Chicago Cornea Consultants Review

On behalf of my aunt, Rita Fridman:

"I took my husband to see Dr. Epstein about a very serious eye condition, that had perplexed several other eye doctors. As soon as we stepped into Dr. Epstein s office we immediately felt that it was a friendly and caring environment. Everyone we met, from the front desk to the doctor himself was so helpful.
We went from feeling hopeless... to feeling like we were at the right place where the doctor wouldn t give up until he found a solution. We offer the deepest gratitude to Dr. Epstein and his staff for the care they provided. We would not hesitate to recommend Dr. Epstein to anyone, he is the BEST!"

I had a wonderful LASIK consultation and surgery with Dr. Rachel Epstein. She was knowledgeable, clearly explained the risks of the surgery, and was reassuring with her professionalism and experience. She was very thorough and careful throughout the entire LASIK process.

It was easy to schedule an appointment with her assistants. They provided clear schedules and documentation of what I needed to do prior to and after the surgery. The procedure went very smoothly and lasted no more than 10 minutes (I was in the office for a couple hours for a last minute check-up). I had zero complications, they answered all my questions, and the office was thorough in their follow-ups.

I would recommend her and the office to anyone seeking LASIK.

This place is awful they do not care about the patients at all. I do not recommend this place to anyone . You couldn t pay me a million dollars to come back to this terribly run place .

So happy to have gone in for consultation! I thought there was no possibility of lasik for me but with the help of Dr Rachel Epstein, I learned about the advancement in technology. She's very good about taking the extra time to explain things and what to expect, would recommend to anyone considering eye surgery.

Overall my experience with Dr. Kaplan and his office has been excellent. I never felt that appointments with Dr. Kaplan or his associates were rushed. Explanations were thorough and easy to understand. The results of my cataract surgery are excellent. He does have a busy office, but staff have always been helpful and responsive. I've recommended Dr. Kaplan to several friends and will continue to do so.

The doctors are too busy to take calls and the staff is too busy to work with the insurance. Hmm I wonder how responsive they will be if something goes wrong with my proceedure? Well I'm not going to chance it are you?

Absolutely livid after leaving this place. Wasted 2.5 hours of my day for a consultation that could have taken 5 mins. When you get there they take you through a series of tests to see whether or not you are a candidate for lasik, okay great. But the issue is you don't get to speak to someone until after all of this (which takes two hours) that's when they tell you that insurance isn't accepted, payment is required upfront, 6k for both eyes which is way more expensive then anywhere else I've found. So here I am unable to wear lenses due to an undiagnosed eye injury and not able to get lasik because I am not part of the north shore 1%. A respectable place would at least acknowledge the fact that 'okay I understand lasik may not be financially practical for you but let's see how we can at least help with the eye issue you are having until you can afford the surgery' but no. They just want your money/business. Didn't even try to help with the injury that I was having or offer solutions. Just an 'oh you don't have money, okay bye.' Yea, go somewhere else.

Feb 3rd, 2016 I was referred by my doctor, I called & scheduled the appointment, wasn't able to get in to see Dr. Epstein until 2.5 months later, did not receive a courtesy call, given the fact the appointment was months later, I could have really used a reminder. However I made it to the appointment 25min early to complete the tedious paperwork. I was informed that he was running behind schedule, I was thinking OK, a few minutes behind schedule is fine. No problem, however she continued (receptionist) to say that he is behind schedule and the wait could be up to an hr and half, after I BLEW A STACK inside, she then stated it could be up to 3hrs of a wait. I immediately stressed that is unacceptable, I respect others time, and the doctor should to the same. A few minutes behind schedule is no big deal, however a 3hrs wait????????? This is OUTRAGEOUS, & beyond words. There is no way I will return, nor refer anyone to this doctor.

HORRIBLE, AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!!!!!! This is by far the rudest, most unprofessional staff I have ever encountered in any field. Take your pick, restaurants, shops, airlines, lawyers, nothing. They are all saints compared to this cesspit.

Lets start with how hey schedule you months in advance, but when you show up, they get HOURS behind schedule. The entire lobby is crammed full of about 50 unhappy people, all passing the time by making a competition about how many HOURS past their appointment the incredibly insensitive and rude staff are keeping them. We waited 3 hours past our SCHEDULED appointment a few weeks back, and this was the case for every other person there. Then, on our followup date, at our SCHEDULED appointment, the secretary decided to simply take people as first-come-first-served, so people who had scheduled appointments AFTER us got serviced first, even though we were 30 minutes early for our SCHEDULED time.

If this was where the rude/unprofessional behavior ended, I'd give 2 or 3 stars and caution avoiding. However, they also make you pay up front for procedures, but REFUSE to tell you how much until the day of your appointment. They expect you to just show up with an unlimited roll of money, and be ok with "whatever the cost might be." Apparently everyone is just supposed to have thousands or tens of thousands of dollars of disposable, liquid income at the ready "just in case" your procedure costs that much. Since you MUST pay up front, you have no chance for an itemized invoice to even ensure you are being billed fairly and correctly. This isn't the tactic of a well-organized business, it's the business tactic of an illicit organization attempting to extort the vulnerable and the innocent.

