Upper Hudson Valley Dermatology, P. C.

I visited the Upper Hudson Valley Dermatologist office that is located in Schenectady, NY. I was seen on or around September 26th, 2012 by an employee named [redacted].

[redacted] spent the first 15 minutes or so of my appointment complaining about her previous patient. She went into great detail about how annoying it was to have to accommodate this patient because she was handicapped and in a wheel chair. After she finished complaining about the previous patient and started to discuss why I was there, I felt as though her services were inadequate. She never even came within 3 feet of me to actually look at the issue I was having with my skin (under my chin, not visible at all from where she was seated) diagnosed me with "boy acne" and said that I would have to drive to their Castleton location weekly, bi-weekly and then monthly, or something to that effect. I then explained to [redacted] that it would be practically impossible for me to do so as I do not like in Schenectady County, and my trip to Castleton from home would be about an hour drive or 45 minutes from my job, I work fulltime and have two young children, so it was really out of the question for me to make multiple trips that far. After explaining this to [redacted] I asked her what I could do to treat myself at home. She recommended a particular soap that they sell in the office, or cleaning pads. Well, it turns out the office was out of that particular soap and cleaning pads did not help, as I still have the skin issue. After my office visit I reluctantly paid my co-pay of $20, and was relieved that that was all I was going to have to pay, and I wouldn't have even paid that if it wasn't required by my insurance company.

Well, in December, I received a bill from the office stating that I had a balance of $155. I immediately contacted the office's billing department and disputed the bill. The woman I spoke with gave me the office manager's information and told me that I would need to contact him in order to dispute the bill. So I did, I called Brian [redacted] the office manager and explained to him exactly as I explained above about my office visit. He got my information, told me he'd look into it and get back to me. I never heard from him again so I assumed because of the unprofessionalism of his employee and the lack of service provided that the bill had been taken care of.

Then in May, I received a letter from CBCS stating that I still owed Schenectady Dermatology $155. I immediately called CBCS to dispute the bill and I got in contact with MR. [redacted] again. Mr. [redacted] asked that I email him about the appointment to "refresh his memory" which I did. I then did a formal dispute through CBCS and included the email I sent Mr. [redacted].

In my email to Mr. [redacted] I expressed my concern about the patient who was seen before me and the fact that her privacy had been violated and she was discriminated against and told him that I was not going to pay this bill due to the negligence and poor service. I also got in touch with my insurance company to find out the status of the bill on their end and they stated that the office and/or doctor was not in my insurance network, therefore I should not have paid the $20 "co-pay" and stated that the original bill that they received was for $175, which means, the billing office used my $20 towards the total bill rather than as a co-pay.

Brian contacted me back today, stating that he reduced my bill to $80 (not including the $20 I already paid) and said nothing in regards to the way this employee treated me or the patient before me, which leads me to believe that he is more interested in getting my money then making sure something like this does not happen in his office again.