I was referred to Headache and Pain Center for assessment of neck pain and possible surgery. Unfortunately the surgery never took place due to the incompetence of staff. From the beginning, an appointment was changed without me being informed and the only way I discovered this was when I called to confirm. I was told that my appointment was not as I was originally told at 12:00 but was scheduled for 8:00am. I explained that I had an appointment card made out by their employee which indicated a 12:00pm appointment and was told that this was a mistake as this was the doctors lunch time. I had to cancel as I could not meet the 8am meeting. After eventually meeting with the surgeon, it was indicated that surgery was necessary. I indicated that I was at a turning point in my insurance and that if we did it, it was important that the date fall this month due to the insurance and the new insurance showed the company as out of network which would have been a financial obligation I was unable to meet at that time. I was assured that this was not a problem and later that week was given a surgery time that fell completely within the parameters of the insurance requirements. Twice I received calls from the surgery center to inform me of my date, time and expectations, I made significant adjustments to work, family, and personal obligations, scheduled off of work for several weeks and had my wife take off time as well. All was in place except that orders from the doctor to have necessary lab and EKG were never forwarded to the indicated hospital for the procedures. Two days prior to the scheduled surgery, being concerned, I contacted the surgery center and explained the concern that the hospital never received the doctor?s orders and that he indicated the need for these tests to be done prior to surgery. I was told by the receptionist that she will email that department and that I would be contacted in 48 hours. I explained that 48 working hours was the day of my surgery. She stated that this was the ""canned speech? she was told to provide when contacted with complaints. I explained that I needed to speak with a supervisor to have this taken care of so as not to miss my surgery. Four hours later and having to follow up myself with the lab several times, they finally received the orders where I had to make a special trip to give blood. The EKG orders were never sent so unfortunately, I was unable to have that done. The worst part of this was that my surgery was canceled the night before the surgery was to take place with the explanation that the insurance company had not returned the preauthorization yet, even though the preauthorization had been requested two weeks prior to the surgery. I contacted the insurance company who explained that the surgery center could have requested the preauthorization to be expedited, which would have taken 72 hours. I explained this to Christina who said ?I did not know that you can expedite the preauthorization?. I am surprised that someone that deals with insurance on a daily basis was unaware of this. She told me that she would try in the morning as she was going home at that time. The next day she stated that it was too late to expedite the preauthorization and that she would to wait for an answer for that day. That night she contacted me to say that it was probably not going to happen and that the Headache and Pain center could work out a payment plan with me. I went back to work and put my life back on track but received a call Thursday stating that she got the preapproval and if I could run over to have the surgery that day. This is major surgery not a tire rotation and all my preparation had been undone. I will now have to get the surgery at a later date but will not do business with the Headache and Pain center as the staff is incompetent and as major surgery goes, this seems to be in the top 10% of riskiest procedures and I am unwilling to allow that office any more of my business.
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