Bobby Buka, MD

I have been a patient at this practice/​location for the past 5 years. Each time I’m left with mixed feelings. The only reason I come back each time because it is convenient for me to get to. However, after my last visit they have undoubtedly lost me as a patient after I had to wait for more than 20 minutes, in the examination room while the PA was in the office next door chatting and flirting with the pharmaceutical rep.
The front office staff are both unprofessional in manner and appearance. Such as wearing hoodies with the hood over their head, wearing headphones when you are checking in/​trying to ask a question and just not communicating properly with wait time if there is a delay. Btw, there always seems to be a delay — so don’t expect to be seen on time.
Their billing/​invoicing system is atrocious. On several occasions I’ve received an invoice on a bill that I’ve already paid for. It has taken their office almost 3 months to cash an $ 80 check. On my last visit, upon check-​in, they told me I owed a balance — which I thought was odd since I always pay my invoices upon receiving them. I asked for a copy of the receipt so I could review and after 15 minutes of waiting they showed me the receipt and I noticed that they did not credit my account for a check that they cashed over a month ago. I showed them the image of the cashed check from my banking app and they acted annoyed that I couldn’t just pay again and wait for a reimbursement or credit.
If you do become a patient here, when the doctor prescribes medication — be sure to tell them to put down a generic option too. They usually only put down the brand. Thankfully my pharmacy always checks to see if they have a generic option. However, Dr. Buka’s office is horrible at responding to pharmacy requests so that usually holds up the process for at least a week.

Tried for weeks to schedule an appointment with an actual doctor and not an assistant. Finally schedule a 9a appointment with Dr. Bear at the 220 front street location. Not only was there no doctor working at the office that day — no one called to let me know. Definitely not comfortable with a girl who took some online courses being my pretend doctor.

I’ve been coming here for years and have usually had quite a good experience with the doctors and the staff — I need a dermatologist for issues with skin cancer. However, on my last visit, the office staff billed all the procedures to the wrong insurance company. I’ve tried to contact the office staff to get this changed for months, as have the insurance companies — no luck. The billing office telephone voicemail is usually too full to take voicemails and when you finally get through to leave a voicemail, there is no return call. I’m now going to pay this out of pocket to avoid having an issue with my credit, but I am extremely unhappy. I need to find a new dermatology practice. Paying for biopsies out of pocket when I pay for insurance and go to an in-​network doctor is ridiculous.

I had a very frustrating experience here. My old dermatologist was not in-​network on my insurance, so I randomly picked this one from my insurance’s doctor list. While the offices were lovely, and the three physician’s assistants I saw were nice and knowledgeable, somewhere along the line they forgot to run one of the tests required by insurance to fill my prescription. I tried calling them twice within my prescription window, but when I called the receptionist was unhelpful and said the pharmacy would have to call them directly. So I called the pharmacy and they said they doctor could call them with the information. I called the doctor’s office back, they said they would mark it as «high priority» and then I didn’t hear from them again until the next week, when the window to get the prescription filled had already closed. This, after having bloodwork and three office visits just to get this ONE prescription, and it got botched, thus wasting me vast amounts of time and copays.
I will find a new dermatologist.

Don’t bother with this place. They’re appointments mean nothing. They’ll have you wait for over an hour and then give you 2 mins with of time with an assistant. Dr Moraru’s office on Broadway is a much better choice!

I’ve been trying to get a billing matter settled with them for months. You can’t find the billing email on the site and they only tell you it when you call their number during business hours. My insurance company called them and magically got someone on the phone who acknowledged the bill was in error. They keep on sending it. Fuck these people. I’m so annoyed at their ridiculous web site. I can’t believe its says Dr. Buka is the «chief science officer». OMG. It’s not the starship enterprise. Also, why do they think it is impressive that NBC non-​stop said he is the most sought after dermatologist in NY. Isn’t that the shitty channel they play on gas pumps?

I wish I could give two separate reviews. The office staff is so incredibly hard to work with. Whenever I get prescriptions from my doctor, it takes forever for them to process any requests from my pharmacy such as a prior authorization. They are clearly understaffed, and the front desk suffers from too much turnover, as I always see new staff at the reception. It is very obvious that Buka’s practice cares nothing for communication outside the office with patients, their pharmacies and insurance companies. I spend a lot of my time coordinating the doctor’s office staff to fulfill requests from the aforementioned parties. They really make it frustrating to be a patient of theirs.
However, I do have to say I really like Dr. Libby Rhee. She is very knowledgeable, seems smart and genuinely caring, and makes an effort to answer questions. I have made the most progress with her in all my years of suffering from severe skin conditions. We have tried various methods, with each new treatment being better than the prior one, and I have finally found something that works rapidly, for a prolonged period of time, and with minimal side effects. (Having new dermatological advances in prescriptions did help as well) She has also made over the counter, non-​prescription recommendations for skincare products such as sunscreen, shampoo and daily lotion that work very well also. I appreciate that there are several locations in the city, though unfortunately Dr. Rhee is now located all the way in the Upper West Side, which is quite far from where I used to visit their offices and where I live.

