When Yelp is no help

[samhexum]

Yelp reviewers, beware.

 

A Manhattan woman who gave one-star reviews on Yelp and ZocDoc to a Kips Bay gynecologist has spent nearly $20,000 defending herself against a defamation suit filed by the physician, according to her and court papers.

 

And the litigation has only just started.

 

“I gave an honest review of my experience to warn others, and he is trying to silence me. It’s a nightmare,’’ Michelle Levine told The Post.

 

Levine said she found Dr. Joon Song of New York Robotic Gynecology & Women’s Health online and went to him for a checkup in July 2017.

 

“A week later, he billed my insurance company $1,304.32 for the new-patient visit and ultrasound, and I got a bill for $427 that wasn’t covered,” she said.

 

“The annual was supposed to be free!”

 

Levine alleges in court filings that Joon never even gave her a manual pelvic exam, instead simply asking her about menstrual cramps and then performing an ultrasound.

 

Levine claims that Joon said he gave her pelvic and breast exams, even though he didn’t.

 

“When I called his office [to gripe], they were immediately aggressive and said I had come in complaining of pelvic pain,” which required the ultrasound, Levine said, denying she ever told them she had pelvic pain.

 

“I was so disgusted, I wrote a review on several sites, including Yelp, ZocDoc and Health Grades,” she said.

 

“Very poor and crooked business practice,” Levine wrote in the review. “I suspect that this doctor gives unnecessary procedure [sic] to a lot of people and then charges the insurance sky high prices and no one knows the difference.

 

“Everything about my one and only visit here has caused me emotional distress and panic, and now they want me to cough up an extra $500 for services I didn’t even need?”

 

Two weeks later, she got an email from the doctor’s lawyers, telling her she was being sued.

 

The $1 million suit touts Joon’s Yale University training and accuses Levine of false postings and online harassment.

 

“No reasonable person would believe that the statements made therein were opinion,’’ court papers say.

 

Levine said the court battle has so far cost her close to $20,000.

 

“They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits technology business into it … They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said.

 

Lawyers for Joon and the clinic did not return messages.

[+ sync]

It would be interesting to get an attorney's take on this. I would think posting a patient's medical record would put the physician in legal jeopardy.

[+ sniper]

If they actually did such things they are open to a countersuit.

She should report him to the insurance company and the state. Insurance fraud is a crime.

[Beancounter]

Very poor and crooked business practice,” Levine wrote in the review. “I suspect that this doctor gives unnecessary procedure [sic] to a lot of people and then charges the insurance sky high prices and no one knows the difference.

 

I’m going to side with the doctor on this one. This lady used a very public forum and made a definitive comment about the doctor’s practices and operations when in fact she has no personal knowledge of what the doctor has done with prior patients. While I understand her frustration there are better avenues available to pursue her complaints.

 

People need to be very careful when making derogatory comments about others online unless they can fully back them up with FACTS and not “I suspect...” type comments.

 

Many professionals now have clauses in their terms and agreement policies prohibiting individuals from taking to online sites to air their grievances. My dentist does and I was required to sign before he accepted me as a patient.

[rvwnsd]

The doctor's response tells me that he is less than honest. If he did, in fact, post the patient's medical and billing records online then he is in violation of a number of statutes, most notably HIPAA.

[+ FreshFluff]

There are a bunch of fake reviews up now, some of them racist.

 

But there's at least one other real negative review, and his staff responded to it. They admit that they routinely do ultrasounds during the patient's first visit, which seems like an unnecessary cash cow unless patient complains of pain or discomfort. It's especially bad if he's not even doing a pelvic exam, as the review claims.

 

Also, if I'm going to pay for an ultrasound, I'd prefer that he order the ultrasound with a diagnostic radiologist, as their equipment is better than that of a standard ob gyn.

Edited May 30, 2018 by FreshFluff

[+ purplekow]

There are unscrupulous doctors who abuse our faulty pay for play insurance system. The more doctors do, the more they get paid. There are mills that do MRI and CT scan and ultrasounds on everyone who has an organ which can undergo they exam. When I first opened my practice, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, I brought in a company to do echocardiograms in my office. By the time I had ordered 5 tests, I had 4 complaints. The company was doing more extensive testing that I ordered and when I presented that to them, they tried to convince me that the only way this would be profitable for them and for me was to do the more expensive testing. They were out of my office the next day and my patients were instructed to pay the copay for only the ordered test, which was usually closer to $100 rather than the $1000 they had been charged.

 

Many gastroenterologists will do a biopsy on all routine colonoscopic examinations whether there is an indication or not. The biopsy significantly increases the permissible insurance charge.

 

I reported a cardiologist in my area to the state board, as he did as many as 15 cardiac catheterizations on one of my patients. She was mentally challenged and she kept going back to him despite my instructions not to do so. There were other physicians in the area who had similar but less egregious episodes with patients who utilized his services.

 

With my patient, I informed her and her family that I would no longer have her in my practice if she continued to use this cardiologist. Eventually, I was forced to act on that after she had two catheterizations within two weeks.

 

So, I do not find it difficult to believe that this woman is correct in calling out a fraudulent doctor.

 

On the other hand, I have had personal experiences with patient's family members going to Facebook (many of my patients have severe psychiatric or dementia issues ) to complain about the organization for which I work. While these posts are not total fabrications, they usually are exaggerations or misinterpretations. My particular branch has taken to limiting posting to the site to a certain length and number. Good reviewers usually said nice things quickly whereas negative ones tended to go on and on and were frequently restated in several posts.

 

Now, we do not respond to any posts with on line messages, not even with a thank you on line, though we do send out a thank you note by snail mail to those who post especially nice comments.

 

So is this doctor a fraud or is this patient a loon? Well the doctor's response seems disproportionate to the described initial complaint and the release of medical records is totally inappropriate and if that was done, he should lose his license.

 

On the other hand, the likelihood of a physician risking his practice over one bad review or even multiple bad reviews by the same perso, by releasing records to the internet is so extreme so as to be preposterous.

 

My guess, the doctor is a fraud, but probably not as big a fraud as this women's complaints would make it seem. A letter to the appropriate government overseeing body and to her own insurance company, as well as a well considered brief negative review would likely have been more effective and less expensive.

 

The doctor needs to have severe penalties after a practice review by the insurance companies if her claims are verified She likely needs to consider that she may not be the hero of this episode. She sounds to be as much the problem as the solution.

Edited May 30, 2018 by purplekow