DEHUMANIZING - stay away!!!
Update 10-13-14. I had another appointment with Dr. Wu and lo and behold, he changed his medical opinion. Imagine that! First it made no difference if I had the RF procedure done all at once or in two visits, now the only option is 2 visits.
I asked for options. He gave me a script for anti-inflammatories (which I can't take due to stomach problems) and referred me to another Pain Management place. Some options, huh?
In the process of trying to actually *pay* these guys (who by the way say they are in network with BCBS but only the other half of the practice is so that is a mess!) I had a conversation with the head of nursing who was the only compassionate person in help. First it was a billing issue and then I bitched about two procedures and he was genuinely surprised. "They want to do one side at a time?" Yes. "Really?" Yes... I want both sides done. It doesn't make sense to split them. It's just for more money. "But we always do his procedure bilaterally." Really. More discussion, his face furrows in what I think is confusion. He offers to go talk to the office next door. The only caring person in the place disappears... maybe forever. I guess the guy bucked the system.
Now, to add injury to injury and insult, I went to the place they referred me who over the phone said that they would do the procedure all at once and had done man times but guess what? uh-huh. The story changed.
It's like the doctor's mafia. Cross one and you cross them all.
Although I have zero complaints about Dr. Wu's care, clearly he caved to the cash and not on the side of care.
Let me throw a few adjectives out the important descriptives on the practice:
- Insurance scammers
- Non-medically based decisions
- Misrepresent the facts on "in network" and not "in network"
- Procedure mill
- greedy and "anything for a buck"
- doctor comes first, not patient
Just to summarize my outrage:
30 years of pain and finally hope of no pain and no drugs.
2 painful test procedures to get approved for longer lasting procedure
After 2 test procedures I found out both that they were not in network AND the final procedure they were going to split in two because they make more money
They didn't care if it was more time off work for me
they didn't care if it was more medical transport money for me
They didn't are if it was to recuperation periods for me
The didn't care it doubled my risk of infection
They didn't care if it doubled my risk of complications/side effects from sedation
They didn't care about me at all.
They only care about how much money they can make and how many procedures they can do.
I hope Dr. Wu moves to another practice where he is allowed to do the right thing by the patient and is not controlled by Dr. Burkhead's greed. (He's the Chief Medical Officer and responsible for this ridiculous "policy" not dictated by medical need!)