Do not go here unless you are solely looking for high priced cosmetic services and procedures with attitude and a fancy waiting room/​décor. This is NOT the place to get proper derm screenings. I have never even seen an MD, only PA’s (assistants) along with multiple other ‘studenst’ or trainees in the room! I am still charged an arm and a leg and not once had a proper screening where they check your scalp, toes etc for signs of problematic conditions.

Wow. I should have steered clear of this place but yet I let the ZocDoc reviews persuade me.
It was a hassle to find this office in the first place. Let’s ignore the fact that it is raining and cold while I searched.
The staff is completely useless and unfriendly. I called before hand to see if I needed to bring my referral and was told no. Lowe and behold the first thing I’m asked for is my referral.
So I didn’t even get to see the doctor. Now I’m worried about being billed anyway.
How does this place stay open?

this was a terrible experience. I waited 1 hour to meet with him when I had an appointment scheduled well in advance. he ran in the room, checked me out for less than 5 minutes. essentially used the time to use me as a demo patient for his trainee and then told me that I would need to reschedule an appointment. I’ll never go back to him and I seriously don’t recommend anyone else to waste their time. I’d leave zero stars if I could.

I sat down to write a review about this awful office and I see every single review already concurred with me. The receptionists are BRAIN DEAD. I had to call over and over again, being repeatedly placed on hold, then hung up on, trying to explain in the simplest way that my Rx was never called in. They had no apology for not calling it in. They didn’t even care.
This is not exclusive to 1 office. I have been to 2 locations and this is the normal behavior.
I agree also with the fact that you will wait for your appointment for a while, and they have no idea how long your wait time will be. Then when you get in to see a Dr or a PA, they pass you around like a hot potato. You never see the same person 2x. You have to go over your history repeatedly.
This is a frustrating experience that does not need to happen. Best advise: go to another Derma. They’re plenty in NYC.

Unilocal gives them one star by default… and the offices are beautiful and everyone is nice so they earned another star… but I’m really fed up with them. You know what, no. I’m taking back my star. One star. Growing to hate this place.
This place is like a really fancy meat factory. Barely look at you, shove a scrip in your face, and send you out of the door.
1. First of all, it is like IMPOSSIBLE just to get someone on the phone here. The line hangs up all the time randomly, and I usually have to call 6 – 7 times just to connect to a live person. Talk about anger inducing…
2. Truth be told, the doctors are really nice, but after many, many visits, it’s clear that none of them really know what they’re doing. Countless visits and everyone just pushes prescriptions on me. Like, trial and error, might as well see if Prescription #76 586 which you’ve already used, which didn’t work the first time will magically start working now. Really?
3. Despite me clearly telling them that taking antibiotics as prescribed by another derm caused a whole series of symptoms INCLUDING the skin issues I have now, some of the doctors here are still VERY happy to shove another prescription of antibiotics in your face. Hmmmm let’s see. If a YEARS worth of antibiotics didn’t even remotely help, CERTAINLY taking another month’s worth will. Seriously.
4. I had to diagnose myself with having gram negative folliculitis and specifically request both bacterial cultures and fungal cultures be done. That’s ridiculous. I’m not a doctor — that’s what YOU’RE here for. And low and behold, I was RIGHT. It is partly gram negative folliculitis, which is largely caused by your immune system being compromised due to prolonged exposure to antibiotics (Docycline, Minocycline). The bacterial culure proved it. Then, AMAZINGLY, despite the fact gram negative folliculitis in most cases is CAUSED by your immune system being destroyed by antibiotics, Dr tries to prescribe me ANOTHER ROUND OF ANTIBIOTICS!!! As if that is going to help something.
4B. I ask «should I change my diet, if you suspect this is fungal?» Answer: «Nope!» Even a CURSORY Internet search for «candida» shows the very FIRST thing you should do is change your diet and stop consuming grains, sugars and yeasty products. At no point did it occur to any doctor to say this. That is deeply disturbing.
5. After 1,000,000 millions, not one doctor thought to request a culture. I had to request a bacterial and fungal culture, because I knew that this is not just regular acne.
6. Doctors tried to dissuade me from calling about the results of my cultures, assuring that if «something was abnormal, they’d call». Low and behold, NO ONE EVER DID despite the fact that ALL the tests came back positive!!! They don’t even freaking TELL YOU when the results of cultures and tests come in!!! This is infuriating! If you don’t call and harass them, you will be left in the dark.
7. WANT TO KNOW THE RESULTS OF YOUR TESTS, AND EXPECT A DOC OR PHYSICIANS ASSISTANT TO CALL YOU TO TELL YOU? SIKE!!! That will NEVERRRRRRR happen because clearly being informed is totally not important.
At this point, I will just have the one somewhat useful tretinoin prescription filled, and will get the results of my cultures hopefully before my 85^th birthday, and will keep the visits scant.

