Haas Elson M MD

I read most of the reviews, the good, the bad and the confused. Dr. Haas and his associates have moved to new, larger offices at 4340 Redwood Highway, Suite A-​22
San Rafael, CA 94 903, just down the street from their old office. (The even have an online video on their website showing how to get to their new offices.)
While I was there, I heard other patients comment on how much nicer and roomier the new office was. It was a calm, organized environment. There was tea and water available. Comfortable waiting chairs. None of the disorganized atmosphere some people complained about. Dr. Haas was a very genuine man and a good listener. He didn’t push anything on me and was thoughtful with his recommendations. I am waiting for the results of my blood test and will be going back for a further evaluation. I will update this review then.

I have been going to Dr. Haas for well over 10 years and have had extremely positive experiences with him and the other health professionals in his office. I’ve gone through a number of illnesses over the years and have found him to be very knowledgeable and helpful.
As someone that has had issues with other MD’s in the past I find Dr. Haas very refreshing to work with on my medical needs. I had strong issues with food (wheat, dairy and garlic) and had no idea until he conducted blood test. I no longer have acme, headaches and stomach pains since he worked with me to figure out my food allergies.
I find him very personable as well, he always asks me about my husband and how he’s doing.
I would highly recommend Dr. Haas to anyone that is looking for alternative medicine practices.

I’ve been a patient for 15 years.
Dr. Haas is low key until you need him, then he’s on it ASAP. Their office is always very available, and works with my crazy schedule.
Highly recommend them.

I was looking for a primary care doctor and happened find this integrative care facility that takes insurance. I was very pleased someplace like this even existed but my happiness only grew as I had my first visit. Everyone from reception to the nurse were very nice and super helpful. Dr. Haas made me feel comfortable right away and we connected on a personal level. He listened to me and answered all my questions and concerns about my health. We had a very constructive follow up on the second visit and he remembered all the details of my health history and personal life and asked how everything was going and we set up some procedures to further look into my health and well being. I am so happy I found Dr. Haas and this clinic. It’s nice they are close by for me, but even if I move away, it will be worth the trip back, because I have definitely found this place to be the best at taking care of their patients and I would recommend it to all of my friends and family!

I believe Dr. Haas’s response to my review is a good enough warning for most, but I still feel the need to point out why Dr. Haas’s comment is an example of really bad PR. Here is a breakdown:
«It would have been nice to hear back from you and get your interpretation of our visits.»
In my review, I already said I felt like Dr. Haas was rude, unhelpful, and condescending. I have obviously felt like I could not talk to him about my unhappiness. This sentence pretends to care, but it really does not. The correct reply to this should have been, «I am sorry I made you feel like you could not get in touch with us and talk to us about your experience.»
«I am not typically known with the adjectives that you portray.»
The patient does not care how the doctor is typically known. By writing this, Dr. Haas giving the impression that he is not trying to fix the relationship with his patient, rather, he is trying to advertise himself to whomever is reading his comment.
«Luckily, i (sic) am known to still be quite sharp and competent and often see much more than most about how to improve peoples (sic) health.»
Same problem as above. Therefore, it gives the whole message an insincere tone. Reading this made me feel like the primary concern is not how I felt after the visit, but rather it’s a sort of damage control for those who will read my bad comment. The correct response should have been something like, «I only strive for what’s best for my patients and I apologize if I came across as someone who does not care about his patients’ well being.»
«Happy to discuss with you any time. Dr. EMH»
This is the best and the only encouraging part of the message.
Dr. Haas and I exchanged a couple o brief private messages after his comment, but I will not post them here out of respect for his privacy. Our correspondence (and the comments he left on other Unilocalers’ reviews) reaffirmed my impression that he is not to be trusted with delicate and complex health cases.

i saw him twice a few years ago and he was clearly more interested in anything than what I was talking about. I had a bandage on my forehead from a small basal cell surgery and he yakked on about how much those Dermatologists make as compared to him. But the whole place is just money oriented. You need to pay for a consultation to get a prescription refilled. Same with Shames next door. If he fills your need, go for it. He didnt seem any good to me at all.

