City Psychiatry & Wellness

The first problem involves *** the “Patient Coordinator” violating HIIPA law by disclosing my confidential medical information in an email. The second issue which occurred shortly after, deals with how this same “Patient Coordinator” decided to communicate the cancelation policy. On the day of my scheduled appointment, I called to let the patient coordinator know I had the flu, I did not request a cancelation or reschedule, but did inquire about if there would be costs associated due to my unexpected illness. After waiting sometime and not receiving a call back, I emailed *** to again ask if there would be a cancelation fee if I decided to cancel due to the onset of illness, I made it very clear that if there would be a cancelation fee, then I would do whatever possible to make it to the appointment. About an hour later, *** called to let me know that they would be able to reschedule, based on the prior communication I had with her, along with no mention of there being any cancelation fee, I was led to believe there would not be a cancelation fee due to the unexpected circumstance. I never, however, received a response to my email that explicitly stated that my rescheduling an appointment was contingent on whether or not I would be charged a fee. One business day later, I was charged $150 for a cancelation fee. Upon bringing up this issue with (presumably the only patient care coordinator that works there) *** via email, she stated the following “***, If you are sick with the flu as you mentioned we cannot have you in the office due to spreading to other patients.” When I asked her why I was charged if the office would refuse to accept my visit regardless of whether I attempted to reschedule or not, she referred me to paperwork that I signed which includes a clause of $248 fee if an appointment is canceled within 48 hours. This practice of bait-and-switch is not only highly unethical, but is also illegal. This practice violated HIIPA law and consumer rights laws in place that are designed to protect me from being swindled.