Scripps Medical Center Jefferson — Local services in Oceanside

So far we are EXTREMELY DISPLEASED with everything Scripps. First, it took entirely too long to get a first appointment with extremely limited availability and re-schedulings. When we finally saw Doctor Hussein on October 8, it was just for my 13 year olds physical and recent knee/ankle injuries from competitive gymnastics. Dr. Hussein suggested NO X-rays, as she was going to refer her to a specialist, mark it as urgent and instructed me to let her know if we couldn't get an appointment within 1-2 weeks.  I was content with this, thinking this would actually happen within 2 weeks.

We are now 13 days later, and I do not even have a proper referral, much less an appointment.  It took 8 days from the original appointment for Scripps to fix our chart with the proper insurance and this was definitely a scripps error because everything was straight on my end and the insurances end from day 1. Scripps kept telling me we weren't covered at that location with that doctor, which was false. I sent my electronic insurance card (that very clearly stated Scripps Medical Center Jefferson) multiple times during these 8 days, and every time I followed up after sending, Scripps advised that our insurance was still not right.  Remember, Scripps can't put any referrals through until the insurance lines up.  Finally, I spoke with someone and while they were very rude, they noticed the problem was a Scripps error and were able to fix it EIGHT DAYS AFTER THE ORIGINAL APPOINTMENT.

Now we are on day 13 - I have received multiple dead end referrals, and it takes me at least 24 hours in between each one.  When I finally reach the provider we are being referred to, they can't see my daughter because one reason or another (age, body part...these seem like things the doctor should know before giving the referral).  Scripps customer service has been pretty horrendous thsi entire time and I never can reach anyone except message takers and then wait for a call back that always takes extremely too long for a matter that the Doctor chose to mark urgent yet not X-ray for.

The short version of this review is we are 2 weeks post appointment with no referral or resolution in sight due to no fault of our own.  The doctor has not followed up or seemed concerned with this as far as I can tell. She was a very nice Doctor and I'm sure very good at the medical side of it, but at this point my entire family will be leaving Scripps as soon as I can get this injury treated and find a new provider with a better...

Initial low rating of one star was because of billing problems: Even if you have good insurance, you need to ASK them in advance how they are billing a service like an ultrasound. I've had dozens of ultrasounds at different facilities and I've never once been charged anything beyond a modest copay for the physician's analysis of the ultrasound. But this facility charged me $300 by billing it as a special physician service (only partially covered by my insurance) rather than as imaging/diagnostic or a doctors visit (which would have been fully covered by my insurance). And they did not disclose this to me in advance. Even my insurance company says that it is not standard to bill that way. Around the same time, Scripps did another sketchy thing by outsourcing my labs WITHOUT informing me, which meant that the labwork was no longer considered in-network and I got charged about a hundred dollars for standard labs that never cost me anything in the past when I've had them done. I am working with the patient relations office on these matters and if this is appropriately resolved, I will modify this review.

Edited many months later to add: I am happy to share that the Patient Relations Coordinator at Scripps worked with me to fix the billing problems I experienced earlier. It took quite a few followup emails (and I had to show how I was billed differently for similar services at another facility) but she brought my case to their committee for review and the charges disappeared. It took about 5 months to resolve and it was stressful to be receiving collection notices while my case was under review... perhaps that took longer because of COVID, I don't know. Though I would have liked the resolution to take less time, I am happy with the outcome. So I have updated my rating from 1...

Before driving to the facility I made to sure to verify with my insurance that I was in the network for the ugenct care. Once I arrived I was quickly told to go elsewhere. I tried to explain and was met with confident dismisal so i offered to call my insurance who sorted out the matter and literally had to call the front desk right in front of me and tell them that they must accept me. Turns out they didnt even run my card which was phrased in a way that was my fault. No problem, i had only been at the facility for about an hour at this point. Next it took 30 minutes to "set up my profile". Then came the copay, for which i was charged 2x the amount. I tried to explain that my card and policy are both of x amount and again I was met with confident dismisal of my concerns. I simply said ok I shall pay and resolve this. So here I was calling my insurance again like a child calling mom, and they had to again explain to the front desk that my copay is X amount. The front desk explained that the screen they saw showed 2X amount but now that they clicked the next screen it shows X amount, sounds fishy but ok. Amazing, somehow this was also worded as anything but their fault. Once i was accepted i mentioned to the doctor oh I had difficulties getting in but overall good to which she told me " I should get better insurance"... excuse me, I have the highest tier and I had to explain to her that every i had was caused soley by the front desk and for once the insurance company made things right to which she said "her front desk doesnt make mistakes" ... wow. The level of ego amongst all tiers of this establishment is astounding.

Update: nobody ever responded to my email or followup from the facility below. it was...