Lois Bielefeld

Review of Alameda Family Physicians

My wife and I do not recommend Alameda Family Phys...

My wife and I do not recommend Alameda Family Physicians/Stanford Health because of their shady "new patient" fee practices. The facility did not disclose there would be a new patient fee to either of us when we called to make an appointment nor when we arrived for the appointment and checked in. After the appointments, we each got a bill and saw we were both charged a $441 new patient fee that our insurance nominally covered. We each separately saw the doctor for about 20 minutes and met with staff for maybe about 20 more minutes. How does this level of service merit $882? Neither of us have ever been charged a new patient fee with a doctor previously and never thought to inquire. Make sure you ask them about every charge. The office was nice, Dr Eichel was fine, but their billing is extortionist and unyielding.

I'm updating this review as after many months of back and forth with many people at Stanford Health, Dr Eichel waived the extra new patient charge. Most recently, I had to go back for an immunization and again the office was incredibly nice and the nursing staff wonderful but be aware of that initial hefty fee. I will upgrade my stars to 2 since they waived the fee but it took about 3 months to do so with a lot of reaching out on my end.