When they aren't attempting to extort you for money, or holding you hostage in your time of need, or being completely disrespectful to the schedules of anyone who might need to drive their loved ones around for EYE SURGERY, they might be normal, nice people. OH WAIT, THEY AREN'T! Maybe because they run their business so horribly, they get tired of being called incompetent and rude all the time, but THEY ARE SO RUDE, ESPECIALLY THE RECEPTIONIST!!!!

If you can't trust them to treat you well when it comes to basic things like being on time, not over-booking, charging a fair rate, transparency in rates etc, how can you trust them with something as important as your eyes??? Clearly they don't care about you or anything you love, so clearly it would be worth literally going to another state, hell, country to avoid these people. Disgusting. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!

I recently had LASIK at Chicago Cornea...overall i am very impressed. The entire team of staff and doctors were amazing! The process was simple and everyone made me very comfortable. The doctor even called me the night I had the procedure to make sure i was doing ok(i was the surgery was simple). The office is very nice and i am very pleased. Best of all, i dont need glasses or contacts anymore!

I saw Dr. Rachel Epstein for my right eye pain / sensitivity to light. Two other physicians I saw before her shrugged it off and called it a dry eye but I knew there was more. Dr. Epstein took her time with me and performed a thorough examination and found a small lint embedded in my inner lid. Mye eye pain resolved immediately and I couldn't be happier. More than anything, Dr. Epstein was compassionate and really worked to save me money. I highly recommend

I am actually planning a more in depth review because this office actually very much exemplifies basically all the problems with navigating medical care in Highland Park. It s a good learning experience (but expensive and not medically useful) in the kind of red flags to navigate away from when finding medical care.

I ll expand, but the notes I jotted down were

If the office does not verify insurance, do not schedule an appointment.

This is not because an office has to take all insurances to offer care. It represents do they care about you? Are they upfront? And more sinisterly, it is gaslighting to act like that is not a normal part of scheduling appointments with a new office. If they are obfuscating this, then the question becomes are they set up to offer you good care, or to rack up charges?

When you arrive, is the office indifferent to accessibility? In this case, they re eye doctors. Forms with small fonts that force you to track across a paper add a bad sign. That ask you to fill it out when they actually copy your insurance card anyway? Maybe the doctors in this case got overwhelmed by the administration side of things and just can t do both effectively even if it s some reasonable stand that they don t want to pay for a service for this kind of thing (or joining a network.). It doesn t matter what reason. Clearly, the office is distracted from what is offering good care. Any accessibility issues are a big red flag, eve. I d they don t pertain to you.

If the office runs you through a battery of tests before you see the doctor or they have explained their purpose. It s something that seems obvious in hindsight, but doctors are authorities and we are too trusting. Of course, it all should have ended at flag one. Predictable wasn t it?

These are the flags. The results for me were that I scheduled an appointment for an already diagnosed issue wanting to discuss treatment options. This appointment taught me I had the thing I knew I had and that I could google the treatment. In this case, I got a $160 out of network bill a wasted day and a day of wasted pay. I ve lived with double vision my whole life perhaps prisms would have helped me, but I ve put it off for 20 years unsure of who to go to. This experience may put me off another 20. I ll just continue not being able to read well. That s the life I know.

I was diagnosed with Keratoconus and was given the name of the Chicago Cornea Consultants to perform the CXL surgery. My experience here was EXTREMELY negative - if you need this surgery, please consider going elsewhere.

On my first visit to get a diagnosis, I had to deal with extremely rude receptionists and a brusque, unfriendly doctor. Furthermore, the surgery liaison people were rude and insensitive. They told me, in a very curt manner, that I needed surgery and that it would cost 6000$, and wanted me to sign papers and book the surgery at that very moment - nevermind that they had dilated my eyes during the consultation and I couldn't see what I was signing, or that I was in complete shock. I thought I was going to come in and get special contacts, and suddenly they were telling me I needed surgery with absolutely no compassion or empathy. It was a terrible experience. In addition, they didn't tell me I needed someone to drive me to this appointment - they dilated and numbed my eyes and then didn't even give me sunglasses to go outside. It was very painful and I had to sit in my car for two hours waiting for my eyes to return to normal so I could drive home safely.

When I decided that I would go ahead with the surgery, I had to call the surgical liaison person to schedule it. It took me A WHOLE MONTH to get in touch with her because she was NEVER at work when she was supposed to be. I am not exaggerating - the receptionist would say things like "Oh, she's supposed to be here, I have no idea where she is." I left several messages and it took her weeks to bother to call me back and schedule the surgery.

