I am beyond disappointed. I just don't know if my disappointment lies with WorkStar and their incompetent employees, or if it's with myself for believing they were competent enough to fulfill my needs, even after it took 16 days of me making contact via email and phone call for them to even schedule the consultation..
I did an online inquiry back in March. On March 31st, Asha emailed me to confirm a few basic details (insurance, plus a few questions I had), and she let me know that once my prior x-ray images were faxed to them from my PCP, and once my information was reviewed, I would be paired with a provider at their facility and scheduled for my consultation.
As of April 5th, Asha stated she only had 1 page of my medical records from my PCP, and then on April 18th she stated that she has reached out to my PCP medical records dept multiple times with no success. I called my PCP myself the week prior to the 18th and they notified me that everything had already been sent over. Asha confirmed that another employee had my paperwork and that I would receive a call in a few days to be scheduled with a provider paired to me.
I emailed Asha again on April 26th asking if I would be scheduled soon and I got no response at all. I had to call their office before even getting on the schedule. That alone should have been a red flag.
Mandee (who I just found out no longer is employed at WorkStar), got me on the schedule and to save time I emailed her my Expiration of Benefits letter from my motor vehicle insurance so they could skip straight to billing my medical insurance.
I have physically printed and turned in that same letter an additional 2 times, yet the billing department had no idea that my medical insurance was supposed to be billed, even though I've notified the office both over the phone and in person, a combined total of 7 times. I assumed by my numerous attempts, that it was finally handled. I continued to attend my appointments, which after the second visit I didn't even want to. I was paired with Dr. Nguyen while she was beyond kind and helpful in getting me the proper treatment I needed, she is beyond unprofessional. For some reason, she thought it was acceptable to trail off for 10-15 minutes at almost every visit and tell me information that no medical provider should be telling their patients. The first time she did this, she told me that she didn't even really want to work there because it wasn't worth it, but that she goes because she loves some of her patients. The second time, she told me I may get paired with a new provider because she was considering quitting because WorkStar has not paid her in over 4 months. Then the third time, she was talking about how I was such a good mom because I revolve a lot of my treatment plan around my daughter, and she told me about her childhood and how her mother would call her names such as a bitch and to "suck it up" whenever a situation arose. I feel empathetic for her situation, but it is ridiculously unprofessional that she would take up over half of my appointments to discuss this with me. I'm just a patient, I don't need to know that information.
She also kept trying to get me to take a certain medication that had dizziness and drowsiness as a side effect, which I told her I couldn't have since I do have a toddler at home.
Back to the billing issue, the most recent two times I called to notify them of this was August 16th, and August 24th. On the 16th, I was assured that billing would be notified immediately after the phone call, yet on August 23rd, I got a letter in the mail from my motor vehicle insurance denying coverage to my appointments, confirming that the front office yet again failed to do their job on the 16th of notifying their billing department of the proper insurance to send the bill to.
I made a phone call to WorkStar on August 24th, and I spoke to 3 different people. Brandi ever so kindly helped me speak to the appropriate people. Unfortunately I didn't get the name of the woman in billing that I spoke to, I sure wish I did because she was beyond short with me and couldn't even answer anything I asked her. She transferred me to someone else, and that person didn't answer. I called again and got Brandi again, and she took down my contact info and within minutes I received a call from Laurie and she was the sweetest person to help me by far. She confirmed that Mandee was no longer with WorkStar but that this all stemmed from her not notifying the billing department to not bill my motor vehicle insurance. She assured me that she would personally get this handled, and I sure hope that it does get properly handled. I asked her to cancel my upcoming appointment and that I will no longer be seeking medical care with them, and I also asked for a call to be notified of when they do in fact send the bill to my medical insurance.
I really hope the proper authorities get this place under control. Right now it's not a safe place for patients. read more