Elson Haas has been my physician for the past year and a half. He has helped me with blood pressure issues, menopause hell, arthritis pain and mysterious low energy. I had been feeling like I was on the edge of a flu/​cold for a couple of years. I admit it. I’m in my 60’s and my energy isn’t supposed to be what a 30 year old patient has. But he listens and he digs. After blood work, hormonal tests and allergy tests, he uncovered long standing food allergies that are core to issues of headaches, low energy, aches pains and flu like symptoms. My old MD would prescribe anything I wanted for pain. Dr. Haas is ‘integrative’…uses a combination of necessary prescriptions with other natural formulas and supplements.
I feel guilty when i go in to see him and I haven’t been a stellar patient following his recommended course of diet and supplements but he’s always supportive and compassionate. He hasn’t given up on me. He listens and stays with me. The pharmacist at Marin Medical says that he’s the best private detective of any MD.
I have a great deal of respect Dr. Haas as a person, as a physician and as an author of very important nutrition books. As the Chinese say… Let Food be thy medicine. He practices what he preaches and it works.

I was enthusiastic about seeing Doctor Haas because he didn’t seem like your typical doctor, given his knowledge of nutrition and more «natural» healing treatments. But wow, I’ve never been so offended by a person in my life. Rating him one star is already more than this man deserves.
If you are a woman who would like to pay to have someone degrade you for being sexually active, and critique relationships in your life they know nothing about, CONGRATS! Doctor Haas is the doctor for you!
I thought it was weird that he was asking about my relationship, (which is a happy and healthy one by the way) but I went along with it because I figured he was just trying to break the ice and make friendly conversation. But Doctor Haas seemed to have a lot to say about the age of my lover (which I actually LIED about, because at this point in our appointment I already felt like I had to censor myself to avoid a snarky remark. Apparently I didn’t censor enough) And upon acting interested in my plans to move in the near future said, «Oh, well I guess you’ll be leaving that boyfriend behind then.» I expressed that we were actually thinking about doing the move together. But Doctor Haas for some reason thought it would be appropriate to comment that he didn’t think it could realistically happen. I wasn’t looking for commentary from a person who’d known me for all of 7 minutes and knew nothing but the age of my significant other, but I appreciated those… encouraging…words.
But it only got worse. Upon asking if I was taking any medication I revealed that I was taking birth control. He asked me if this was because I was sexually active, and I told him that yes, it was. «Alright. Well you’re a bit young for that but I guess if you think you’re ready…» he left his sentence dangling. Doctor’s shouldn’t be discouraging adult women from being sexually active. They should be encouraging them to do so SAFELY and RESPONSIBLY. He didn’t seem concerned AT ALL with whether or not I was practicing safe sex, just taken aback that I would do so at all. I went to him expecting a liberal open minded person, but I felt like I was sitting in a doctors office in Missouri with a conservative abstinence-​preaching orthodox Christian.
I’m sure the other two doctor’s at his office are wonderful – which is probably why they were booked for the entire next month but his schedule was wide open. But I seriously just don’t even want to go back there and have to see him. I’m not even gonna go into how he tries to up-​sell his book to you half a dozen times in a fifteen minute time span.

Dr. Haas came highly recommended by an integrative medicine specialist in the East Bay. So I had high hopes when I took my young son to him to get tested for subtle but persistent digestion problems.
I asked for a simple order of digestion tests from the well respected specialty lab Genova Diagnostics, as I suspected a food sensitivity or a parasite. I was told we needed a consultation appointment first, and before that, fill out a mountain of paperwork where we pretty much signed away our rights to everything, and promised to pay for every last administrative burden there could ever be. Fine.
The ‘consultation’ was a joke. Dr. Haas barely looked at my son and instead spent most of his time talking about his books. Finally, during the last few minutes of our meeting he agreed to order the Genova Diagnostics tests that I asked for. Also he made sure to remind me of their policies of charging for everything, including pretty much just looking at their front door.
Fast forward a few weeks: the results were in, and we had to come get them during another required «consultation.» Another joke. We were handed a copy of my son’s results (which was a dirty copy printed on a the back side of their old office documents!) and briefly read some of the key points. The lab’s verdict was indeed a common parasite, for which Dr. Haas promptly scribbled a prescription, and then moved on to the topic dear to his heart … his books. When I got the bill for all this, I could not believe my eyes because it amounted to over $ 700. About half of that was designated to cover the 2 required «consultations» which were little else than a bunch of self promotion.
I should have turned around and walk out when I saw that my generally friendly son wanted nothing to do with this doctor. No, he has no doctor-​phobia, he happily visits and chats with his pediatrician and loves going to his dentist. He just had a reaction to one doctor’s utter lack of interest in his little patient.
(This rating does not apply to the lab itself, Genova Diagnostics formerly Great Smoky Mountains Lab, which is independent of Dr. Haas; I was very happy with their work. Fortunately, any physician can request tests from them.)

