We have been patients at Knoxville Family Chiropractic for approximately seven months. During that…read moretime, we have overcome multiple challenges and chose, more than once, to let things slide rather than make them a bigger issue. Unfortunately, at this point, I am past the stage of biting my tongue and allowing these experiences to ruin my day.
I want to start by saying that Dr. Hacker has been nothing short of amazing. He has consistently been kind, attentive, and truly listened to my concerns. Quite honestly, he was the only reason I continued coming back despite everything else that was happening.
The first issue occurred while my fiancé's father was actively dying. Penny asked if we wanted to get on the schedule for the following week. I politely declined without explaining our personal situation. Instead of respecting that, she loudly exclaimed, "What could be so important?!" in front of others. That was incredibly inappropriate and uncomfortable. I later made Dr. Lundgren aware of this incident, but it was brushed off as Penny simply "doing her job" and not meaning anything by it. We chose to give the office another chance.
Later, I had an agreement with Dr. Lundgren's wife, Charla, to provide marketing services for the practice in exchange for my fiancé's care. My own care was fully covered by insurance, and I have been actively marketing for this location multiple times a week on a very large scale. While sitting in the office one day, I overheard Penny speaking about my fiancé's account to another coworker and making a sarcastic remark implying that I was "on marketing" to cover his care. Again, I chose to let this slide.
Then came ongoing billing and insurance issues. I was told that my insurance supposedly hadn't covered my last six visits, leaving me with a growing balance I was never informed about. I was abruptly and rudely told I was multiple visits behind and owed money. Despite having two insurance plans and seeing no denied claims on my end, I was assured the issue was simply insurance denial. No good-faith estimate was ever provided. I eventually reached out to Charla because I suddenly owed over $400 with no clear explanation.
I was told to disregard the balance and that the claims would be reprocessed--yet they were not. I had to provide proof myself and ask for them to be processed again. Only then were the claims correctly submitted, resulting in a refund due to their error. I was assured there would be no further issues and was even told Penny only worked Wednesdays so we could schedule accordingly if needed. Despite this, she was frequently present on days she supposedly wasn't working.
I kept my head down, stayed cordial, and avoided confrontation throughout all of this.
Yesterday, Charla approached us and stated that my fiancé had received approximately $4,000 in care last year and asked how he planned to move forward with payment--despite the existing agreement and despite the fact that I had just marketed for the business this very week and was still charged. At that point, I stopped providing my services. A card was placed on file so we could continue care, but today I was once again approached--this time by Penny--regarding my insurance.
At this point, the situation has become completely out of hand. I feel unsupported by the owners and consistently disrespected by one particular employee. Because of this, I have decided to change providers.
This business currently has many five-star reviews, but if these issues--especially regarding professionalism, privacy, and billing transparency--continue with this employee, that will change very quickly. Overall, this has been a deeply negative experience, with the sole exception of Dr. Hacker, who truly deserves recognition for his compassion and care.
