Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine Specialists — Local services in Lake Barrington

I gave two stars instead of 1 because I believe my procedure once completed was helpful. They are impossible to get on the phone even during business hours. Attempts to make new patient appointment required waiting 72 hours for a call back. Once scheduled saw nurse practitioner who was very nice. I brought all my previous pathology that diagnosed EE and we agreed to schedule the EGD. Only waited maybe 10 minutes in waiting room and 5 in room. They called me on day of scheduled procedure to say they were running 45 minutes behind and come later. I liked that part except they ended up be 1:45 behind. Also there was loud construction occurring where you could barely have a informed consent conversation. After procedure Dr. Shah told me that after looking in my esophagus he thought I had EE and took some pathology to prove it. It was a surprise that he was surprised because they had all the documentation of EE from previous procedures, nurse practicitioner agreed with EE diagnosis, and we did the procedure since I had EE. You could tell communication between providers was weak. They prescribed me three meds. One of the meds was the same as i was told to discontinue by nurse practitioner that I had been taking for years. She told me it wouldn't work for my condition. The doc wasn't available to talk so the nurse explained that although another practitioner said it was a bad idea to take, sometimes the second provider thinks differently. Two providers in the office should be on the same page and respect the same scientific data. If there is disagreement they should come to consensus so they don't look disorganized. They prescribed two name brand drugs that were $156 and $764 respectively. The pharmacist recommended calling office to get generic that they didn't prescribe. After another long phone call they changed the rx and they were $46 total. It isn't the job of the doctor to know the price of drugs he writes for, but I thought this was a little outrageous in their area of specialty. They made a follow up on day of surgery since the procedure didn't go as smoothly as they'd liked. Two weeks later I got a call from nurse to tell me that the doctor just read my results of the pathology and he determined that I had EE and needed to schedule a follow up. This is where I started to get really annoyed. It had been determined I had EE long before I even walked into the office and she presented it like the doctor was shocked. She also tried to schedule an appointment that I had scheduled day of surgery. Just another example of disorganization of this practice. I showed up to reeval 15 minutes early and was brought back 5 minutes early. Since they told me that it would take less than 10 minutes I knew I would be on schedule to get back to work since I had allotted an hour. The nurse, who was very nice, told me that I would see the doctor in a couple minutes. I sat in the room for 42 minutes before I realized that even if he walked in right then I wouldn't make it back to work on time. I was never once notified that he was running behind or the wait would be any longer. All I was informed was a couple of minutes. I walked to the front desk and told them i couldn't wait any longer and that i wanted to pay my balance and go. The nice lady couldn't find a balance although the claim was closed for 2 weeks through insurance and I owe the my deductible that is sizable. I know i will have to deal with their terrible phone web to get this bill paid at a future time. I chose this practice since my old GI office was over an hour away after I moved. After experiencing the disorganization, poor communication between providers, and excessive amounts of wasted time I have realized this is not the office for me. Ill update this review as further...

WARNING! This place decided to call me an hour before my appointment on Jan 27th to tell me that my appointment was cancelled because of my secondary insurance, when all the while I have BCBS PPO as my primary. Then they tried to cover their ass and tell me that they tried calling me the previous Friday the 24th to tell me about the cancellation when in fact the last correspondence I had with their office was on Jan 9th when I called to update them about my new insurance, which they instructed me to do after the new year. I am unable to reverse my requested time off of work and have now wasted an entire morning of my personal time all for a "sorry". Absolutely ridiculous.

After further inquiries, it turns out they decided to cancel my appointment because they assumed I wouldn't be willing to pay the difference between what my primary didn't cover and what my secondary wouldn't pick up because they don't take my secondary if you are being seen by a NP. They lied to my face and said it would be insurance fraud if I just used my primary insurance, which it is not. When confronted with that logic, that's when I found out it was an assumption on their part. They also lied and said the supposed call I received on Friday the 24th (but didn't) was so late in the week because I waited until that Friday to fill out my secondary insurance information. Knowing that was a bold face lie, I asked them to look up when they received that submission from me and it turns out they received it on Monday the 20th, an entire week before my scheduled appointment. Then they said it was a work volume issue. So, they lied about: 1) Not being able to be seen by the NP due to a coverage issue with my secondary insurance, when in fact they could have just billed me the difference to pay out of pocket but claimed it was insurance fraud. 2) That I submitted paperwork later in the week when I actually submitted it much earlier. Then claimed it was irrelevant when it was submitted because it would have been a work volume issue. 3) Claimed to have called me and left a voicemail the Friday before my appointment with no record on my phone whatsoever. 4) Assumed to my face that I would have been unwilling to pay out of pocket. The person who decided to argue with me, insult my intelligence, flat out lie, and make false accusations, has no business being in the service industry, let alone the hospitality field. Her nonexistent customer service skills or tenuous grasp on how insurance works should unqualify her from that position or at the very least be kept away from current patients and prospecting patients. God knows how many other people she has lied to...

Lies, Incompetence, and Indifference. That is what you will get here! Patient for 2 yrs. 4th time I have pancreatitis. Had an appointment a couple weeks ago. They called to cancel saying Erin said, “if my lipase or pancreas were causing problems that, “We don’t do anything with the pancreas or high lipase levels. We only take care of GERD. Weird I thought that was their job. Went to endocrinologist couple weeks later and my lipase was now 1585 and I am feeling pain and throwing up. Endocrinologist tells me call gastroenterologist and let them know what’s going on. I told him what the office said. He thought I was nuts. I called again. Again I was told they do not take care of the pancreas. I called again at the urging of my primary. (I was told to call her since my gastroenterologist would not help). Now I am hospitalized and my lipase is 2700 in less then a week and am in significant pain.Guess what type of Dr is taking care of me? A gastroenterologist because THAT IS THEIR JOB. I called today from hospital to ask why they keep telling me that pancreas is not in their job description Pretty much gaslighting me. Wonder if they enjoyed me looking like a fool telling the other drs what they say every time I call. A nurse was supposed to call me back at hospital. Surprise they didn’t bother. If you want to be treated like this and be lied to while you get sicker and sicker by all means see these people. Remember though they do not handle the pancreas or diseases of it. Sounds crazy...