I was thrilled to find the author of my favorite nutrition book just over the bridge. I was even more thrilled when I could set up an appointment the next day. And a little surprised. Really good Dr. s are usually really busy.
And then I met him.
He didn’t appear to practice what he preached.
And he turned out to be just another jerk with a stethoscope.
He dismissed my comments about my blood pressure as though somehow I hadn’t been present at every physical for the past 50 something years. And he quoted old, discredited, medical association assumptions to do it! Everyone but apparently Dr. Haas knows that small women who run often have low, sometimes scary low, blood pressure. When my blood pressure comes up to normal, something is wrong. But not in Dr. Haas’s office.
The last time my blood pressure was 120/​95, I had glass in my eye, I was in excruciating pain, and no one believed me because my bp was «normal.» That translates into «no pain medication you, you little druggie» which seems to be what most hospitals think I am. If I can’t get my own Dr. to recognize what normal is for me, I will never be treated properly in any hospital for anything. And I will remain in completely unnecessary pain.
3.15.13
He is currently, simultaneously, trying to sell me one of his cleansing workshops while denying me the results of a test (not serious, not cancer or anything) that I have already paid for and he said he would give me over the phone.
He is also pretending that we haven’t already gone over the notes that I’d written for a previous appointment because he’s using them as a pretext for another office visit. It’s like he’s promising extra attention to the starved.
If he was a lawyer, he’d be chasing ambulances.
4.18.13
He’s still emailing me.
The alternative Marcus Welby he most certainly is not.
He keeps saying I have problems with men, «white men,» and «big white guys» like him. I’m a pasty-​faced white chick so this got me to wondering what he was nattering on about and then I remembered that I was once handed the Cal ID for a black Alison Valerie Horton. Clearly Dr Haas has no idea who his patient is/​was (but, on the bright side, he’s discovered teh Googles! or maybe it’s Facebookistan).
Apparently in Elson-​world, he can do no wrong and anyone who thinks differently must have an ulterior motive. It can’t possibly be that they just really dislike a bad, race baiting Doctor.
1.10.14
If all it takes is good will, why wouldn’t he give me the test results he promised. He withheld them for over a year. I wouldn’t go back because I don’t trust people who lie. The only reason I got the results in the end was because he thought I was going to schedule another appointment. For an entire month.
My current Dr. has a lot of his ex-​patients. Must be a reason for that.
He really is just another arrogant Dr. who hides behind his pretend higher calling.

I have been a patient of Dr. Haas for one and a half years. I have been on Armour Thyroid medication for over 15 years and in March 2011, I went to Dr. Haas for an annual physical including thyroid blood tests. A few weeks later, after reviewing results of my blood work, he increased the amount of my thyroid medication. About 6 weeks later, I made an appointment to see Dr. Haas because I was experiencing extreme bloating, exhaustion, joint pain and other symptoms. He ordered new blood work. Results were «inconclusive.» The severity of my symptoms increased and one Saturday morning I could hardly breathe or walk. My boyfriend drove me to my acupuncturist who said my heart was strong but I should go to my doctor first thing Monday morning. When I saw Dr. Haas I had been unable to eat for several weeks, had lost 10 pounds, and was severely dehydrated from several weeks of diarrhea. He ordered more blood tests, a sonogram and chest xray, and referred me to a cardiologist, and a gastroenterologist. After hours of examinations and tests, the latter of these doctors suggested that my blood work showed that my thyroid was now HYPER rather than HYPO and that I showed all the signs of too much thyroid medication. I stopped taking the medication and within 6 days my symptoms were greatly improved. On the seventh day, I spent 2 hours with an Endocrinologist who confirmed that I was taking too much thyroid. He also told me that the particular kind I had been prescribed, Armour, is a non-​standardized extract that can vary from batch to batch. All of my symptoms were typical. When I called Dr. Haas to report that my symptoms were gone and the mystery had been solved he said that he «specialized in thyroid» and «disagreed» with the other doctors. Fortunately for me, I followed their advice and am on the way back to health.