Dr. Richard E. Blake, M.D.

Well, I had some real experiences to explain about Dr. Blake and his staff. In 2001, I sought out an African American physician to perform a hysterectomy. I was 46-​years old with one child. Dr. Blake had a very nice bedside manner and I was generally pleased with him doing the procedure. However, I had elderly parents, late 70s, and my significant other, who became my husband 3-​years later, had to take annual leave for over 5-​weeks to take care of my son and I.
I should have just stopped the procedure because this guy and his staff are all very shaky, typical long waits, etc. I had Mailhandler’s insurance and had a $ 150 deductible. I called Mailhandlers and they confirmed that that amount was my deductible. Blake’s wife, who was the office manager, told me that their office collected the $ 150 for the insurance company ha-​ha! I gave them cash money. Blake ordered all kinds of unnecessary tests before my procedure. I was a healthy 46-​year old, no high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. He had me taking tests with Quest at the hospital. Then, Blake had me take an ultrasound claiming that I had scar tissue to charge Mailhandler’s for complications from the surgery. I had a C-​Section 16 years before the surgery, of course he could not do a bikini cut.
Of course, Quest sent their bill to Mailhandler’s first, so I had to pay $ 150. I asked Blake’s office reimburse me or Quest. I was given the runaround so badly that I refused to let this guy get away with this behavior. Mailhandler’s denied the additional charges he wanted. I love Mailhandler’s because they insisted that Blake reimburse me. The company refused to pay many claims from Blake until I was reimbursed. I understand that Blake’s office lied and claimed that they were okay with Mailhandlers.
My last thoughts are: never seek out this doctor, he employes his wife and she is very rude.

Dr. Blake won’t give you the warm fuzzies, as he has very little bedside manor. If you are 5 lbs over weight he’ll tell you to lose weight. He’s very blunt and to the point. I did like him as a doctor and for female visits he was gentler than most male doctors. I was a patient for five years and I started showing up to appointments fifteen to twenty minutes late because he was never on time. Getting an appointment via phone was a complete nightmare and I had to call either the minute they opened or right when they got back from lunch. One time I showed up on time, and waited outside the locked suite because he was stuck with another patient at another location, and his staff decided to take a longer lunch due to this.
His staff is a nightmare. During a routine blood draw one of the nurses got snarky when I told her I didn’t like needles. The most infuriating thing (and the reason I stopped seeing Dr. Blake) was the billing issues. When I started seeing Dr. Blake my insurance was denied (even though he took the provider) and I was told I could either pay the money out of pocket or I could wait until the staff figured out why my insurance was denied. I mistakenly paid the money out of pocket. When I figured out my insurance (because the staff was useless) the company told me that they would pay Dr. Blake and he could reimburse me. When I brought this back to his staff they said no they wouldn’t. At the time I chalked it up to my new insurance company being a pain. A few years later when I was trying to get pregnant, Dr. Blake recommended a long line of tests when I didn’t get pregnant after three months. Before I did the tests I made sure my insurance would take care of the bill, they said they would. The office staff confirmed the day of that the tests would be covered and we proceeded. Two months later I get a bill from Quest Diagnostics (another nightmare of a company) stating my insurance wouldn’t cover any of it, which was a $ 750 bill. After calling the insurance several times, I spoke to a wonderful woman who said the medical staff did not code the bill correctly and because of this my claim was denied. The insurance was good enough to keep my claim open so the staff could correct this. I called and left messages and NONE OF THEM were returned. I only got a response when I went down to the office. The front desk receptionist informed me that it was a billing issue and she would take care of it. We both spoke to Quest who said they would delete the first invoice I received until the staff recoded the bill correctly. I followed up with the staff a month later when I did not receive a bill and my insurance company claimed they never got a new claim. After much run around with Quest and the staff, I was told by Nancy that the bill had been taken care of. It wasn’t until six months ago (over two years since my last visit) that I received a notice that my account for $ 750 was in collections because I hadn’t paid. After talking to collections and Quest, the staff filed my claim under a different name and address so I never received the new invoice, which was still wrong.

