Scott Markowitz, MD

When I scheduled my first appointment with Dr. Markowitz to check up on a chronic inner ear condition that I’ve had and that has been stable for 15 years, I shared my health insurance information and verified with their office that the visit will be paid for in full by my insurance and all I’d be responsible for is the $ 40 co-​pay (which I paid at the time of the visit).
When I showed up for my appointment, I again confirmed that the $ 40 co-​pay would pay for the entire visit before going in to see the doctor.
When, during the visit, it became obvious that the doctor was suggesting an additional procedure (the hearing test), I explicitly asked «will this be paid for by my insurance as well or is there an additional charge for this?» I was told that my insurance would pay for it, so I agreed to do the test. Note, that I had fairly recent hearing test results available and that I had not noticed any changes in hearing since then, so if they had told me my insurance wouldn’t pay for this, I would have declined the test.
At the end of the visit, Dr. Markowitz suggested «re-​evaluating» my condition and requested blood tests and an MRI with third party labs. I had both past blood test and MRI results, so I said I will only do this if my insurance pays for it, in case he, as my new doctor, can find some new way to improve my chronic condition.
Dr. Markowitz’s assistant, Erin, processed the paperwork on the way out and told me that my insurance will «definitely» pay for the blood test. I asked «are you sure?» My policy has many exclusions, because it’s fairly low budget, so I always double check whether or not there will be out of pocket costs. Erin said, «yes, I’m sure.» I said «so I can just go to the lab and get it done and there won’t be any out of pocket costs, not even a co-​pay?» Erin again said «yes.» We had a similar exchange regarding the MRI.
After the blood tests and the MRI were done, I came in for the follow up appointment with Dr. Choe in the same office, because Dr. Markowitz wanted his input. Dr. Choe confirmed that there was nothing new they could tell me.
After the appointment, when I went to check out and pay my $ 40 co-​pay was when I was first hit with the news that there was a $ 446.97 balance on my account — the charge from my previous visit with Dr. Markowitz. Incredulously, I recounted all of the double and triple checking conversations I had and that their very own staff told me the $ 40 co-​pay would take care of everything. I asked if I would get hit with more costs than I expected from the appointment I just had as well. They said I had to take it up with billing, so I just paid the second $ 40 co-​pay and called billing when I got home. I did end up getting a high bill for that second appointment a few weeks later ($ 259.96, which accounts for the rest of the $ 706.93 total).
As part of the discussion with billing, I spoke to John, Raven, and Sue Gillis (their Director). All of them said they would work on cutting the charges down with the ENT’s office and all promised to call me back, delayed their calls, and ultimately dropped contact altogether. I left three follow-​up voicemails each over the course of three weeks, respectively, for Raven and Sue, and they never returned these final calls to give me a resolution.
I also spoke with Erin in the physician’s office and Dr. Markowitz himself, who insisted that he had nothing to do with billing and told me to work it out with the billing department.
At the same time, Explanations of Benefits (EOBs) for the MRI and blood tests came in. I was in shock, because the MRI, which Erin assured me would be paid for by my insurance, was not, and the bill was over $ 2,500. The blood test was slightly over $ 100. Thankfully, I was able to negotiate the MRI bill with the gracious folks at the third party facility to $ 500 (interestingly, Erin from the ENT office helped with this process). I haven’t been able to negotiate down the blood test bills yet.
In summary, I already incurred an out of pocket expense of $ 500 for the MRI that I would have never agreed to, had I known it would cost me anything at all, and will incur more expenses for the blood test (over $ 100). The third party MRI facility that had nothing to do with the misleading behavior of the ENT office was kind enough to negotiate to get this expense down to $ 500 (an 80% decrease). The ENT office that caused this whole debacle in the first place through their blatantly false statements refused to negotiate and is about to submit my bill to collections and mar my credit history.