Pacific Coast Psychiatric Associates

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I would have given 4+ stars for Dr. Patel-Dunn and Dr. Rho (who is no longer there), as they are great to work with, but the receptionist Don Hubert made seeing them an ordeal. They have a paper-less billing system which seems like a nice, "green" way to go, but it's not... You have to have a debit/credit card on file so they can automatically bill you, they will not issue any kind of receipt or invoice (even by e-mail), and they take the payment out of your account whenever they get around to it (days or months later). That's not necessarily a big deal if you give them a credit card, but if you give them a debit card, it can screw up your finances. I told Don that I am unemployed and asked for some kind of notification before he withdrew funds so I could be sure I had enough in my account and he said he would e-mail or call me before. That never happened, despite reminders from me and promises from him... I would just suddenly have a $200 withdrawal on my bank statement and was lucky that I had enough funds to cover it each time. Also, Don messed up when booking one of my appointments and I ended up sitting in the empty office for almost an hour waiting for someone to show up before I finally left. When we talked later on, he apologized and said that was "a bummer". Less than a month later, I was hospitalized for a week and when I ended up canceling my appointment with 22 hours notice, he told me he was going to charge me a $175 late-cancellation fee. I understand they have a 48-hour cancellation policy, but I had given as much notice as I could and it wasn't enough for them. When he screwed up my appointment, I had set aside the time, paid $25 for parking, $6 bridge toll and gas to get there and he didn't seem to care that much. I end up in the hospital and go through two surgeries and I'm penalized for not calling in the middle of all that... That doesn't seem right at all, esp. since I had never skipped an appt. or had a late cancellation before. The final straw was when my insurance company issued refund checks that would have given me over $350 back and he sat on them for over 5 months... My husband and I had to nag him despite his promises that he would go over the details and give us the money. I am no longer a patient there because of all this (not because of the doctors) and I cannot recommend PCPA.