Don’t go here. This practice feels like a bootleg chop shop. I saw a physician’s assistant, which is fine, but the entire experience felt like nothing more than a transaction in a discount chain store run by incompetent 16 year old high school students. I walk in, was given a dirty look by the receptionist (really professional btw), was given a form to sign, asked for payment within two mins of walking in the door (which is kind of tacky), and then i waited for 35 mins for my appt. Cool.
I would have overlooked all of this, if it wasn’t for the terrible experience I am having filling my prescriptions. I got a same day appt which was nice, but now it is five days later, my prescriptions are not filled, and the doctors office is still clueless as to what is going on. Same day appointment is now rendered meaningless. I called CVS who needs a pre-​authorization to fill my prescription, which is again fine. They faxed the paperwork to the doctors office twice, and the doctors office is claiming they never received it and told me to have the pharmacy call them, which CVS cannot do unless I go in person to the pharmacy. So now, I do not have my prescriptions, do not have a time frame for when they will be filled, and I have to go back to the pharmacy to have them call the doctors office to hopefully straighten this out. In the meantime, you best believe that the Dr office was already able to submit the paperwork to bill my insurance company for the appointment. Classy.
Maybe Dr Buka is a good doctor, but who knows, since he wasn’t there. This practice is a HOT MESS. Dr Buka should seriously consider training his support staff better and might want to think about replacing some of them, bc they were rude, totally unhelpful, and reflected terribly on the practice. I will never come back to this doctors office again and will advise everyone else to avoid this place. Completely unacceptable. Thumbs down.
***UPDATE*** After seeing this review, a patient advocate from the Dr office contacted me, and surprise surprise– my prescription was filled within 24 hours. However, I just received a bill for $ 525 from a lab for two biopsies that the dermatologist recommended. This was an in network dermatologist with my insurance, yet they sent the biopsies to a non-​contracted lab with my insurance and no one warned me it would be this much out of pocket or that this would be an unfortunate possibility. Had i known which lab they would send the biopsy to, I would have refused the biopsy. And now I owe $ 525.
This office is seriously a NIGHTMARE and a disgrace to the field of Medicine.

Do not waste your time with this unapologetic charlatan.
Dr. Buka is completely unavailable and indifferent to his patients. Half the week he is not even in the country, and does not even bother to return phone calls when he is in town.
He dodged my calls for weeks while I waited for results on a biopsy, and later found out that he was withholding information when he already had it. He was unable to diagnose my skin condition and when he referred me to another specialist he said he would consult about my case, the specialist was out of town when I got to my appointment, and hadn’t been briefed on my situation at all. No communication had been made between them at all.
I still have scars from my condition, and the only reason they started to heal at all was because of a treatment THAT I SUGGESTED.
I’ve never in my life been so shocked and appalled with a doctor.
He should be absolutely ashamed of himself. His negligence borders on deliberate sabotage.
My only hope is that my review will keep as many people from going to see him as possible. Do not trust this man or his incompetent office staff.

Trust Unilocal Always.
I’ve been seeing Dr. Buka for over 4 years, always great experience with his office. HOWEVER this is my first time at he seaport office, and it is a waste of time.
Had an appointment at 1:20, over an hour and still didn’t see the doctor (Amy). I left after waiting for an hour because people actually have things to do…
Never ever will I go to this location again.