Finally, we get to the day of the surgery. I'm feeling very nervous and I'm looking forward to getting it over with, so I show up half an hour before my scheduled time. They kept me waiting for HOURS after my scheduled time, and I heard other people in the waiting room complaining of the same issue! When I asked the receptionist what was going on, she was very rude and told me that it was just a day with a lot of bookings. When I spoke to other people in the waiting room, however, they told me it was always this way, with one lady saying she waited FOUR HOURS for her last appointment. By the time they took me in, I was starving and extremely irritated - not exactly the best frame of mind to be in for eye surgery.

The next day I had my follow-up, and AGAIN they kept me waiting for hours. The day after I had surgery. I needed to be at home, resting, but instead I was sitting in their waiting room.

Furthermore, they demand that you pay before your appointment - but when I called to ask how much it would cost, THEY SAID THEY DIDN'T KNOW. This is insane! I'm supposed to just have thousands of dollars lying around? I have to budget for things that are this expensive! The whole place is poorly run, and they pressure you into using them for future appointments. The girl who was assisting with my surgery actually had me tell her DURING MY SURGERY when I wanted my contact lens fitting! Please, if you need this procedure, go somewhere else. They waste your time and money and are completely inconsiderate of their patients.

EDIT: after learning how unhappy I was with my initial experience, Chicago Cornea Consultants did work very hard to rectify the situation. They called me several times and did make sure my subsequent visits were pleasant and, upon learning my financial situation, they worked with me so I could budget for this expense.

The staff was wonderfully professional and explained everything. Hats off to Dennis and Dr. Epstein for great patient care.

I initially saw Dr. Epstein in his Chicago location at RUMC. Natalie is super helpful, walked me through my visit, and answered all of my questions. Surgery was in his Highland Park location which was a breeze. I walked out being able to see immediately. Very little down time. By the next morning my vision was much better than when I wore glasses. This has truly been a life changing experience. I wish I would have done Lasik sooner. THANK YOU CHICAGO CORNEA!

I had been looking into getting LASIK for a very long time. A family member who had LASIK with Dr. Randy Epstein suggested I go see him for a consultation. I called to schedule a consultation the receptionist I spoke to was very nice and explained what was needed of me as a patient the day of the visit, it was explained to me that this appointment would be a long appointment but I have to say it was worth the wait. The staff was very nice from the beginning from the front desk, technicians and surgical coordinator, who scheduled my procedure. They all answered any questions I had the day of my consultation. Dr. Epstein explained the procedure to me throughly and made me feel comfortable with moving forward with the procedure. The day of the procedure I was very nervous but was reassured by the staff that things would be okay and that I was in good hands with Dr. Epstein. I'm beyond happy with my vision after LASIK. I am now able to wake up and see without worrying about where I left my glasses or having to put on contacts. If you're looking for somewhere to get LASIK I highly recommend Chicago Cornea Consultants.

I suffered with redness and irritation for 9 months and Dr Doyle figured out the solution to my issue in 2 visits. thank- you so much. A great doc! Peter Goschy

Horrible!!!! Wait time takes literal years- never in my life have I waited so long to see a doctor it was so unprofessional. Front desk is incompetent. When I called to schedule my appointment I had told them I was a new patient and the time slot they scheduled me for I informed them I had work but could be a few mins late- so they scheduled me anyway then when the day came they had me sitting there for an HOUR filling out paperwork and waiting for the doctor who was 25 mins LATE AND THEN AFTER I COMPLAIN ABOUT IT TAKING FOREVER THE FRONT DESK ONLY NOW TELLS ME oh since you re a new patient your eyes have to be dilated also for 45 mins WHY DIDNT YOU SAY THAT OVER THE PHONE IN THE FIRST PLACE?! literallt wasted my day and time and made me late to work for NOTHING! I was so furious I walked out and will find a new eye doctor. Screw them!

Recently I had an eye surgery performed by Dr. Parag Majmudar at his St. Alexius hospital office. I had the best experience with him being a very caring, professional and knowledgeable Doctor. He explained everything very patiently and in detail . His staff was extremely professional. Overall a great experience!

Dr. Malooley is meticulous in her evaluation. Her patient centricity is above any I have experienced. She works tirelessly to get the maximum correction possible and has an endless amount of patience. She helped me wear contacts after years of being unable to and as a result, I brought both my children to her from their pediatric ophthalmologist. She discovered one of my sons was wildly miscorrected and her changes immediately impacted his school performance. I recommend Dr. Malooley without reservation.

As an astronomer whose vision is vital, I was lucky to find Chicago Cornea. They are surprisingly different from other eye laser practices in that your treatment is highly individualized not a mill where they treat everyone the same. Dr. Majmudar was willing to go the extra mile in designing a treatment that specifically addressed my difficult-to-treat case; one that other doctors shied away from. I was impressed with how professionally the practice is run. Even their technicians are very diligent in getting their measurements right so important! Post-op, the doctors take time with you, making sure you understand details of your case and helping you to be a good partner in your post-laser care, resulting in excellent vision. I would recommend them highly.