Palo Alto Medical Foundation

I had an experience May that involved a billing dispute After many months of frustration Palo Alto Medical Foundation agreed to "zero out my balance" They agreed that I owed them nothing and that my balance was zero I asked what proof I had that they agreed to this (besides making my balance zero) They suggested that I print out a receipt showing a zero balance
October I get a bill for the exact services that were shown to be zero'd out PAMF is now attempting to charge me and state there is no evidence that my balance is zero! I have now been trying to communicate/correct this with them for two monthsThe call center is not equipped to help The representatives agree with me that they cannot make decisions nor do they have the tools to make the decisions regarding my account PAMF billing also will not follow up or call me back (I have had one service rep and two supervisors assure me that they would call me back and they did not) When I Inquired they claim that they are an "inbound call center" and this is the reason that my calls are not returnedEven though it's been two months they say I have to wait until someone calls me back Meanwhile, My bill is heading towards collections (Again! Seriously?) Horrendous common sense business practices

The billing is extremely unfair and they take advantage of people coming to them for medical care. I have insurance. After paying a standard $20 copay at the office for a yearly doctor's visit and lab test, I received a surprise $400 bill in the mail. They were unwilling to work with insurance to get this covered. A $400 bill could ruin a lot of people, and I could have easily gone to another doctor and had the same service run for free, which I would have done had they disclosed the billing amount when I showed insurance and paid.
The doctors also try to prescribe expensive medication that isn't really needed, and write prescriptions for brand name drugs when asked to write them for generics. Don't go unless money is no object.