Kay Kazuko Sera, DC

I love Dr Kay. I have been seeing her for over 10 years. I always leave her office feeling great. I am always happy with her treatment.

Me and my wife has been going to Sera for few months now, so far she has provided excellent care and was on point on how she treated us. Will recommend her to anyone looking for a decent treatment and care.

I have been having Dr. Sera work on me for the last 10 years. I always have great service and great results for both my chiropractic & acupuncture needs for every session.

I was very impressed by her. She was the only chiropractor, and I have seen a few, who completely eliminated my pain first visit. Very reasonable price, and she was very nice. I will defiantly be seeing her again, along with the rest of my family.

I am a patient of Dr Sera’s and she is an excellent chiropractor. She can adjust any joint in my spine so easily and I always feel better leaving her office.
I am very knowledgeable in medical billing and Monica G’s review appears to be mistaken and unfounded. Copying an insurance card is standard office procedure. Whether you are a cash or insurance patient, the information is a part of the medical file.
By California law it is absolutely okay to have a cash discount rate especially for a financial hardship. It has nothing to do with Medicare rates. Ask 10 different chiropractors (or any other type of doctor) their cash fee and you’ll get 10 different answers. I was thankful I could afford to see her with the student rate she offered me.
As for billing insurance for someone with a high deductible, it looks like Dr. Sera did Monica G a favor. A deductible is the amount each year the patient needs to pay doctors before the insurance company kicks in and starts paying. If the deductible is not met and the Dr takes the time to bill the insurance, she doesn’t get paid anything but helps the patient get closer to meeting her deductible. If this was the case the doctor didn’t do anything out of the ordinary except help the patient. If Monica G had a health savings account (HSA) then why didn’t she inform the doctor or office manager of this and why would the patient want to be a cash patient if there was some form of coverage?
I would highly recommend Dr. Sera. She is very caring and can make the time for same day appointments if needed.

While Dr. Sera’s bedside manner was good, it was obvious that she was still learning acupuncture (since she was reading the needle placement out of the book), this review is solely for her BILLING practices.
The first and ONLY time I ever went to Dr. Sera (after being referred by my aunt and sister, who paid cash rates as well). I came in AFTER explaining that I wasn’t sure if my insurance would cover the charges. Dr. Sera explained that she could see me as a CASH PATIENT. Her biller/​receptionist took my insurance card and verified that I had a high deductible so I was established as a CASH PATIENT. I paid for my visit up front, and thought that this would be the end of it.
I work in the medical billing industry and KNOW that once you establish a patient as «Cash» you can’t turn around and bill the insurance, especially AFTER the patient has paid up front; this is considered double billing and is ILLEGAL. Well, guess what her billing person did?! Two weeks went by and I was planning on making another visit to Dr. Sera when I get an EOB in the mail… to my astonishment I realized that not only had Dr. Sera’s biller verified my insurance eligibility but ALSO taken a copy of my card and proceeded to bill my insurance AFTER I had already paid for the services up front! I immediately called Dr. Sera and expressed my disappointment and disgust for this type of business practice and demanded a refund of MY credit card payment. She seemed surprised and shocked when I explained that this type of billing practice was not only unethical but illegal. I made a formal complaint with my insurance company as well. I got my refund in 3 days, but the fact that my insurance HSA account paid over 4 times what I was charged as a cash rate patient left me with no other conclusion but to accuse her of doing so for monetary gain. She denied this, of course, but (as I demanded) why would the biller even MAKE a copy of my card if I was being established as a cash patient?!
Since this incident happened I can no longer recommend her to ANYONE I know (plus she charges 2 different cash rates, how she decides which to charge to whom is a baffler to me, being that cash rates are based on Medicare’s standard rates and those are very black and white…)
That being said, She has a good bedside manner but is still learning the treatments, plus she has VERY questionable billing practices. I cannot recommend her at all. The star is only for her bedside manner.