Before becoming a new customer, I called the offic...

Before becoming a new customer, I called the office and made sure that a yearly checkup visit was covered under my insurance. The front desk confirmed that it was fully covered, so I booked an appointment.

On my first visit, they set me up as a new customer and asked me a bunch of questions about my medical history, etc (Nov, 2017). They asked if I wanted a flu shot. I asked them if it would be covered under my insurance; they said yes, fully covered. So, I went ahead and got it.

Then, they recommended that I get blood work done. They said that normally they would do it at that same office, but they were not equipped to do it right now, so they recommended me to a local blood work center. I asked if this would be covered under my insurance, and they said yes. I went to the 3rd party center, and they drew my blood. Shortly thereafter, I got a bill from the blood work center for ~$30. I just went ahead and paid it. Then the nurse practitioner had me book a follow up visit with their office to go over the blood work results (Dec, 2017).

There ended up being nothing wrong with me, and I was generally happy once I left their office in December. Fast forward to March, 2018 and I receive a bill from the Doctor's office for $113.16. I called their office to discuss this bill and the lady on the phone said that I would have to talk to the office manager. However, he was busy, so she said that he would call me back. After a week of not being called, I called the office again. The office manager was busy once again, so I was told that I would get called back.

The next day (after my second call), the office manager called back. He essentially told me that I was billed because I went to see the Doctor twice, once for the "new customer" visit and once for the "yearly checkup" visit. I explained to him that nobody ever told me that I would be getting billed for the second visit. I repeatedly asked if everything would be covered under my insurance, and they had said yes. His rebuttal was that my insurance wasn't good enough to cover the second visit. I said that I didn't even want to go into the office a second time, and he said that the Doctor is not allowed to discuss blood work results over the phone, so I had to go in to get the results. He didn't reduce my bill at all, and he was not very nice about the whole situation either.

After being very unsatisfied with talking to the office manager, I paid the $113.16 bill. I was upset, but I was still going to give them another chance.

Then, in April, 2018 (5 months after my initial visit) I received a ~$16 bill from their office for the flu shot that I wasn't even going to get, but was talked into because it was going to be covered by my insurance.

In summary, the Nurse Practitioner was friendly and professional. However, their communication over billing, office manager, and invoicing department in general are leading me to search for a new primary doctor.