Okay so the décor is really nice and so is the staff, however if you want to be seen by an actual MD you have to request that before your appointment otherwise you’ll be seen by a PA which is okay I guess but for the price I would like an MD at least in the room with the PA. So I made an appointment requested an actual MD walked in was greeted nicely filled my paperwork soon after was directed to one of the consultation rooms by a medical assistant who asked the basic medical questions checked me in and gave me one of the paper gowns said doctor will be on soon all fine. I’m in this paper outfit sitting for the doctor 10mins pass 20mins pass 30mins I catch myself falling asleep when the MD and a PA finally walk in!!! Like really I would’ve preferred to wait fully dressed in the WAITING AREA all that time

This review is from March 2012.
This is what I would call an «upscale» office. There’s a reason the décor is nice and the equipment is state-​of-​the-​art.
I’ve only had Dr. Buka himself once in my 4 or 5 appointments there. He was thorough, but the office in general did feel a bit rushed and not just in a New York-​efficient way.
I’m convinced that the staff here does everything in their power to bring you back for arguably unnecessary followups, and prescribes non-​generic medications to receive kickbacks from Big Pharma… but maybe I’m just a conspiracy theorist.
Once they prescribed me a shampoo of some sort, and didn’t give me a generic option. The pharmacy wanted over $ 100 for it when I filled the prescription. Oh hell no.
The kicker was in the phone call I just had with them, a followup to a biopsy done six months ago. (They had an incorrect phone number for me even though they could have gotten the right one from ZocDoc, which is how I made the appt. They had given up trying to get a hold of me.) I have to go back in for further testing. I said it’s been a while, so let’s just knock out a regular checkup too.
Doc said «if we have time, we’ll see». How about we make time, Doc, so I don’t have to double my copay and you don’t get hundreds of dollars more from my insurer?
[Since I wrote this review, the office was closed down for a while due to Hurricane Sandy but has since reopened. I would give them one more chance if they promised to be efficient and kind.]

This place is an absolute scam. At first glance it seems great — clean, cool office, nice people. But the staff put me through so many unnecessary procedures and didn’t tell me they weren’t covered by insurance.
I was put through a biopsy that they said would «guarantee a definite answer» as to whether this reaction was from a bug bite or otherwise. The «results» came back that it was not from a bug bite. I was then put through the patch test on my back and then when all that came back negative, I was told to just take Allegra everyday because «some people just get hives.»
Then I received bills in the mail from insurance because it was not covered. When I called and asked why I wasn’t at least told about the cost of it, they said they don’t have to tell me anything because I have a deductible. Well wouldn’t it be nice to at least know if you have to pay for something out of pocket before you decide to do it? I was blind-​sided.
And MOST IMPORTANTLY — after 5 months of aggravation, turns out the reaction I was getting was from a bug bite. I went to a KNOWLEDGEABLE and HONEST dermatologist who took one look and told me it was so obvious it was a reaction from a bug bite and she was appalled that they guaranteed me a result from a biopsy.
I would never recommend Dr. Bobby Buka — they certainly pulled a fast one on me with unnecessary procedures for more money. What a waste of time!

Dr. Buka seems like a lovely human being. He is (very) soft spoken and seems like he cares. He is thorough and answers any questions I may have. So… it’s unfortunate that I’m giving a 2 star review. Here’s why:
The front desk staff at the Front Street location.
1. Every time I am in the office they are short, rude/​passive aggressive and unfriendly. Not only with me, but watching them interact with any other patient waiting/​paying is the same experience.
2. I often have to ring the bell multiple times just to get in.
3. They gossip. Nothing about that is professional. Do it on your lunch break because I don’t want to hear about your drama while I’m in a waiting room.
4. When I have called, I often get through to the hold music and then am just hung up on — this happens almost every time I call. I realize it’s the same number for every location so this specific complaint may not be a Front Street office problem.
I cannot relate to the unnecessary follow ups/​billing complaints others are experiencing, but I will say — for a doctor who puts himself out there on his website, welcome phone message (just call their number, you’ll see), as such a welcoming and kind person, you might want to screen your admin employees a little more carefully. They are your first and last impressions when coming/​going to your office and I’m never left with a positive one on the way in… or out.

Pros: fun décor in the clinic, dr Buka is great
Cons: all the rest, esp. The receptionists and their incompetence. Oh, and expect to wait an hr even if you come at the appointed time.
I admit that it’s a fun décor inside the clinic.
All the rest, not so pleasant.
First of all, the receptionists. Super rude, loud, nail filing, and obnoxious. Dr Buka, if you are reading this, pleade reconsider having them as your receptionists. They really make the experience horrible. After seeing the doc, she rescheduled me on wrong days and for wrong reasons and didnt tell me. She rescheduled me and I came, and guess what! Now I am waiting an hr so far to see the doc. I am a busy busy person and yeah, I am sitting on my butt for an hr. Thanks to you, incompetent receptionist.
Secondly, why do I habe to wait for an hr when I come at my appointed time??? This happens EVERY TIME I come. Why an hr!!! Seriously!!!
I wouldn’t be coming here if this was not near my work. Jesus, I hate coming here, although I like the doctor here.