I went to STAR physical therapy in Spring Hill, Tennessee for lower back pain at the recommendation of my doctor. When I set up my first appointment I was told that since my insurance had a high deductible, each visit would cost 100 dollars. I went for 3 visits and paid the 100 dollars each time. I found the therapist and staff to be quite unprofessional. They spent most of the time carrying on conversations having nothing to do with health care or physical therapy among other staff members and people in the room.
Every one of my treatments consisted of the therapist briefly describing an exercise, and having me do a certain number of reps while she walked away. Upon completion of that exercise, she would give me another exercise to do and walk away again. At the end of each 50 to 55 minute session she would print out a one or two page summary of what we did so I could continue the exercises at home. At no time in any of the visits was there any measurement or objective assessment of my progress. It simply consisted of asking me if I felt any better, giving me a few more exercises, and another printout. Everything that was done during the three visits could have just as easily been done by handing me a print-out of the exercises when I walked in the door the first time and sending me on my way. Had I known this was all that was going to be done, I could have simply looked up the exercises online.
When they billed my insurance company, they fragmented the coding of each office visit into 3 components. In total the 3 times I visited were billed at 1081.00. After the insurance company acted STAR sent me a bill for a balance owed of 219.21. As a doctor myself, I feel like they engaged in some pretty creative coding in their insurance billing, designed to maximize profit at my expense. I will not return to STAR in the future, and would not have gone there originally had I known how unprofessional, ineffective, and expensive the care would be. read more
