Debra L Bunger, MD

Do NOT go to this Dr. She was completely self absorbed during my 20 mins in her office (I did all my paper work ahead of time, delivered it days ahead of my appointment and then spent the first 30 or so minutes of my appointment time filling out more paperwork (questionnaires). When I did finally did see her, she seemed uninterested in any info about me & smirked when I told her something my regular Dr had recommended. I told her I had just finished weaning off Paxil (hell on earth) and was having horrible detox symptoms. She gave me a prescription for Prozac, which I foolishly trusted her judgement and took for 3 days which caused me to have intense and real suicidal thoughts. Please do not trust your care to this woman

it’s unfair to judge a doctor’s ability to treat by the office staff. yes, it’s true that the billing gets messed up some. mine was also. but hey, crap happens!
dr bunger is warm and seems genuinely concerned about ME. i’ve seen many doctors and they all tried to help, i guess. however, dr bunger appears to «get it.» AND she is the first to give me the real help i needed.
i was living in hell. my mood swings were not just effecting me. all the people that i loved, and who tried to love me, were thrown into chaos when a full blown episode would hit.
that doesn’t happen anymore… and i have dr bunger to thank for that. i have a life now.
yes. my billing got messed up too. so what? it got straightened out in the end.

Worthless psychiatrist. Not only did she try to prescribe me a hard-​core bipolar medication within 10 minutes of walking into her office and filling out a questionaire (i’ve been to several psychiatrists and nobody has EVER mentioned that I’ve had bipolar disorder) I left her a check which she made the mistake of not cashing, and therefore charged me tons of late fees and reported it to the American Credit Burough. Again, worthless worthless worthless

This Dr. should be ashamed of herself!

Do not see this Psychitrist!
She gave up on me in the middle of a medication adjustment. Her front desk employees are loud and unprofessional. They play inappropriate music for a mental health office (I felt like I was in a rave during most visits). Her front desk also lacks the ability effectively listen and communicate; making it very difficult for patients going through a difficult time.
She mailed out a letter that she would be increasing her rates and proudly boasted about it in her letter. In order to have my disability form filled out for an extension she charged me an additional $ 25 fee (I’ve never had any other doctor do this). She is definitely money hungry.
Dr. Bunger spends most of your appointment typing the information you say into her computer with minimal or no eye contact. However, her note taking appears to be ineffective as she has trouble remembering things in future appointments. Her inability to actually keep notes resulted in me receiving delayed disability income. This further resulted in me having an episode and getting terminated as a patient.
I am not surprised with most of her Unilocal reviews. If I could give her negative stars I would. She really screwed up my recovery.

My advice is to be aware that you may be paying more than you are told. I chose this office from my approved provider network and was seen twice after being told that my visits would be completely covered by insurance other than a small copay. About six months later I received a pretty high bill from the office and corresponded with them to be told that the situation was resolved with my insurance company. A year later, after receiving the same bill I corresponded again with the office and my insurance company, both told me it would be covered by insurance and not to worry, I would be informed of any further issue. About another year later I received the same bill. It’s too late to bill my insurance company, it will not be covered as I was told it would and what is very disappointing to me is that Dr. Bunger is not willing to discuss negotiating the bill. So while I’m pleased that she is able to help the patients that have given her such positive reviews, and perhaps some are not as worried as I am about being told the visit would be covered and then later receiving a substantial bill. I found the unwillingness to discuss the bill and possibly negotiate due to what I was told by the office and the length of time that this has dragged out very, very disappointing.

AVOID AT ALL COST!!! I made the mistake of not looking at the reviews, never again! this business is all about the money! she charges $ 250/​hour, and if your late to an appointment they will charge you $ 100. When trying to talk to them they hung up on me. they don’t stay at the office until closing time. If you try to contact them they will avoid your calls. I am still waiting for them to call me and sort things out. Maybe i’ll relax this rating if they can get back to me.

