Here is the not-so-friendly letter I sent to Sai Duvvuri, the office manager of DFW Neurology.
My husband is currently on the phone with our insurance company reporting your company for fraud. We got the bill for your video EEG.
DFW neurology is so incompetent that they refuse to diagnose a patient based on what is shown on EEG and what the patient has reported. The report explicitly says "Patient refused video monitoring so it is difficult to clinically correlate this EEG finding"
That annoyed me, because it made me sound like a difficult patient. But I'm so glad you guys wrote it, because it provided us with documentation to send to the fraud specialist. Plus I have emails and phone messages. Since you guys obviously just bought yourself a big fancy toy without doing research first, let me educate you. A video EEG is mostly used to rule out psychogenic seizures. The patient has a dramatic episode and the EEG is compared with the video to check if anything is happening with the brain. Video EEG is NOT used to prove that a patient has symptoms. You're supposed to do this thing called talking to a patient. You know...listen to them.
And another thing. I went to my primary care physician. At the first visit she told me she never received consultant notes. So I pushed you on that. Second visit: she received the consultant notes and read a portion to me. She told me the report noted that Dr de Jesus recommended that I see a epileptologist. This is a blatant lie. No one at your office ever suggested I see another doctor. I was the first one to bring up a second opinion.
And if you guys were going to lie, maybe pick something a little less humiliating. Seriously. Do you really want other doctors in the DFW area knowing that you're unable to diagnose a patient after a 72 hour EEG? An extended EEG has a very high accuracy rate. The only way it can fail is if the patient was unlucky enough to not have symptoms. I had many symptoms. You can hire as much new staff as you want. That doesn't change the fact that you guys are greedy, incompetent, dishonest, and fraudulent.
For more information about my drama with DFW Neurology, click here.
Edited to add-11/5/18- Tim told me he got a notice from Blue Cross Blue Shield, our insurance company. They said they PAID their part for the video EEG and that we need to work out the bill with the provider. Or something like that.
I stupidly, completely believed that Blue Cross Blue Shield would be on our side. How dumb was I?
I thought they would be my advocate. I thought they would protect me against DFW Neurology, and I thought they would punish DFW Neurology so that DFW Neurology couldn't do the same to other people.
I also thought they would be grateful to me that we had stopped them from being conned.
But no.
So...what is DFW neurology going to do now?
Will they return the money to the insurance company and tell them a mistake was made? And on that note, we were told by Sai Duvvuri and DFW Neurology's billing department that a correction was sent to Blue Cross Blue Shield. Should I believe this is true? Did Blue Cross Blue Shield simply ignore the correction?
Will DFW Neurology keep quiet and keep the money?
OR
Will DFW Neurology not only keep the money but also begin to harass us about paying our portion of the bill....which is about 2 thousand dollars. My prediction is we're going to start seeing notices from a collection company. I told Tim, and he assured me it wouldn't happen. And if it happens, we'll fight.
I HAVE been fighting, and it's not working.
The thing about life is that there is no justice. People get stepped on all the time...and squashed. It doesn't matter if they fight, and it rarely matters if people fight on their behalf. They still get stepped on. They still get squashed.
I feel very squashed—angry, depressed, helpless, and hopeless.
Edited to add 11/30-After some of my nagging on Twitter, Blue Cross Blue Shield stepped up to the plate and took our side. THANK YOU.
We were informed from Blue Cross Blue Shield and later DFW Neurology that Maria de Jesus is no longer at the practice. The form letter from DFW Neurology says that she left for personal reasons. That might be true? I don't know.
Read my novel: The Dead are Online
Why did I write him a letter, you ask?
Well, because Tim received our medical bill, and after calling our insurance company, we learned I was charged for a video EEG.
That's quite funny, because my EEG report is titled "Extended EEG Without Video".
Anyway....here's the email.
DFW neurology is so incompetent that they refuse to diagnose a patient based on what is shown on EEG and what the patient has reported. The report explicitly says "Patient refused video monitoring so it is difficult to clinically correlate this EEG finding"
That annoyed me, because it made me sound like a difficult patient. But I'm so glad you guys wrote it, because it provided us with documentation to send to the fraud specialist. Plus I have emails and phone messages. Since you guys obviously just bought yourself a big fancy toy without doing research first, let me educate you. A video EEG is mostly used to rule out psychogenic seizures. The patient has a dramatic episode and the EEG is compared with the video to check if anything is happening with the brain. Video EEG is NOT used to prove that a patient has symptoms. You're supposed to do this thing called talking to a patient. You know...listen to them.
And another thing. I went to my primary care physician. At the first visit she told me she never received consultant notes. So I pushed you on that. Second visit: she received the consultant notes and read a portion to me. She told me the report noted that Dr de Jesus recommended that I see a epileptologist. This is a blatant lie. No one at your office ever suggested I see another doctor. I was the first one to bring up a second opinion.
And if you guys were going to lie, maybe pick something a little less humiliating. Seriously. Do you really want other doctors in the DFW area knowing that you're unable to diagnose a patient after a 72 hour EEG? An extended EEG has a very high accuracy rate. The only way it can fail is if the patient was unlucky enough to not have symptoms. I had many symptoms. You can hire as much new staff as you want. That doesn't change the fact that you guys are greedy, incompetent, dishonest, and fraudulent.
For more information about my drama with DFW Neurology, click here.
Edited to add-11/5/18- Tim told me he got a notice from Blue Cross Blue Shield, our insurance company. They said they PAID their part for the video EEG and that we need to work out the bill with the provider. Or something like that.
I stupidly, completely believed that Blue Cross Blue Shield would be on our side. How dumb was I?
I thought they would be my advocate. I thought they would protect me against DFW Neurology, and I thought they would punish DFW Neurology so that DFW Neurology couldn't do the same to other people.
I also thought they would be grateful to me that we had stopped them from being conned.
But no.
So...what is DFW neurology going to do now?
Will they return the money to the insurance company and tell them a mistake was made? And on that note, we were told by Sai Duvvuri and DFW Neurology's billing department that a correction was sent to Blue Cross Blue Shield. Should I believe this is true? Did Blue Cross Blue Shield simply ignore the correction?
Will DFW Neurology keep quiet and keep the money?
OR
Will DFW Neurology not only keep the money but also begin to harass us about paying our portion of the bill....which is about 2 thousand dollars. My prediction is we're going to start seeing notices from a collection company. I told Tim, and he assured me it wouldn't happen. And if it happens, we'll fight.
I HAVE been fighting, and it's not working.
The thing about life is that there is no justice. People get stepped on all the time...and squashed. It doesn't matter if they fight, and it rarely matters if people fight on their behalf. They still get stepped on. They still get squashed.
I feel very squashed—angry, depressed, helpless, and hopeless.
Edited to add 11/30-After some of my nagging on Twitter, Blue Cross Blue Shield stepped up to the plate and took our side. THANK YOU.
We were informed from Blue Cross Blue Shield and later DFW Neurology that Maria de Jesus is no longer at the practice. The form letter from DFW Neurology says that she left for personal reasons. That might be true? I don't know.
Read my novel: The Dead are Online