.
When I asked her about the "surgery" billing she told me that is just the code they use for x-rays, but he also didn't receive x-rays. When I asked about this, she told me I didn't understand how insurance companies work & that I probably just think doctors are loaded & rolling in money & that wasn't the case. That they need our $72.17 we owe just to keep the lights on & pay their staff. She then proceeded to give me a lesson on how doctors work & that if you go in for a doctor visit, I should expect to pay. She said, "if you go to the dentist, they are going to charge you." I explained to her that yes, but if the dentist did a filling on my tooth & then requested a follow up to ensure the filling was not causing me any problems that I've never been billed for the follow up. She then said, "well I don't know how your dentist office works but this is how our office works & you owe the $72.17 for the doctor's time." I explained to her that we have no issue paying what we owe but that we would have like to be made aware up front, because he didn't need to come into this appointment. She then said that if we pay our bill, she would be happy to service my husband again & would not hold this event against him. I thought that was hilarious, as if we were concerned about returning to her office. Contrary to popular belief Lori, there are plenty of other well qualified podiatrist in California that probably have way better customer service than you & your staff. We will definitely not be retuning, & we have filed an appeal case with our insurance company due to your fraudulent billing.