Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation

I dont believe in the devil but if i did… Sutter East Bay would be the devil. They treat your health like it is some kind of inside joke. I have shown up for multiple appts now that were «incorrectly» scheduled AKA noone was there to even see me at the time of my appointment. And then the managers were not able to help me out in these situations. HORRIBLE PLACE please avoid at all costs.

All three of the doctors that I’ve seen here have been wildly unprofessional. The last time I went to my Gyno there, I had a pelvic ultrasound with the door open. I was assured that this was ok «because we’re all girls.» It was extremely unprofessional and made for a very uncomfortable experience. This most recent time, I saw my primary care doctor, Dr. Womack-​Batzdorf. I have never had a doctor be colder, more hostile, or impatient. She acted as if I was making up my symptoms and seemed extremely annoyed the entire time. She has the coldest and rudest bedside manner I’ve ever experienced. I have now been dealing with their billing department and have had a major run around with them between various departments. I would recommend that you steer clear of this establishment at ALL costs. I would absolutely never recommend Sutter East Bay and will be actively filing a complaint.

So many of the same billing complaints as other reviewers. I got a new insurance at the beginning of this year and hurried to make doctors appointments for some ongoing health problems. Every visit was with a lazy, disinterested doctor who basically ignored my concerns for an hour and sent me a $ 300 bill. Not to mention a separate bill from every testing facility for every test that would arrive in the mail a week or two later. One doctor, after meeting me for the very first time, tried to convince me I had depression and refused to address the real, PHYSICAL pains and concerns I had. I don’t need antidepressants, I need solutions! Trigger-​happy on the antidepressants? No thanks. These doctors have singlehandedly given me the cliched aversion to doctors, and I’ve been unwilling to tend to my medical needs recently for fear of being belittled, dismissed, and billed for it.

I saw Drew Ho, NP, who misdiagnosed my ear infection as RUPTURED eardrum and scared the heck out of me. he also prescribed antibiotics, which turned out i didnt need. I took the pills coz i was desperate to do anything to alleviate the pain coz i couldnt sleep. i finally got to see an ENT in Berkeley and got my ear infection taken care of. Since it was misdiagnosed by Dr Ho, I tried calling their billing several times, and they said they’d look into it but i keep getting the same billing each month like they never did a thing.

All of the doctors I have seen here have been great! However, their billing department is terrible. After reading many of the reviews on here, I have come to the conclusion that they purposely code visits a certain way so that the patients are fully financially responsible for the cost of their visit.
I am a UC Berkeley employee with wonderful insurance but somehow a 15 minute appt with a primary care physician cost me 395! They coded it in a way that my insurance denied the claim!
Something really needs to be done to remedy their corrupt practices! If anyone else is interested in taking action please message me. These corporate fat cats need to be stopped!

I saw Drew Ho, in Dr. Birnbaum’s office, for an annual preventative physical, which should have been completely covered by my insurance. Due to either greed or incompetence the visit was billed by Dr. Birnbaum’s office/​Sutter Health as a generic «office visit,» which left me paying 100% of the cost. Unacceptable. I’ve tried resolving the issue with them but it’s like talking to a stone wall. I will never use another Sutter Health provider, and will switch back to my previous physician, who always handled such visits correctly.
Update: After spending many stressful hours working on this and being stonewalled, pressured, misdirected, and lectured by Sutter Health representatives I posted a one star review on Unilocal.Soon after I was contacted by a very sweet woman who apologized for the coding error and helped get things fixed. A mess still remains which I’ve decided to just write off at this point, and the overall experience was still awful, but at least the majority of the mistakes seem to have been fixed.
Update 2: After spending lots of time on this, and being assured by a really nice Sutter Health rep whose direct line I have that everything is OK, and paying the balance – which is still out of the ordinary, but it’s small, and let’s just make this go away, okay? – I am still receiving a past due notice for almost $ 400. Sutter Health needs to get their act together. This is unacceptable. Imagine if this wasn’t an asymptomatic physical I had gone in for, but I was actually ill, and I and/​or my family had to deal with this nightmare. Ugh.

