I would not use this establishment again, ever. Completely incompetent, unprofessional and a very poor bedside manner (if its called that.)
My nurse called on Thursday (April 18) to schedule an appointment for an MRI and the first available time was at 7:00 PM on Friday evening. I was happy to take this. My foot has been in pain for almost 5-weeks. This timing was completely fine with me.
At 5:00 on April 18, I received a call from Carrie who said that she was calling because it looked like the "new person" hadn't called to inform of the $500 deductible. Carrie immediately wanted to know if I wanted to cancel my appointment. I told her I didn't think that was right and she was frustrated when I questioned her. I remained very calm and friendly. I told her again that I was certain that I did not have a deductible for "in network" imaging. I told her that I was calling the insurance company immediately as I was not going to pay $500. As soon as we hung-up, I called the insurance company. They confirmed what I thought, my total out of pocket for the scan would be $53 (approx). I called Carrie back in about 5-7 minutes.
When I called Carrie back in less than 7-minutes, she told me she was right and that I needed to call my insurance again and speak with a supervisor. Carrie went so far as to give me her Tax ID number so that Aetna could look it up and confirm that they were in network. Once again, Aetna could not see ANY REASON why Carrie was saying that I needed to pay $500.
I didn't want to cancel my appointment. The doctor has asked me not to take an anti-inflammatory so that we could get a good read with the MRI. This had caused a lot of pain all day long and now Carrie was canceling my appointment.
I called Carrie back. It has now been less than 25 minutes since Carrie called me. Carrie again listened to me, but said I was wrong, I asked her to call Aetna again for herself. She had previously told me she has called them and double-checked all the paperwork. Within seconds of her looking over the paperwork per my request, she says. "Oh yea, this is covered. You don't have a deductible. Sooo sorry, I guess I missed that. But you know what, I have let the Tech go home. But I can reschedule you for a later date."
WOW, the first appointment available was at 7:00 PM on Friday night, it was 5:30 and there were no other appointments in the building between 5:30 and 7:00? Really?! I can only assume that the previous appointment had cancelled and the Tech did not want to wait or had an important date. Who knows, but the entire issue feels completely fabricated. I question her ability to do her job if she cannot read insurance policies correctly or communicate effectively with them.
I wish it had stopped there. Carrie scheduled me for 8:30 Saturday morning. I showed-up and Shannon was extremely helpful and nice. I waited 20 mins and was taken back to the MRI tech. The tech started leading me to the changing area/room and was speaking so fast, I couldn't understand a thing she was saying. She pointed a the closet with the key and the last thing I heard was, "you can leave your sox on...I'll be back to get you in a second." So, I changed into the scrubs and locked-up my items. The tech came back into the room where she looked at me and said very rudely, "I didn't tell you to change". I explained to her that I could barely understand her as she was speaking so fast. I laughed it off.
I climbed up on the table (still in scrubs) and she placed the boot on my foot. As she packed the boot, I groaned in pain, but I understand that the foot needs to be stile so I sucked it up. Again, I am still not taking painkillers or anti-inflammatories.
The first part of the MRI was fine, until I we came to the point the tech needed to insert the contrast. The tech put in the needle and pushed in the saline, then we waited for a few minutes as she walked back and forth out of the room. She did this twice before saying it would be just a couple of more minutes that she is just waiting for the doctor. Again, she paced in and out of the room and after 10 minutes, she says, "Okay, he is in the parking garage..." and then pushes the contrast material into my arm. First, I had to wait for 10 minutes with a needle uncomfortably in my arm and second, the doctor wasn't even in the building when she injected me. Really? I am supposed to feel like this is a professional establishment?
Finally the MRI is complete and she unlocks the boot and yanks it off my foot shooting terrible pain through my foot. I assume she knew I was in pain when told her that it hurt in the beginning and after all, I was in there for an MRI. Something must be wrong with my foot...
The entire experience with the exception of Shannon was horrible. It felt like a Discount MRI with poorly trained staff. I would not recommend this establishment to anyone.
I hope he stops sending people here! read more