OrthoTexas

It’s been over 2 years since I went here, but I keep getting bills in the mail from here. I went here when I was on medical leave from work, so I had Tricare and Medicaid health insurance. They told me they would accept both when I made the appointment. When I got there, I filled out their paperwork, and went to give them my insurance card, they said they didn’t accept Medicaid. I told them forget it then. I’m on leave, no money is coming in, so I can’t afford to pay for anything for this appointment. They then said they can accept Medicaid. I brought my MRI, but they had me take more ex rays, then the doctor that saw me said that my previous doctor who told me to go on leave told me wrong, and I could have been working all this time, because my back issue wasn’t that serious (which was a lie, because after that I went to 2 other doctors and they told me the same as first)
Then the doctor said I should get the pain management shots. The doctor himself was having some sort of speech problem, and shaking problem, so my opinion was that he couldn’t ever do surgery again, and was mad about that, so referred everyone away from surgery, but that was just what it seemed to me. But now knowing how much they make off the pain management shots, its clear he didn’t care, just wanted me to get shots so he can make extra money.
Well about a couple months later I get a bill for 70 something dollars saying that they don’t accept medicaid. Of course I was pissed. I went about 6 months, then I just finally started paying a little at a time. Of course they were sending me reminders constantly to make sure I pay that. After I paid it off, you would think that was over right? Nope, a few months later I got another bill for over 100 dollars saying that what I paid was only partial. Of course I’m not going to pay it. with Tricare and Medicaid I wouldn’t have had to pay anything, both insurances would have paid the whole bill,… its their fault if Medicaid isn’t paying, (probably because they are billing too much) I paid what they initially said I owed, they can’t come back a year later and say I owe more, that’s BS. This is the third doctor’s office that is doing this, Texas Back Institute in Denton tried the same, billed me a year later because my insurance wouldn’t pay because they didn’t bill my insurance in the year time frame they had, yes that is a year time frame, and they couldn’t get it right. My baby doctor’s James Herd’s office did the same. a year and a half after the baby was born I got bills saying I owe them, but my insurance gave me a letter saying they didn’t bill within the year time frame. Plus that office billed my insurance and got some money from them, when I wasn’t even using that insurance, I was on leave, using Tricare and Medicaid. So they got paid twice for their services from three different insurances, but still billing me… what’s wrong with these greedy healthcare offices!

Our experience with OrthoTexas was less than optimal. The wait for our appointment was considerable and the treatment performed by the doctor was ineffective. Worse, after billing for their services and being paid, OrthoTexas appeared to have refiled the claim months later changing the coding the treatment and costing us considerably more. This led to months of back and forth with our insurance company and, as expected, no change in the billing. Ultimately it is hard to know if it is primarily our insurance provider or OrthoTexas that was out of line. Regardless, we suggest caution and research with OrthoTexas. For your own sake, please make sure you understand all associated costs and insurance impact upfront and prior to any in office treatment.