I’ve been going here for a few years, and this place is A-​OK. Sounds like some of the other reviewers have had poor experiences.
I’ve been able to get same-​day appointments, generally no problem, just not with my primary care physician. I’ve always felt listened to by my doctors and taken care of.
My one gripe is the wait time after you check in. At one appointment, I waited 40 minutes and it was the morning. Hard to understand how nurses and doctors can be so behind already at 10 AM.
Front desk staff is helpful, kind, and the nurses are typically helpful and ask good questions.
The good: making appointments quickly.
The bad: wait time after check-​in, and the facility is a bit of a maze. They do a good job of posting signage, though.

Sutter doesn’t take my Obamacare plan. I arrived for an appointment and was told it wouldn’t be covered, so I left. But, I really like my doctor who had just joined Sutter, so I decided to pay for the appointment myself and called to check the price. They quoted me $ 150.00. I asked «This is the total price?» They said «yes.» I hung up without scheduling and called back a few days later to make an appointment. I again asked what the cash pay price is and was told: $ 150. «Is that the full price — the total I will have to pay?» I again heard; «Yes,» so I booked the appointment. I asked about the price a third time when I went in and was again told $ 150 was the full cash pay price.
A month later I got a bill for $ 166.00, making the total for my visit $ 316.00. When I called the billing department to demand that they honor their word, they told me that I didn’t actually owe them and additional $ 166, that I had called within their 30 day limit for having a 40% cash payment discount applied to my bill! If I would accept the price, I wold only owe an additional $ 40.00! They explained over and over that their policy was to accept a $ 150 dollar deposit for the visit. I explained over and over that, when I’m quoted a total price for a service, that’s all I’m going to pay for it. The billing manager (I escalated) just kept repeating how it was their policy to take a deposit. When I asked if it was their policy to not train their reception staff on their policies, she said she’d relay my complaint about their front desk staff. When I asked her to please not send this to collections because I was going to report Sutter to the state and the Better Business bureau, she said shed put a note in my file, but that she couldn’t guarantee it, and wouldn’t I please take the 40% discount because it wouldn’t be available much longer.
I don’t know what planet she lives on, but it isn’t earth.
Sutter has a reputation for being expensive and impossible to deal with. They wouldn’t know customer service if it bit them on the nose. I’m leaving my doctor of 15 years because she has joined this rapacious, emotionally tone-​deaf practice. Avoid it.
UPDATE August 5, 2015
I got another bill for $ 166.00 even after going through Sutter’s own dispute resolution process, so I lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I had to tell the Sutter dispute resolution folks about the BBB complaint because the BBB couldn’t figure out that it was the risk management office at Sutter that handles complaints. Hard to fault them for that.
Here’s the link to the BBB complaint, which was successfully resolved:
The Sutter risk management rep investigated my assertions and found that I was never given any documentation about how I would be charged, so she waived the $ 40.00 I was billed for. Never mind that I was billed (extorted) for $ 166, not $ 40. You won’t get Sutter to admit to their outrageously scummy business practices, but the BBB will force them to stop harassing you. It’s something.

I like the healthcare personnel in Orinda. But I received a bill for $ 405 for an office visit for a cold! The PA liked to talk and charged me for it. I disputed this bill for over a year without a call back. Supervisors were «in meetings». All of my subsequent payments for other services were applied to cover this charge even though I wanted it flagged. Then the excess was applied to PART of all the other charges. This must have been a manual effort and is very deceptive. As a result of a letter I sent to the Sutter Foundation, they have reduced the amount due to $ 319. I have submitted this event to the State of California.

