South Denver Cardiology Associates, PC

Gave my mother excellent care in the hospital and in the clinic.

The staff and physicians were nice but the poor review is due to their billing practices. I had a stress echo at the South park location which is about 3 or 4 miles from Littleton Hospital. It is essentially in the physician office location. I had to put $ 200 down and then was billed an additional $ 600+ after my insurance paid. I called and asked why it was so high and was told that they bill a facility fee. I used to manage a cardiology practice and we did these procedure in the office, as well as many others. We NEVER billed a facility fee (and we were actually located on the hospital campus). Facility fees are built in when you have testing done at a HOSPITAL because of the cost of all of the departments that support the department you are having your test in. I would like to emphasize that this test was NOT done at the hospital. I asked the billing office why they felt they had the right to add the facility fee and they told me it was because the hospital owned the equipment that was used to do my stress test. This opens some potential Stark Law issues that only someone in healthcare management would realize. I left a message for the practice manager with my concerns and never got a call back. I will give him or her the benefit of the doubt as they were in transition because this was right after Centura bought South Denver cardiology, but I was stuck paying the outrageous up-​charge. I will say the the large physician practice that I work for has stopped referring to South Denver Cardiology all together. You should think twice before scheduling with them, especially if you are in the work up stage of your health issue.

This practice is very organized and helpful. When you enter the facility, you may get a little overwhelmed because it is very busy and very large. The person at the front desk can help you locate where your doctor accepts their patients. All the staff is very helpful and the Doctors are great. I had a PFO closure and it went off without a hitch. Dr. Bateman was very nice and filled my family in on the surgery, before and after. I would definitely suggest this practice.

Our experience at SDC has been very good. Dr. Mathe is just great and the support staff have been so good. We’d recommend them to anyone.

I would think hard before consulting with this group. My 91 year old mother, who passed away in March 2013, had nothing but problems with them. They missed a diagnosis of congestive heart failure and then, when the diagnosis was finally made, they mismanaged her care. Of 5 admissions she had between October 2012 and February 2013, three were bounceback admissions after less than a week because she was inadequately treated. While rounding on her during her hospitalizations, they never spent even 5 minutes with her in the room (although they did fully charge for their services). The two members of the group that I met in the hospital barely gave me the time of day and actually ignored many of my questions (and I am a physician). Bedside manner is clearly not one of their strengths (although they do have a delightful nurse practitioner who was responsive to questions and concerns). I had to wonder whether the cardiologists I met were less than interested in a case of congestive heart failure in an elderly women that required fluid and electrolyte management. I would not recommend this group.