Well, well, well. Too bad there was no Unilocal back in 1998 when I used to go Dr. Blake’s old office in Northeast DC, but the truth will always find its way, even 15 years later. Back in 1998 I was in my early 20s and completely naïve to the fact that Dr. Blake was greedily overbooking. Wait times were at least 90 min. to 2 hrs, and I would wait and wait only to get a whopping 5-​minute quick over and then RESCHEDULED to come back in the next week or two. During one of these visits, Dr. Blake recommended I lose weight and peddled me a $ 40 bottle of FDA un-​approved oyster shell capsules for «fat loss.» Meanwhile, my real-​deal health issues weren’t being addressed properly. Finally, after months of non-​care, I told him that I was dissatisfied with the wait times, not getting the proper care, and questionable medical practices, and he exploded into a verbal tirade and ordered me out of his office (in hindsight, it was a blessing). I can’t speak for him as a doctor beyond the late 1990s, but my experience with him will forever remain embedded in memory as the most unprofessional and questionable practitioner I’ve ever known.

Wife tried this doctor. He wasn’t super concerned with her comfort, the staff was apathetic, and they don’t seem to have a good handle on their billing.

I haven’t been a patient long but I have been to see Dr. Blake twice in the last few months and I’m quite satisfied with my experience thus far. The fact that he works at so many different locations does make scheduling difficult at times but once you learn which days he is at your location, it’s not a problem. I see him at the Silver Spring location so I can’t speak to the experience that others have had at the HUH office. The staff in Silver Spring are great. Both times that I have been to see Dr. Blake, I felt like he was very thorough and spent a good deal of time learning about my medical history and listening to my concerns. He’s very knowledgeable, frank at times but I find that refreshing and overall I feel like I’m in good hands. I also had an unusual experience in his office in that I opted to have blood drawn on the spot for tests after my appointment. I have a history of fainting and should have known better (I hadn’t had my breakfast yet!) so I ended up fainting in the exam room. Dr. Blake and his staff were fantastic. They went above and beyond, taking such great care of me and they followed up the very next day to see how I was doing. I definitely appreciated that!

I had such high hopes for this doctor after reading several good reviews, but this visit was a waste of time and money for me. I wanted to be tested for a hormone imbalance, and brought a list of symptoms with me. I was told that since I conceived this year, nothing could be done until next year (even though it was a miscarriage). I would have thought an endocrinologist would have taken blood work, not only because I’m trying to conceive, but just for my general health, physically and mentally. I was also told that my insurance was no good, even though Blue Cross Blue Choice is listed on the website. Maybe that insurance company doesn’t pay him enough.

The doctor himself was very thorough. However, I never once heard back about my test results. And then the staff filed my report incorrectly, so now my insurance says they need them to fill out the form correctly in order for my visit to be covered. I’ve called that office at least a dozen times, left a dozen messages and have never gotten a «call within 24 hours.»
AWFUL. Don’t GO.

One of the rudest and most unprofessional medical experiences I’ve had. Definitely did not get any warm fuzzies — or valuable advice — from this worthless visit.
Long story short: My (former) regular ObGyn, Dr. Booker, also at Howard University Hospital (shudder), had no idea what to do with my persisting medical problem. So he recommended I see a specialist — Dr. Blake. After several attempts at making an appointment (another story altogether with the ineptitude of people at HUH), finally got a time with Dr. Booker.
When I arrived, the staff seemed completely unaware — or at least were blissfully ignorant — that while I was a new patient of Dr. Blake’s, I was not new to the ObGyn office at HUH. My records couldn’t be found, nurses were switched, I sat waiting for ever and ever, blah blah blah. After an HOUR of waiting past my appointment time, I saw a nurse. And after MORE waiting, I saw Dr. Blake.
I explained my situation and said that since I was referred by Dr. Booker to see him, I was to get testing done. Apparently no one anywhere in the process of seeing these two doctors sent the memo. Dr. Blake gave me approximately 5 minutes of his time, telling me to «wait another 2 months» to see if my problem persisted. I balked, explaining that I had taken a DAY OFF OF WORK to get this «testing» that he was supposed to do. «Um, testing isn’t necessary at this stage.» But then after he left, a nurse came in to tell me he had changed his mind and would have my liver tested to see how I was metabolising my medicine.
Rudeness continued: When getting ready to leave, I spoke to a nurse and explained my situation — I was switching onto my husband’s health insurance the next week, which isn’t taken by Howard University Hospital, and thus couldn’t have a follow up appointment. Also, I needed my birth control prescription as I was about to run out. The nurse (who was very kind) helped me to explain this to the ice-​cold Dr. Blake. His response? «You’re switching to Kaiser? I believe they know how to write prescriptions there.»
Thanks for the comfort, doc.