I had a foot injury and was encouraged to make an appointment with Dr. Nazarian after finding her…read morethrough my insurance company and reading the rave reviews here. Unfortunately, my experience with Dr. Nazarian turned out quite differently and very troubling.
FWIW, my actual interaction with Dr. Nazarian in the exam was fine but what followed made this visit one of the most difficult and unprofessional experiences I've ever had with a doctor's practice.
Dr. Nazarian is listed as in-network with my insurer. However, despite copying my insurance card, I was informed at my appointment that the practice is not participating with my insurance company and they would not even submit claims to them. They said they would instead provide me with fees equal to what my insurance co-pays would've been. That was quite odd and the first red flag.
At the end of my appointment, I was asked to pay for a protective shoe that the staffer insisted would not be covered by my insurance. I had received the same type of item in the past due to a different injury and it was covered by insurance. So I advised the staffer to please file a claim for it with my insurance and I would cover the co-pay my insurance determined was applicable.
What was more serious is that they insisted that the prescription they were providing to me for severe pain and swelling would not be covered by my insurance, would probably not be available locally, and then without my agreement, they sent my prescription to a mail-order pharmacy in Minnesota that they apparently have some sort of arrangement with. This was foisted upon me despite my providing in my intake papers the address and phone number of my local pharmacy (part of a national chain) where I wanted my prescriptions sent.
I contacted Dr. Nazarian's office the next day to inform them that I paused the mail order pharmacy order since despite the doctor's and staff's insistence, my insurance company confirmed that the prescription was indeed covered and it was available at my local pharmacy. The cost at my pharmacy would be 1/3 of the mail order price and I could get it the same day to get relief from the pain and swelling sooner as opposed to waiting days for shipping.
For 8 days I had to keep calling them to try and get them to send the prescription to my local pharmacy, but they wouldn't do it. One has to ask why. Finally, on the 8th day after my original appointment, though they continued insisting that my insurance probably wouldn't cover the prescription then offered a new argument that the prescription probably wouldn't go through at my local pharmacy even if they sent it there, they submitted the prescription to my pharmacy and it was of course covered by insurance, filled, and picked up that day.
I went 8 days, experiencing pain and swelling without treatment for no reason other than I wanted my prescription sent to my local pharmacy.
All of this was unethical. A doctor being in-network but then not honoring that insurance at the appointment and trying to make a patient pay for something that would likely be covered by insurance or at least provided at a reduced price to the patient.
Secondly and more crucially, informing their patient that their insurance wouldn't cover a prescription when it did. They could have quickly confirmed it was covered as I did, but they didn't. What was their incentive for doing this? Then using that untruth to make a patient pay more for a prescription to the practice's favored mail order pharmacy instead of paying less at a local pharmacy of the patient's choosing? And to literally add insult to injury, unnecessarily causing a patient to suffer through days of pain without relief while having to wrestle with them for over a week just to get a prescription sent to their local pharmacy.
I am bewildered by a practice that so clearly does not put the patient and their injuries first, provides misleading information to them, tries to take away their right to choose their own pharmacy, and resists cooperating with them for over a week on such a simple and standard thing.
This being the case, I would recommend patients look elsewhere for a practice that puts patients' costs, choices, health, and well-being first.