I had an appointment yesterday at 2:15pm with Dr. Shute. I arrived at 2:15pm, met the receptionist, and filled out paperwork. I was a new patient, so it took a little longer, but they knew I was a new patient. Gail, who was the receptionist, was very kind and gentle — though she had issues verifying my insurance and coverage, she apologized for my wait and was absolutely kind. Once everything had been completed and I paid for my co-​pay (BEFORE service), I sat to wait. It was now about 2:31pm. About 7 minutes later, the other receptionist called me over to tell me that «the doctor says we need to reschedule your appointment.» Wait, what? Yes. I asked why, and she said «I guess it took too long to check you in or fill our paperwork?» Gail stepped in and said «I told them it would be a second, it is not her fault that’s ridiculous» (points for team Gail). The other receptionist said «I’ll try asking again.»
What they don’t realize is that I can see the office where Dr. Shute it sitting. I see her sitting and talking to the nurse. After a few minutes, that nurse comes back out to tell the receptionist that they are rescheduling my appointment. Again, I see Dr. Shute. And she’s just sitting there.
I was told «yeah, we are going to have to reschedule you.» After multiple apologies, I was told I’d speak to a manager. After 8 minutes, the manager came out, took me to the «infusions» room so that we could speak in private. She asked me what happened, and after I told her, she said she’d try to go talk to Gail, the wonderful receptionist that just took a little longer than normal to check me in – no big deal.
The manager then came and found me to tell me there was nothing she could do except have me go to Urgent Care (that didn’t open for 2 more hours, and cost $ 15 more in co-​pays) to get seen by a doctor. I took a full day off of work for this appointment, and they just arbitrarily decide to cancel it? After I paid for it? While the manager was kind, it was clear she was not running the place — if a doctor can tell you that they don’t want to see a paying customer and you don’t have a solution, I’m not sure what is holding this place up. I didn’t get a name of the manager, a card, or a «I’m so sorry — call me when you’d like to reschedule, and I’ll personally take care of it.»
This business might be a «medical facility,» but let me quickly remind you that your job is hospitality and customer service, and by forcing a patient to reschedule for no reason and no solution, you have failed, and your business will soon, too. Needless to say, I won’t be returning, and I will advise you to do the same.

I was essentially charged by Sutter $ 215.00 to take time from work, wait 40 minutes for a nurse practitioner to agree with my self diagnosis and write a referral. She was in the room for about 4 minutes. Oh, and a nurse weighed me and took my blood pressure. Wish I could bill work like that. Let’s see, at 6 minutes of meeting with me and $ 215.00 that’s like billing $ 2150.00 per hour. Nice work you scumbags! Money grubbing beasts.

More ridiculousness! I requested a waiver of my co-​pay and was told that I am required to pay it because even though I had to «wait an inordinate amount of time doctor’s sometimes occasionally run behind schedule due to circumstances beyond their control.» This is completely outrageous!

I have had a few bad experiences here and have decided to find another doctor/​medical group for myself and my family.
For the reasons listed below:
** very long wait time (from 45 minutes to over an hour every time I’ve been there).
** each time I can get an appointment it is with a different doctor, so I feel I have not make any relationship with any.
** when the doctor does come in after over an hour wait, they seem rushed, are looking at a computer most of the time
** twice, doctors were supposed to call/​email me with recommendations for a specialist and I did not hear from either of them, lack of follow-​up
** no same day sick appointments
** cold/​hospital like environment
Overall, each time I went here it was an unpleasant experience. I tried to like it mostly because it takes time and effort to find a new place, but I won’t come back.
I think someone’s review said that they felt worse after leaving this place…
I could not agree more. The last time I left before even seeing a doctor as I waited over and hour with my little kids and I had to get them home. I left crying.

This is about Sutter East Bay in general and the Albany office in particular:
I had been a patient there for many years under Anthem Blue Cross, but when I switched to Anthem Blue Cross through Covered California, they would no longer take my insurance.
So strike one: They don’t want to deal with people with Obamacare.
How did I find this out? By going in for a flu shot, after first calling to verify it was covered by my insurance. I told David on phone what my coverage was and gave him my Anthem Blue Cross ID number. He told me there would be no charge. But when I got there, they said I would have to pay in full, because they don’t accept my insurance.
Strike two: Bait and switch, or completely incompetent staff.
To make matters worse, I was given an appointment for the Albany office, then told that they were out of flu vaccine, but that I could go to the Hilltop office. I drove all the way out there. They told me they were out too, and I should go back to Albany where it was back in stock. I drove back to Albany, where they wouldn’t see me because they don’t accept my Covered California plan.
Strike three: Why did they make me go to two offices before denying me services? I would have just gone to Costco and paid $ 15 for the flu shot, had I known.

