Brian Meehan, MD

Dr. Meehan is great, his receptionist and front desk staff are curt and rude. The other doctor and PA are meh.

I have been a patient of Doctor Brian Meehan since 2006
— Brian is a good doctor. He is nice, calm, knowledgeable. I like him
— service worsened overtime
— poor office management

I was a patient of Dr. Meehan for a long time, before, during and after Dr. Bowling and Irina. I used to think he was a good, compassionate doctor but not anymore. The practice has really gone downhill. He used to call personally with test results, no more. Recently it took him more than 10 days to send some info to another doc and when I tried to expedite this (b/​c it was very important), he was amazingly unprofessional and abusive. His front desk staff is surly and his one other employee, his nurse, is not allowed to give her phone number to patients. All you get is her long voicemails about your lab results, but forget about it if you have a question or concern. STAY AWAY.

Unilocal seems biased to me as they will post any and all negative reviews but 5– stars reviews of actual customers get sent to the not-​recommended pile.
Hello Unilocal,if you haven’t already noticed, MANY others think you’re manipulating small businesses. This office IS my primary care provider and I have the right to be heard as much as the complainers do.

Dr Meehan is a great doctor! Smart, extremely thorough and a just a pleasure to deal with. The staff always tries to squeeze you in when you need to see the Dr right away. The office is beautiful and in a great location too.

Dr Meehan is great. His receptionists could use a little attitude check.
I guess this is the price you pay for a great doc like Meehan. He is thorough and kind, and seems to really care.

I’ve been seeing Dr. Meehan (along with MANY of my friends, because we all refuse to see anyone else) for years now. The loyalty began when he happened to very calmly save my friend’s life: this friend had seen his usual doctor complaining of very bad stomach cramps, and had been told he had indigestion. When he stayed home from work in considerable pain, many of my friends urged him to get a second opinion from Dr. Meehan. Approximately two hours later my friend was in an ambulance on his way to the ICU, suffering from what turned out to be a severely blocked intestine.
Dr. Meehan is kind, absurdly thorough, and deeply interested in understanding his patients’ entire medical lives.
I’ve been a New Yorker for 20 years, and I am absolutely one of those hardened types who refuses to get into a taxi without weighing in on the exact route. There are multiple area hospitals I refuse to use. I have a parent who’s a medical academic so I have spent my whole life hearing about the differences in styles of practice and the questions that good doctors ask. If your live in New York, Dr. Meehan is the guy to use as your annual, go-​to doctor.

It is ridiculous that I only talked to the doctor for less than 5 minutes and they charged me for $ 200! The doctor said all I need is a referral to another doctor. He even did not check anything on me. I can’t believe they charged me for that. Any suggestions what I can do about it? By the way I set up the appointment with Dr. Meehan, but the doctor who talked to me was obviously someone else instead of Dr. Meehan!

I want to give Dr. Meehan zero stars. I have been seeing him for a few years only because my gyno Dr. Orbach (who is WONDERFUL) happens to be in the same office and it was convenient. Dr. Meehan misdiagnosed me and had me taking meds for 2 years just do do blood work again 2 years later and tell me I didn’t have the issue after all. He is not interested, gives you no time, barely cares. The nurses are wonderful but the women at the front desk are curt and not very nice. Do they not realize that human beings are walking into their office in vulnerable states and paying LOADS of insurance money and co-​pays and deserve to be treated like they matter.

This office is a joke. I went there for Dr Meehan but I was seen by some random doctor. The secretary is negative and bitchy! She will do nothing to accommodate the patients’ request. Once I had to call 3 times to get a refill for a medicine that I am on for the past 2 years. There is always at least 30 minutes wait for 3 minutes visit. I dont recommend this office!

I have no idea how good a doctor Meehan is, since I never get to see him for over about 120 seconds, after a minimum of 45 minutes of lateness, because he’s packing in too many patients in too short a period of time.
So if he’s any good, good for him. It’d be nice if his patients knew it.

Let me tell you I give Dr. Meehan 5 stars BUT I hardly ever get to see him myself. Each time I go in to the office they assign me to the Asian dude who can not look you in the eye! I had some really horrific virus for about 4 days and could barely walk last time, called the office and asked if it was worth coming in, told them all my symptoms and they said yes. I went all the way there which was EXTREMELY hard for me in that state, waited in the waiting room, once again was brought in to see the Asian doctor, he barely looked me in the eye and told me to take Advil. He said they can only prescribe antibiotics within 24 hrs of the onset of symptoms. Why oh why did they make me go all the way there? It cost me $ 40 in a taxi ride to and from. I was so angry. I wish he would get his staff together and fix this place because the office décor, cleanliness and his bedside manner is great.