I made the unfortunate choice to reach out to the practice of Debbie Bummmer when I should have chosen a doctor with much higher online doctor rating. Her low rating shows through in her administrative staff. The reason for this rating is primarily due to the administrative staff’s inability to handle documentation and scheduling in an efficient and precise manner while blaming potential patients for their inabilities.
Contacting the doctor’s office was already a chore as it seems they only work less than a day total in that office. This should have been my first sign to about face and find another, more reputable doctor. I had attempted to schedule an appoint some months ago with the doctor and spoke with what seemed to be a polite young lady on the phone, without realizing that in this particular case I would instead be dealing with a less than professional receptionist. I asked her to read off the available appointments for the near future which she explained would be the immediate Saturday or three to four weeks from the current date at the time due to the doctor alternating locations every other week (or something along those lines). I explained to the admin that she could tentatively place me on the schedule, and she agreed, noting that I should call back with any changes to my availability. Due to a change in my availability, I called back 2 days prior to the appointment as she had requested, and asked that she simply push back the appointment to a more reasonable date.
This is where things start to get ridiculous.
She claimed that she would be unable to change the appointment without charging me a 100 $ cancellation fee since the time of my call in was 2 hours past the 48 hour mark from the time that I had called in initially 2 days prior.
THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
Not only had I made a point to her the first time we spoke that the appointment was possibly too close and that it should be noted as tentative, but also she had seemed to understand the first time that this was the case without explaining to me that when she said 2 days, she really meant 2 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds. She also had no notes or recollection that we had spoken about the date being possibly too close and therefore tentative. To me, this is fishy.
I’ve never in my life been deal with this sort of customer service, where if you call in one minute too late, you’re now charged 100 $. If I had called a day before the appointment after she had requested 2 days, that would be more understandable. However, this is simply absurd.
At this point, I requested to speak with whomever manages the practice and administrative staff, in which she replied in a very rude and obviously annoyed tone of voice that she is the only person available. I then requested that if she is the only person I can talk to, that the doctor contact me about this absurdity, and she confirmed to me that the doctor would contact me.
I never received a phone call, email, or any other method of contact in regards to this issue.
Instead, 2 months or so later, I receive a bill in the mail for 100 $. Every month, I see an additional bill in the mail for 100 $. I have yet to receive a phone call from the doctor, and do not expect one after 100+ days since I had spoken with the administrative staff.
My suggestions:
Typically when we pursue a new practitioner, we hope to find someone that we can not only trust, but also feel comfortable with. A doctor should not make you lament making an appointment.
If you want a pleasant experience when finding a new doctor and find Deb Bumger on the list of available practitioners in your area, SKIP OVER IT. Don’t even waste your time. You’ll be ripping your hair out just trying to make an appointment, let alone dealing with the admin staff. I’ve dealt with some pretty poor staff in the past, but this experience is among the worst.
If you want a doctor you can trust, don’t waste your time with D. Bung as you cannot even trust her staff to do their job and not piss people off in the process. I mean seriously, how in debt or broke or whatever else Doc Bungo is where she sees the need to instruct her admin staff to set a timer for 48.0 hours from the exact time of the appointment. The dumb admin forgot to tell me what time zone she scheduled me for! I know we all have had appointments with doctors, arrived 10 minutes early, to only be seen 15 – 30 minutes after the start time of the appointment. Unless I can expect to see a prorated refund or flat fee returned to me should the doctor ever be minutes or seconds late for an appointment with a guarantee in writing, then don’t try to pull this BS with potential patients.
BOTTOM LINE. Don’t waste your time. The BBB has already heard from a few folks on here Doc Bung. Clean up your act.