THIS REVIEW IS FOR OBGYN/​PRENATAL CARE.
I actually think the front desk staff is nice and had no problems with them.
However the prenatal care program there is disastrously disorganized. I hope that this review will help other women and also inform Sutter Health that changes need to be made! With prenatal care, you see someone different almost every time. Rarely have I been able to stick with one doctor b/​c they are often unavailable for weeks at a time. They give you a bunch of paperwork on genetic testing and how to eat when you’re pregnant. However nobody explains what to expect the next 9 months!!! I compare it to watching a movie but missing the first half hour of it so that you’re terribly confused the rest of the way. Nobody provides an introduction to pregnancy or gives you a timeline of what to expect with their care, when to get labs, when to get ultrasounds, etc. Why not hand out a piece of paper with all that information!!! I mean is it really that difficult? Nope. doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that basic info needs to be given in writing.
The ball was dropped with my prenatal blood work and they neglected to do it earlier in my pregnancy. The NP I saw totally skipped over it. As a result, I had to have TONS of blood work done all at once. The lab had to take 8 tubes of blood (even the phlebotomist commented that it’s a lot of blood work at one time). I almost fainted the next morning and my nausea got 10 times worst after that. In addition… there was a mix up with their instructions for lab work… they didn’t tell me that I couldn’t go to Lab Corp for the chromosomal testing. VERY frustrating being pregnant and having to run around to different labs for blood work. As it turns out, I COULD have had the blood drawn at their own lab after my appointment… but nobody told me that at the time of my appointment! Talk about inconvenient and very confusing. To make matter worst, they ordered labs that I ALREADY had done shortly before I became pregnant, such as RH factor. No reason to have that again! My doctor would have seen that in the system if she had just looked at my records in their database.
They seriously need to get organized. There needs to be better continuity of care and proper follow up.
Ladies, just know that if you go there for prenatal care, it is very impersonal and it feels like a factory. Too many patients. I really feel like a number there, and my husband and I are currently trying to SWITCH insurance providers simply so that we don’t have to go to Sutter Health for our prenatal care. It’s not easy changing insurances, but that’s how badly I want to change our care. Pregnancy shouldn’t be plagued with this stress, inconvenience, constant disappointment, and difficulties in communicating with your providers. If keeping stress levels low tends to improve outcomes of pregnancies… it’s safe to say that their care is counter productive b/​c it’s my single greatest source of STRESS!
This is just another reason our health care is so messed up in this country… our prenatal care is entirely dictated by our health insurance. It’s TERRIBLE!!! Other countries have it WAY better.

Need a doctor and want to be grossly overcharged for their services? Sutter Health is your kind of place! I got charged close to $ 350 for a 10 minute doctors appointment. You’re joking, right? I wish I wasn’t. There is this thing called the Medical Blue Book. You might look into it. It describes the reasonable prices for all sorts of medical procedures. Sutters cost for my appointment was well over a third again as much as the recommended price for that level of care. Do yourself a favor and avoid Sutter Health offices where ever they may lie. There ARE good doctors out there who don’t belong to such a rip off based organization. I’m against putting people into penury in order to get out of pain.

I really wish I could give them zero stars. They don’t care about their patients at all. Or I felt like my problem could be cared less there. My doctor didn’t even want to sit down. Came in and left.
Worst staff. So not helpful with insurance and appointments. Bad attitude. Make you feel so bad and they want to make you feel worse.