I have nothing bad to say about Meehan because he is attentive and really cares. However, whatever you do DO NOT see Dr. Bowling. I had to see him twice when Meehan was out and he misdiagnosed me and has NO idea what he is talking about. He looked at me like I had three heads and had no idea what was wrong with me when all I had was a stomach bug.

Save yourself the hassle.
I’ve had problems with two doctors in this practice in that they do not return phone calls. At all. The office policy is that you need to come back in for (and pay for) another visit if you have a question, which may or may not explain the terrible follow-​up, but it’s sure suspicious. Four unreturned messages later, I’m done.

Dr. Brian Meehan is an exceptional doctor. In an over-​scheduled, hurried world, he takes the time to listen carefully and make thoughtful recommendations. You truly feel that he cares about your situation. Not everything about health care is tests and medications. He overlays a solid understanding of medical issues with extremely good judgement — and is excellent counsel during difficult decisions.
I’ve never experienced the wait times some other reviewers have, but I do agree with the assessment that the receptionist is moody and can be extremely cranky depending on when you catch her. I almost changed doctors because of it, but It would be impossible to find a Doctor with the knowledge and exceptional bedside manner of Dr. Meehan.

I’ve been seeing Dr. Meehan for 10 years. Before Dr. Meehan, I didn’t trust Doctors. Doctor Meehan is super competent, thorough and thoughtful. I always recommend him to everyone. Everyone. He’s an excellent diagnostician and saves lives. His physicals are amazing.
Because he is one of the few good doctors out there, he has become very popular. He’s built a very successful practice over the last 10 years. Yes, there might be a wait but it’s worth it. His office staff are so hard working, thoughtful and patient (I’ve seen them multi-​task on so many things and take care of business). I would never be able to do their job. I am so grateful to have found Dr. Meehan. Even though I don’t need referrals for specialists, I still ask Dr. Meehan for referrals because he always recommends the best doctors. One time I was referred to a specific doctor. I had to jump in a cab to to go to the appointment. Dr. Meehan’s office called me while I was in the cab. Turned out the referred doctor did not take my insurance. So, they arranged for a different doctor to see me. They’re the best.

Like everyone else has said, Dr. Meehan seems like a good doctor. Nice guy, patient, seems genuinely concerned, and explains everything clearly to you without being condescending or dismissive. Unfortunately, these qualities seem to have led to him being too successful/​busy to do his job well (at least in my case).
At first, I really liked Dr. Meehan! I even recommended him to a couple friends! (Um, sorry, Matt E.) But over time, I started to understand where the negative reviews came from, and now look at me here, writing my own.
The back story: I had gone in for a physical a while back, and there was an issue (not super major) that he wanted to monitor. He put me on medication, and told me to come back in two weeks for a followup. I started taking the medication, and following his orders regarding diet & exercise. I scheduled an appointment for two weeks later to tweak the medication if needed, and to check on the issue.
I ended up coming in for quite a few followup appointments. Sometimes I would see Dr. Zuperman (I think officially her title is physician’s assistant, but I’m not sure), who would diagnose me with something different or change my medication completely. Then I’d come in two weeks later for Dr. Meehan to say «yeah, it looks like that isn’t working, let’s go back to [original medication],» and he would change my medication again, and tell me to come back in 2 – 4 weeks for a followup. This went on for about six months. At two points, Dr. Meehan sent me to specialists to do additional testing. Throughout this time, nothing was resolved (this seemed like a result of Dr. Zuperman saying the opposite of what Dr. Meehan was saying, or Dr. Meehan second-​guessing himself), nor were any real solutions or a plan put in place.
Aside from the actual practice of medicine, his office is very busy and I definitely fell through the cracks a couple of times. Your appointment time is NEVER your actual appointment time. I’d make an appointment for, say, 12:30. I’d show up at 12:25ish, and the receptionist would tell me that I was late and my appointment was for 12 or 12:15. Or, that my appointment wasn’t until 1:00. I would occasionally get a confirmation call the day before, and the appointment time would ALWAYS be different, so at least I’d know and be able to adjust my time around their schedule (how’s that for twisted?) Also, I almost always waited a long time, whether it was in the waiting room, or the exam room.
I usually had to go back in for an appointment to get a refill on my prescription (that, again, seemingly wasn’t working but was made to seem like it was keeping me alive). There was one time I didn’t need to go in to get a refill. I called saying that I needed a refill in a week and was told that I’d get a call back. I never received a call back. I called again, and was told they’d call back. They didn’t. After the third call (and I’ll admit, I was worried, because when I received this prescription, Dr. Meehan said, «MAKE SURE you don’t skip a day»), I received a nasty voicemail from the receptionist that my refill had been called into my pharmacy a week ago… which was not my pharmacy at all. I guess I should feel lucky that the pharmacy they called was in Astoria (where I live). But it was open limited hours and far from public transport, while I would have preferred the one I get all my prescriptions from, the one that I walk by every day and provided phone, address and fax # for each time I called for this refill.
Needless to say, this whole thing was very stressful on me, which probably made my (again, relatively minor) issue worse.
I was very frustrated with the whole ordeal up until last December (this had been going on since June/​July). I had one of my «come back in two weeks» appointments scheduled for the first week of December. On the morning of the appointment, I got a phone call saying «there has been an emergency, your appointment had to be canceled, please call us to reschedule.» Ok, fine, stuff happens, not a huge deal. I schedule for the following week. THAT appointment gets canceled a day or two before, without explanation. So I make one more appointment for two weeks after the second appointment because that’s all that was available (so this now brings us to almost a month after when the actual appointment would have been), and guess what? Canceled, the morning of the appointment. I called back and left a message saying I needed to schedule a new appointment and for someone to please call me back. No one did. At that point, I didn’t bother calling back either.
I’ve since found an awesome doctor who I’ll review on here one day, and yes, my medical issue is under control, and it didn’t take 27 appointments to get it done :)