The *ONLY* reason I’m even giving Dr. Bunger any credit whatsoever is because she somehow managed to properly manage my medication. She is not professional in any sense, she violated privacy and trust. She talked about herself a lot, and unfortunately, some of her family members personally know some of mine. That is where the breach of trust happened. She brought this into our appointments. Her office staff was rarely courteous, professional, or knowledgeable of proper billing. They overcharged my insurance on a few occasions and I was forced to deal with it since it’s ultimately my responsibility to prove the error. I have never experienced worse treatment from a medical facility ever — her office staff goofed my appointment and I paid dearly for it. My prescription, which I can’t really live without for a day, was basically held hostage because I was due for an a management appointment. Although, it was the receptionist who scheduled my appointment incorrectly. Her office would not return the pharmacist calls, and it took me three days to reach someone in her office. No one called to advise what the problem was with my prescription. When I finally spoke with the receptionist, she was horribly rude and down right hostile. I was considerably upset when I couldn’t get my prescription, and she had to tell me how unprofessional I was and how it was not their problem that I did not schedule my management appointment appropriately. As well as telling me even if it was the office that did not schedule per the timeframe I requested (3 months out), that I should have been more self-​aware if the prescription was that detrimental. My response was — you could have a little more compassion, especially considering the type of treatment. When I finally got my prescription renewed a week after I ran out, I was told that if I skipped five days, I would have to start my regimen all over. This was horrifying to me. I am still being charged still for a «missed» appointment. Although I cancelled that appointment as soon as I found another doctor. I only stayed with her as long as I did because I was frightened I would not get the same prescriptions elsewhere. It was a miserable experience for over two years (after the breach of trust) that I just learned to deal with until that last straw. When I explained what happened to other doctors, they were appalled. I was basically told her diagnosis and medication management for me was pretty much a fluke considering the complaints from former patients. I have at least three friends that saw her on only a few occasions because she seemed to diagnose hastily as well as having a poor office staff. I would never recommend this office, even to my worst enemy.

Dr. Bunger is excellent. She does medication management and is not really a therapist per se. Although she will always come up with one or two ideas to make me feel better that really work. I appreciate her no-​nonsense style and she is never judgemental. She wants to make sure her patients have the right levels of medication and stay «sane». :) She does Skype appointments so you don’t have to drive into her office. And she also has short 15 minute appointments on Thursdays for those who can’t afford a longer appt. She is very careful. Her office is busy and sometimes there are delays with appointments etc. I don’t really mind. The other things she brings to the table are far more important to me.

Kicked me out of her practice because I got a refill of my medication from my PCP when I couldn’t afford to see Dr. Bunger and she refused to do a medication refill without me paying for an appointment. I went 2 weeks without my medication and she still refused to do a refill, bill me for the appointment or let me pay in parts. She also never once called me back, just an office person, who then had to say she would send the dr. a message and then call me back, 9 times out of 10 they never called me back.
9÷12÷2013: I received this message from Dr. Bunger in my email today, as a reply to my review: «Kymberlie, I would rather not answer you publicly on Unilocal but you know what you wrote was not what happened. You left my practice 10 months ago until you needed something from me that your primary care physician would not provide. I am sorry you made the choices you did but I did not do anything wrong. You signed paperwork that indicated that if you did not come in at the frequency required your prescriptions would not be renewed. What you are doing to discredit my work is dishonest and unfair. I hope you will reconsider and take down your dishonest review.»
Here is what I have to say Dr. Bunger:
1.)I did not officially leave your practice, but was unable to afford the visits as my insurance would no longer cover them and I could not afford to pay for them myself.
2.) I had not discussed the paperwork you are referring to with my PCP, even though I could have. I wanted to see my psychiatrist to discuss it.
3.) I am only sorry that I made the choice to be treated by you in the first place, but I was in a very bad place and you were the first psychiatrist to call me back. Desperation made me pick you as a doctor and fear of being off my meds is what made me contact my PCP for a refill when I couldn’t afford to see you.
4.) Every patient signs forms when they come to see a doctor, I would recommend that you make it very clear what events/​choices would result in you deciding to not treat a patient.
5.) We will have to agree to disagree regarding dishonest and unfair, I have not lied and the only unfair aspect of these events was that your patient wasn’t a priority.
See Heather F’s 1÷26÷2011 review, was she being dishonest and unfair as well?
You should be ashamed of yourself for caring more about money and your signed papers than you do about your patients and their mental and physical well being.