Scam alert x 3.
Scam 1: This may be one of the few clinics that your crappy health insurance is contracted with. So when you set up an appointment you will be seeing an MD who has less expertise and is less helpful than what you could find by researching your health related questions on the internet. In my case, the Dr. could not even do a reliable _​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​exam. (Clearly has not done many before.)
Scam 2: If you need to have lab tests done you will be herded down the hall to the onsite Sutter Lab where you will be ignored with the rest of the patients from Sutter clinics. Have a question? The lab staff will either tell you they are not on the clock yet so they can’t answer you, or they will act as if it is a great effort and imposition to have to listen to you, or maybe they are practicing for making a training film demonstrating how not to treat patients. And if you have had enough of Sutter lab’s lack of service and try to have them drawn at another lab, get ready for some serious time wasting hassles. Even if you tell the Dr. in advance that you will be going to another lab, he will conveniently give you paperwork that is not what will be needed by «outside» labs. So you will arrive at your chosen lab after fasting for 12 hours and be turned away. It will take numerous phone calls to get your doctor to authorize the faxing of the lab requests to your lab.
Scam 3: Hopefully you have called your insurance company and found out what labs are covered. Three of the tests ordered by the Dr. would not have been (were not necessary) and would have had to been paid out of my pocket if I had not cancelled them. Excess labs ordered, with the expectation that you will have them done by Sutter lab and not check if they are covered — sorry, that is too much of a coincidence not to have been Sutter’s plan from the start.
A sub par physician and the waste of 2 mornings and about $ 8 in travel costs — fool me once, the shame is on you. The one star is for having an online patient portal.

Pros:
— Great doctors
— Easy to make appointments via telephone & online.
— Easy to access medical information (records, prescriptions, immunization & reminders online
— Check-​in process generally smooth & admin staff friendly
Cons:
— Med techs not the most cheerful or helpful

PROS: THE PHYSICIANS & PRACTITIONERS
I had good experiences with Dr Samantha Malm and NP Stephanie Petreas. Both are friendly, patient, knowledgeable. They are really good and they know their stuff. The medical assistants here are friendly, prompt, and professional as well.
CONS:
PARKING
You have to pay to park, unless it’s after 4pm or something like that. Usually costs me $ 3. The parking spaces are too narrow. Parking was abundant before the OBGYN merger. Now spaces can be hard to come by, so they will tell you to arrive earlier than usual because parking has become an issue.
INCOMPETENT BILLING DEPARTMENT
On my very first visit in 2009, the billing department mis-​spelled my name when billing my insurance company. Multiple calls lead me to speak with Tameka in their billing department. I made a special trip in person to provide copies of my insurance card and drivers license again. I even filled out a comment card thanking Tameka for showing leadership in resolving my situation. Tameka had assured me the mistake would be fixed, but it was not. A few weeks later I even contacted my insurance company to make sure they received a claim, they confirmed nothing had been sent to them. I finally tried to contact the center administrator. Her number always went to voicemail. She did call me back but acted like it wasn’t a big deal. Eventually the problem was resolved after two months. I thought that was just a fluke.
Recently, charges were not billed correctly to my insurance because the Sutter billing department incorrectly entered their own Tax ID number when filing the claim. ONE WOULD THINK SUTTER’S OWN BILLING DEPARTMENT WOULD BE FAMILIAR WITH THEIR OWN TAX ID… Apparently they have incorrectly entered their own tax ID since February, and continued to do so for months resulting in additional rejected claims on my account because of their mistake.
An inquiry into the matter resulted in *surprise!* Sutter sending an official statement claiming everything was indeed coded correctly, which was clearly not the case. But they didn’t have a problem sending me several bills indicating I owed a lot of money. So now I am waiting for a corrected billing statement for myself and for my husband. Waiting…
I find this oversight to be dishonest just plain lazy. The ineffective management and incompetence of Sutter’s billing department is abundantly unprofessional. Even worse has been the amount of time it takes to get resolution.
OVERALL:
It’s really too bad the billing department is dragging SEBMF down. The medical staff, doctors, and nurses are great, the only reason I’m giving SEBMF any stars.