As another reviewer said, it should not seem so shocking when it happens, but Dr. Meehan looks you in the eye when you talk, asks you questions, and seems to be generally concerned and has a relaxing attitude.
The office has kind of annoying strict policies, like if you’re 15 minutes late you forfeit your appointment. something they don’t tell you when it, and the receptionist is fine but doesn’t seem super happy to be helping you.

Off the bat I can say he is a good doctor. Patiently listens, doesn’t talk down to you, seems to genuinely care. And I wanted so bad to find a good general doctor. So what is with my 2 stars? Unfortunately the experience here is marred by SHADY OFFICE PRACTICES.
Here is the thing: when you go there for the general physical, you have to undress and put on the skimpy hospital gown. Cool. Whatever. They do the EKG in the first room. Then you have to walk to another room to meet with the doctor himself. And here is shady part one: you have to walk down the hallway in the skimpy hospital gown, and the waiting room has a clear view straight down the hallway. Great, all the random creepers in the waiting room get to see you walkin’ in the barely there hospital gown. Am I being prudish here? It is a doctors office. Put up a damn curtain or something to block the hallway view.
As I said, meeting with Doctor Meehan himself was a good experience. My insurance entitles me to one co-​pay free physical a year. But the receptionist claims you have to come back to office again for all your test results. Seriously? If there is a problem, call me and I will come in. Instead I wasted paying a copay and a day of work going back to the office, only spend 5 minutes hearing my blood tests were fine. Shady!
And why I finally said screw it, I was sick, ended up seeing the (again super-​nice) PA, who gave me antibiotics that I had a bad reaction to. I left about 50 messages saying ‘help, I have taken 2 of these and its making me sick, what do I do?’ because as everyone knows you should not stop taking antibiotics, and yea no one ever called me back. Ended up going to some crappy walk in clinic. At least they call you back!

Brian Meehan came highly recommended to me. I needed a general doctor and Meehan seemed to fit the bill so I made an appointment. When I called to make an appointment they said I could get an appointment right away with his assistant or wait a week and see him personally. I explained I wanted to see him personally because I’m looking for a primary care doctor and wanted to meet him. I just got home from my appointment (which I had to sit in the waiting room for 30minutes). I didn’t as much as see who Brian Meehan was outside of his name outside of the office (along with the 6 others he shares the office with). The only one I saw was the physician’s assistant. I brought up my concern and they told me he was busy and to specify I wanted to see him when making my appointment. I explained I had done that and I just got an apology.
There were some redeeming qualities that couldn’t be overlooked. The office is in a great location, it’s on Sullivan and Spring, about a block from the C/​E trains. The office is clean, comfortable, and beautiful. They even have a soothing waterfall and bowls candy. The only thing I would change about the office was that the examining rooms were way too hot (like in the 80s). I guess this would be good if you had to strip down but to be fully clothed, it was brutal. Despite being lied to and not seeing the doctor, the physician’s assistant, Irina Zuperman, was friendly and seemed pretty knowledgeable. I might go back here but they’re certainly not off on a good start.
UPDATE: I had an urgent concern the other day and called the doctors office. I found out how selective their hours are, they close at 4:30 Monday-​Thursday, and 2pm on Friday. I left a message with on Meehan’s answering machine and then called the after-​hours calling service and left a message with them. Sure enough no one called me back the next day.