I have been a patient of Dr. Bunger for roughly 8 yrs. Long enough to understand some complaints others have mentioned. In the past it seemed as if there was an issue hiring people capable of doing the job. There was a lot of turn over, every appt there was someone new. A lot of these people did not seem interested in doing a good job. BUT, that has changed. The staff now has a much better attitude and seems to care about doing a good job.
In the past I too considered going somewhere else, but I am glad I stuck with it, because Dr. Bunger is worth it.

When it comes to Dr. Bunger’s level of care, compassion, and treatment, I would give her 5 stars.
As far as the office operation goes… I’ve never experienced a more frustrating and incompetent staff in my life. There are two ladies in particular who not only do not care about their job, they have no level of energy or interest in their patients. I feel as though I am speaking to a lifeless puppet, not a human being with a brain.
I started using skype to meet with the doctor, so my face to face interactions with the staff has become limited… which has actually made me more frustrated. When trying to schedule my next appointment, I was hung up on, and after leaving several messages, I was never contacted back. My medication ran out, and I had several voicemails and emails to her office staff with no response.
Billing is a completely different story when it comes to these ladies. It is as if they are too lazy to contact the insurance. They just keep sending me the bills instead of doing the work they were hired to do.
Overall, they do not listen, do not care, and they do not communicate amongst each other or to their patients.
Dr. Bunger: YOU ARE BETTER OFF HAVING A «SELF-​CHECKOUT» MUCH LIKE SAFEWAY, THAN YOU ARE PAYING THESE PEOPLE.
So, once an appointment can finally be made, the appointment is great. Everything else before and after? I honestly might just decide one of these days to up and start seeing another psych. I am holding on in the hopes that I can have a face to face chat with her or the office staff to see if some middle ground can be established.

Let me just say this first of all– When it comes to Doctors most people only post if they have something bad to say, and some people interpret people’s behavior differently than most people will. Especially emotional and sensitive people. Which (let’s face it) Dr. Bunger obviously sees A LOT of.
I have never had any feelings that Dr. Bunger is a cold and uncaring person. Every single time I see her she checks up on things we talked about in the previous session (medicine wise or more personal issues). She doesn’t act like a know-​it-​all doctor, and she asks me how I feel about medication and whether or not what she has planned for me is something I feel comfortable doing. Whenever I tell her that I have done some reasearch on the medication and ask her questions about it she is never everr upset. She even encourages me to do more research so I can feel comfortable with what I am taking.
I noticed someone mentioning that she types on her computer the entire time. While she does type on the computer, she definitely is not ignoring me. And how could anyone complain about her documenting what you are telling her? She has many patients and needs to document how each one is doing. I am GLAD she types so much because that means she is really trying to record my progress.
I have never had any billing issues, which seems to be the main issue.
I was absolutely miserable before I saw her. I couldn’t attend school because of how bad my situation was. I am attending school and doing well, my relationships are better and my mental state is so much better.

I have been with Dr Bunger for over 2 years and have not had any problems with her office. She is very professional and intelligent. She is very up to date on the newest medicines, and has helped me immensely. The easy «drop in appointments» offered once a week works great for my schedule.

I was astonished to read the negative reviews of Dr. Bunger and feel compelled to defend her and her staff. Any business could have an occasional glitch in billing. That is no reason to demean a doctor’s practice.
I have been Dr. Bunger’s patient since just after she moved to town some years ago. She helped me find a solution to a long-​troubling issue. Based on that early success, I saw the value in regular visits to insure continued good results. The timing of these re-​checks has varied from weekly to once every three months, depending on her evaluation of my discussion with her.
She is consistently caring, helpful, cheerful and a real delight to talk to. She also has the training and experience with medications to know what really works and what is drug company advertising hype.
Her practice focuses on medication management, not talk therapy. If you want a psychologist in addition to a psychiatrist, she would be happy to give you a list of those practicing in your area. Most insurance companies will pay for both services if the providers are in their network. That said, I have never felt rushed during her appointments and she will give me the time I need. Perhaps that is because I try to come in with a good attitude and do not blame her for my own problems.
Finding a psychiatrist who is accepting new patients is not easy. There is a great demand for services in Santa Cruz County and many doctors have all the patients they can handle. But if you feel any doctor is not right for you after an initial consultation, your obligation is to find someone else and move on.

