Azalea Gynecology

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

Talk about looks being deceiving, this office is TERRIBLE and I will NEVER go back!!! When I walked in for my first visit with them this week I was very impressed with the clean and accomodating office and the front desk receptionist was very friendly and nice. Well, it all went downhill from there. They are committing insurance billing fraud and overcharged me (and my insurance company) for my visit by adding erroneous insurance billing codes onto my chart. I am furious at them and the unprofessional manner in which they have handled my case. I went in for a general annual Well Woman visit which is covered now under law by the insurance companies at a $0 cost co-pay. Legally, the insurance companies now can not charge any co-pay for your annual visit so I was extremely surprised at check out time, being told that I owed a $50 co-pay. I inquired as to why and told them that my visit should be free under law and I was rudely told that because the doctor had spoken to me about something outside of what is covered under my annual Well Woman visit that they added a billing code on my chart that the insurance company wont cover under my annual exam. I was SO surprised because the only thing I had spoken to the doctor about was hemmrhoids that I had had in the past and I didnt even bring that up- she asked me because my medical questionaire had inquired if I ever had issues with that in the past and I had stated yes. When she asked me about them, I told her it had been an issue in the past and that I had a colonoscopy to check for colon cancer less then a year before and everything was fine. I told her I was not currently experiencing any pain or symptoms for that and I was just there for my annual visit. Pretty simple, right? Well apparently not. They chose to code my charts that they had spoken and treated me for hemmorhoids so that they can bill my insurance company more money and charge me a $50 copay. Long story short, I spoke to both the Insurance Manager (who was EXTREMELY rude) and then also the Office Manager, Craig Allen, and was told that the insurance company requires them to add billing codes to my chart for anything that they even talk to me about. He said even though I didnt complain of any current symptoms for that issue, that because I spoke to the doctor about it, even though it was her that brought it up, that legally they had to report it to the insurance company and was told the insurance company would not cover it under my annual visit so they had to list it as a "specialialist co-pay". He refused to listen to any reason and told me to go ahead and report them. I have NEVER in my life dealt with such a rude and incompetent Office Manager. Not only are they stealing money from people and overbilling but they are breaking the law. I spoke to my insurance company and told them what happened and they quickly informed me that what this office did is indeed ILLEGAL and that I was grossly misinformed. They told me that doctors are not allowed to charge for something that they didnt treat, especially something that I am no longer exhibiting symtoms of and didnt ask for any medical advise on. Its not even about the $50 that I had to pay, thats small potatoes- its the principal of the matter and is about what is right and wrong. I have filed a complaint with my insurance company as well as the NC Medical Bureau and will continue to pursue this to make sure no one else ever has to have such a horrible experience as I have. Do yourself a favor and find another office to go to or you will be greatly disappointed. This office doesnt care at all about the patients, they are just out to make money. Although the staff is generally very friendly when you first arrive, you will soon find out that all the staff is instructed to do is to get your money, any way that they can- even if it means breaking the law. I am in the insurance industry myself, and I have NEVER seen anything like this before. I am utterly disgusted at this office.

A

A Private User

i had a terrible experience at azalea and this was my first time there and i will not be returning and passing word along to all of my friends about this as well...i was having awful pain in my lower right abdomen, called for an appt and they scheduled me for the next day... i couldnt take the pain, so went over to wilm health, which by the way, was an AMAZING experience....went in for my appt at azalea the next day, was told that i would be responsible to pay my 20% coinsurance at checkout, which i was ok with but i thought my copay for that service was $50....well, the nurse practioner that poked around inside of me, no pap, not really sure what she did, didnt tell me much of anything, just that i would need to have a ultrasound to find out further info....i was under the impression that i was going to be having the ultrasound then....i went back to the checkout area to schedule the appt for the ultrasound and was told that i had to pay them $150 for this particular visit...i expressed that i knew that this was incorrect, to no avail...the woman was extremely unfriendly and then told me that they wouldnt schedule my ultrasound unless i could pay the remaining balance of $600 left on my deduc. i asked her if i could make a payment arrangement and she quickly shot that down, said they needed it in full before they would be able to sched the procedure....i work in the medical field and this is the first time ive ever heard someone flat out deny payments, especially for that amount of money in this time and economy. i dont know about any of you, but i dont have $600 just laying around. I figured that their main concern would be my health and the amount of pain that i was in as opposed to collecting money. they sent me over to cape fear hosp to have the procedure done, since they refused to do it without a car payment. The girl at the hospital said that my chart was labeled as "stat" and that i would be called first thing in the morning by azalea with my test results. its going on 11:30am and ive yet to hear anything......i did call the insurance department to voice my concern about the $150 and spoke with nancy...apparently the only friendly and helpful person that works there, she called me back and apologized for the wrong info that was given, that i was right, i only owed a $50 copay and worked with me on getting the $100 back that i was overcharged. ive called the nurse practioners nurse 3xs today and left a voicemail asking for my results. ive still heard nothing, so here i am, at work, hanging from a thread and freaking out about what may be wrong with me and im not getting any answers. stay away from this place. ive never had such a bad experience at any other medical facility in my life.

HO

Holly Cole

They try to charge you for missed appointments that you never scheduled! After my last doctors visit a few months ago I was told that I needed to come back in 4-6 months for a checkup. They wanted me to go ahead and schedule my 6 month appointment but I told them that I didnt want to schedule something so far away when I didnt know what I would be doing in 6 months. They told me that that was fine and I could schedule the appointment myself when the time came. Fast forward to now. I received a missed call from them one afternoon but they didnt leave a voicemail. I figured it was them reminding me to schedule my appointment. Nope. Come the next day they called me to tell me that I missed an appointment and that I needed to pay a $35 penalty fee. They said they called to remind me, which is why I had a missed call. Ive talked to so many people from their office about this and still they will not remove the charge and have been most unhelpful and rude. They told me that they have it in their system that they called to remind me, but they never left a voicemail! Ive read other reviews for this business and I am not the only one that has had this problem, which only makes me event more upset. I think that it is silly that they would rather lose me as a patient than rightfully remove that $35 fee because they messed up, but if that is what they want then that is what they will get. Thanks to other reviews that I have read, Ill probably give Glen Meade a try.