During my second pregnancy I got tendinitis in my left wrist, which is more common than I realized because of swelling on those nerves and joints. I was referred to Dr. Van Allen from my doctor, Dr. Farley. Here was my experience:
Pro:
Dr. Van Allen got the job done, but it took multiple visits to accomplish it. He wanted me to do electrode treatment which was very noninvasive to see if that would cure it. Unfortunately it did nothing for my tendinitis. That's when we went ahead with the Cortizone injection. In hindsight I wish we would've done that initially because of two issues: I was completely unable to use my left hand, which was impossible with a toddler and newborn, and my insurance was ending the following month. I'd been having pain for over 6 months, and with one injection it was cured.
Con:
1. The reception and billing staff were not friendly.
2. I called my insurance to find out what was covered prior to any treatment and my insurance told me I had to have a billing code. I called Dr. Van Allen's office to ask for a billing code, to which they could not provide one for me, nor could they provide it for my insurance when they called to ask for it. I still don't have an answer as to why. As a person in dental-insurance billing myself, I fully understand my responsibility as the patient so this was odd. After my treatment was complete, Dr. Van Allen's billing staff sent me a statement demanding full payment with a red stamp across the statement reading, YOUR INSURANCE IS TERMINATED, PLEASE PAY IN FULL." This fried me because I purposefully made all my appointments prior to my insurance ending on February 11th, so I knew this was their error.
3. Lastly, after they realized I did have coverage for the specific timeline I was there, I received another bill for treatment I supposedly received in March. My treatment ended with them on January 30th. The billing person said she accidentally billed me. That part is totally fine because mistakes happen, but the other obstacles I believe could have been avoided had they done their part.
Thank you Dr. Van Allen and Heather for treating me with professionalism and success. A word of advice though: it may be in your best interest to train or re-hire your receptionist and billing person. read more