Ok, so I’m going to give a totally honest review of Dr Bunger. Truthfully, I like her as a doctor and I felt like she knew what she was doing and understood my condition. With that said, I have to agree with everyone below with the billing issues. I have insurance and only pay a small copay. I had my treatment with Dr Bunger approved before I even went in for my first visit. After a few visits I started getting these huge bills from her office. I called her office and find out why I was getting these bills. They told me it was my insurance and they weren’t paying… yada, yada, yada. Bottom line on this situation is that the office staff that Dr Bunger has isn’t diligent enough in getting their money from insurance. The girls that were behind the counter seemed more annoyed than anything telling me, «You may just have to pay this bill.» Instead of pursuing getting their money. I haven’t had any problems with medical bills getting paid ever except when dealing with this office. They even started sending me collection notices that Dr Bunger had signed herself. This is when I stopped going in as a patient. I finally had to do a three way call between my insurance company and Dr Bunger’s incompetent staff to get the situation resolved. So, I gave her a 3 star review in the hopes that she will start to handle billing issues with insurance a little differently and hire people who actually care about following up on these kind of situations. It’s a pity really because I would have like to have continued using her, but I just feel offended and put off by the whole thing. I think the main problem is bad hiring decisions on the Dr’s part…

Dr. Bunger just wanted to push pills on me. I had to drop Dr. Bunger as a provider when I wanted to be removed from some medication and the Doctor would not allow me. the reasons for the refusal were not health based for me and seemed more monetary for the provider.
I have been with a new provider for a year now and am much healthier for it.

I had the unfortunate experience of seeing this doctor a couple of years ago — at the time that I needed a doctor no other doctors in the area were taking new patients.
This woman is the most uncompassionate doctor I have ever been to and she is all about the billing and get her money. I was a cash patient had several powers with her biling practices.
Horrible service — I will never ever return.
I tried to file a report with medical board & I informed the BBB about her business practices.
I am surprised she is still in practice.

This office is very unprofessional and dishonest. They «supposedly» called my insurance company and was told I had a $ 500 deductible, which they called me before. So I paid out $ 465 to them over three visits.
Come to find out, I do not have a deductible, and was only required to pay a $ 30 copay per visit. So I called the office and informed them, and they will not issue a refund until the office has received the money, since so many insurance companies are unreliable… According to Anthem Blue Cross (the biggest insurance company in California) they had already issued and mailed two checks to her.
Furthermore, Anthem stated that the doctor’s office was dishonest on their claim form, since it stated that they had not received any money from me for these visits. (This is double billing, and is considered INSURANCE FRAUD.) If the claim form had stated that I had already paid the Dr. Anthem would have sent the claim payment directly to me, rather than the office.
Their office is very rude, even before this issue. They accidentally voided my credit card charge on my second visit, and called me a few hours after the appointment wanting to charge me again, which the funds were still being held in my back account. I refused to pay them again, until the money was released into my account. They were apparently very frustrated with me over their mistake.
There are several other bad reviews for this doctor on
, but I had no choice as no other doctor in my network would return any of my calls. She wanted to see me once a week for the first three weeks, which was really unnecessary. I feel she was very money hungry, and did not care much for my own well being. The appointment itself was very frustrating as she commonly referred to herself, and not me, the patient. I have been to much much better psychiatrists in my life.
I do not recommend you go to this Dr. under any circumstance, but if you must, like I did, I suggest you watch the money you pay them, and call your insurance company ahead of time to confirm what your benefits are.