Grandma Sara
1/5
Lisa was my provider. She seemed nice enough at first but had a habit of not staying online during the entirety of our session. I always felt rushed off the virtual visit. She would not review my chart or history before each session so she would have to ask me questions that made me nervous because it showed that she was not notating or reviewing information I provided. For example, she wanted to try a medication that I was already on (been on it for years), like she didn’t know/remember/check what I was already taking. She would ask me medical questions and medication questions that she 100% should have had documented or should have reviewed so that was a big red flag.
There were times when I would tell her something bad that I went through or open up to her about something traumatic and she would gloss over it and immediately start talking about herself, her hair, her weekend, etc. It sucked to say the least to be vulnerable with someone and feel like you are talking to a self absorbed “friend” instead of a mental health professional. I never felt genuine empathy from her which was another thing that concerned me. She would say what you expect a person to say but that was it and she would rush me offline with sometimes 10-15 minutes still left.
Additionally, Lisa put me on a drug that is in a class of drugs that are highly addictive while she “worked on” approval for another drug. She told me it could take 3-5 days to get this approval. Those days came and passed. Not a word from her. Contacted my pharmacy and told them what was going on and asking if the med was available and the pharmacy tech was very surprised when I told her that my provider said it would take 3-5 days. She said approval for that med and meds like it can be done in one day. It’s a super simple process. Come to find out, the approval was never done by Lisa. I began to get anxious because she only gave me about a week’s worth of this highly addictive drug and it’s been a week. I’m now one day away from being out after trying to get a response for days. My body is now dependent on this dangerous drug. Not only did she not get approval in all of that time, she sent in 14 more days of this drug I told her I didn’t want to be on while she got approval that she wasn’t working on getting.
While all of this was going on, from the very first appointment, Journey’s billing dept. kept charging me as though I didn’t have insurance. For WEEKS this went on. They are extremely expensive if you don’t have insurance and every time I would call they would tell me they can’t get a hold of my insurance or blame it on my insurance. No accountability. They even said that the claim was denied at one point. After I spent days and days on the phone with my insurance company, which I was always able to get a hold of, I discovered from them that Journey NEVER sent a claim in and nothing was denied. My insurance suspected fraud at this point because even though Journey takes my insurance, they kept charging me as if I didn’t have it. Over and over again.
I was receiving medication management from Lisa so they had me trapped and they were not being honest with me. Finally, after I compiled the billing history and spoke with higher ups at my insurance and laid out everything for Journey (essentially saying, what you are doing is fraud), suddenly it was a “system” issue. Had to chase them down, particularly Moriah in billing to get my refund. WEEKS I had to deal with this nonsense. I would wait for several days to hear back from anyone and constantly have to follow up. We are talking about hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
Finally, I received the refund when I told them my insurance said that Journey legally can’t withhold my refund and blame it on “system” issues. They refunded my money and even screwed that up, not once, not twice, but three times. It was an absolute nightmare.
I have a new provider that’s tapering me off the meds Lisa put me on needlessly while I go through withdrawal. New Dr even charges me my copay when I see her. What a concept!
