I requested a consultation from a member of the office staff and gave them my credit card number to…read morereserve my $550 consultation with Dr. Kanayama. I then asked if the doctor could review my medical records prior to the appointment. She said I should email my medical records to "Sabrina's" Gmail address. I received a photo of a receipt in my inbox that I needed to sign. I printed that out, signed it, scanned it into the computer, and sent it along with my medical records to Sabrina. On the day of my phone consult, I received NO CALL so I called them myself after waiting an hour. Sabrina told me I "never signed" the receipt and therefore I don't have any scheduled appointment... I literally replied to her email containing the image of the receipt. It was on the SAME EMAIL CHAIN. I received a confirmation of my appointment with the doctor on the phone WHEN THEY RAN MY CREDIT CARD. CRAZY.
So then Dr. Kanayama gets on the phone and says he doesn't have any medical records to review and that I never sent them. I tell him they are on the same email as the signed receipt, but I'll send them again. Sabrina then hops back on the phone, now having finally "discovered" the medical records, which she gives to the doctor. He, of course, does not have all the records I sent her, only a narrative statement I wrote about my symptoms. After a while of this nonsense, he finally retrieves my medical records, does a cursory review of them, and determines my endometriosis must not be "that bad." If he had read my records, he would have found that I had EXTENSIVE endometriosis across my entire pelvic region, including on and around my bladder and bowels, retroperitoneal fibrosis, suspected adenomyosis, and other issues that I'll spare you from having to read.
My mother then explains to Dr. Kanayama that the surgeon who conducted my first surgery told her I was "one of the worst cases" he has seen. Given that information and my current symptoms, he now determines I should schedule imaging with him followed by an exploratory laparoscopy. He does not, however, tell me that the SURGERY DEPOSIT IS $20,000. That is JUST for the surgeon's services ALONE, not including the hospital fees, staff fees, anesthesia, imaging, etc. WHO HAS THAT KIND OF MONEY????? Sabrina gives me basically no information as to how I'm supposed to pay this... no payment plan, help, anything. All I can do is pay via check, wire transfer, or credit card, she says.
Once I have the surgery, I will then get an out-of-network claim form to submit to my insurance. So I try to call my insurance and figure out how much TOTAL this is going to cost me and my family. I spend THREE HOURS on the phone with Anthem as they try to contact Dr. Kanayama's office. Despite the hours on their website stating clearly that they're open and a staff member answering the phone, the staff member tells us they're "closed" and we should try again on Monday. At this point, I give up.
Given the lack of organization in his office, I can't imagine what horrors await if were to move forward with the actual surgery, which, by the way, I would have to fly from California for. Would I have to just catch the first flight back because there was a minor billing error? Cancel my hotel room last minute? Who knows. I've had HORRIBLE experiences with endo specialists (for instance, one prescribed me "prayers" for my endo symptoms because I didn't want to get pregnant at the time) but this one really has left me utterly despondent and I have no hope left for help at this point.
