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| - I rarely leave 1-star reviews, but having had read some positive reviews on Yelp and then eventually going in due to those, I'm left with disappointment, yet getting charged more money for no good reason, and not actually getting any positive outcome.
I believe many people like him because he does in fact have a very warm personality. My challenge is that I didn't get much indication that he was a good podiatrist, and I got a lot of clues that he wasn't. I would definitely not recommend friends not to go to this doctor -- and I'm leaving my review where many negatives and pretty much zero positives, adds up to a 1-star review. Not a horror story, but certainly a lot of mistakes and pretty much zero help.
1. First, it was definitely weird to be in a private room with a computer screen open with patient names and info and seemingly no timeout where it went to screen saver. (I was in the room 20-30 minutes and the screen was up the entire time.) When I casually mentioned this to the doctor a few minutes after he came in, he likened this to how anyone can see anyone else's name on the sign-in sheet up front. I think the difference I see though is that I was in a private room with a computer system that I possibly could have clicked around on and discovered private health info. I can't confirm this but whether or not his practice was breaking HIPPA privacy laws but I did see that the system I could click around on (which I didn't because that's weird!) seemed to have more info than just scheduling...and it gave a taste of sketchiness right off the bat. Even if its just a podiatrist, I prefer that random people in his office not see my private health information while they're waiting on the doc.
2. Before I spoke with the doctor, they automatically took an X-ray. I believe that in my particular circumstance, this was unnecessary and just a way for them to collect a few extra bucks from the health insurance company and from me. He made no reference to the X-rays and my condition didn't warrant X-rays. I have been to several other podiatrists and they would during the appointment say "there's no reason to take an X-ray" (I have flat feet that's been forever, and certain activity would bring about numbness in a certain part of my toe, so I was seeking advice about whether different footwear was warranted).
3. He made a claim that the shoes I was wearing were bad for my particular feet, yet they had been recommended by another doctor and actually have made my day to day foot comfort more positive. I can't be sure since I'm not a podiatrist but this would also give me another negative indication towards his competence.
4. He was pretty insistent that I buy orthopedic foot inserts from his clinic and that they would likely improve my condition. When I went to check out, the bill included these, and the front office clerk gave me the inserts and threw away the box. I thought this was a little odd, but after the fact realized "Eh I don't really want these." I decided to try them, they actually worsened the condition -- all they did was further compress my foot in the shoe, making the numbness I would get come on slightly faster. I searched for these inserts online and saw that they were about 2x the price at the podiatrist than they were in stores and that they were very much a "one size fits all" situation, so not even as good as those Dr Scholls "semi custom fit orthotics" with the machine at Walgreens, CVS, etc (where they have a few different sizes). Of course, I couldn't return these since I didn't have the box they came in. And of course, they also didn't go through insurance, they were just charged to me out of pocket.
5. Their billing department also seems extremely disorganized. They sent me a bill with "additional charges" about 3-4 months after my visit. They were unable to tell me what and why the charges existed when I called (several times), and since it was under $50 I decided to just pay it because time is money. A few months later, I got more "additional charges." Their "billing specialists" are unable to explain anything and just say "maybe you should call your insurance company." My insurance company had a fixed co-pay for this doctor yet most of their additional charges are coming for "Office Visit" so this is clearly a provider issue.
I highly recommend not dealing with this doctor or this office unless you want to buy some unnecessary goodies and have a future headache dealing with their billing team.
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