ComplaintsforRutzen Eye Specialists

• Initial Complaint

  03/08/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I have been impressed with Rutzen. Until today. Referred to Rutzen via VA community Care. Cataract surgery was set up about 3 weeks ago for the 9th and 15th of March at Columbia Institute in Elkridge, MD. Had to hire an agency to take me, stay there and bring me home. I had 48 hrs to cancel the agency before the surgery.. Got preop physical at VA on 1 March. Called Rutzen on 3 March and they did not receive physical yet. The same for the 4th. Made 3 phone calls to the VA. The physical was faxed at 1430 hrs. I believe they said on the 2nd. Called Rutzen about the physical on the 7th at 9AM. Talked with Jena. She had the physical but added she had to make several phone calls to get it. (confusing) She wanted to reschedule the 9th to the 15th because the Columbia Institute was not in the VA network. She also wanted to know if I wanted to pay the $1500 for the use of a special Laser machine before surgery at Columbia Institute. I declined. She thought that we can continue with the surgery on the 15th. She was to call me back on the 7th. Today, the 8th, community care told me that they talked to Jena on the 4th and told her that Columbia Institute is not in the VA network. Was told today that they have not been in the network since Nov. 2020. I believe Rutzen should had known that. Hours wasted for the doctor, for their reps. and for me.

  Business response

  03/25/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2022/03/18) */ After completing an insurance verification for this patient the week before her surgery, we were told by the VA that while we (Rutzen Eye) were "in-network" with their new insurance plan "Optum", the surgical center at which we were going to preform her surgery (Columbia Surgical Center) was not. This was new information to us. We thought there must have been a mistake and we immediately started communications with CSI and the VA to better understand what we had just learned. This is why it took a couple of days before we made Ms. ****** aware of the issue. Columbia Surgical Center told us that they had been trying to credential with Optum for almost a year and had not yet been contracted. Since we hadn't had many VA (Optum) patients, this had never been brought to our attention before. Columbia Surgical Center is a completely separate entity and we do not have control over who they are credentialed with. We tried to explain this to the patient and apologized for the inconvenience and frustration. Consumer Response /* (2000, 8, 2022/03/24) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) I was originally told that they were familiar with working with veterans referred by the VA Community Care center. The surgery dates were made about a month before. The Surgical center was not in the VA Network since Nov. 2020

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