Migraine

I'm going in tomorrow AM for my 1st visit with Dr Freitag, and just have a question. The $250 fee for services not rendered yet. Does anyone else have a problem with that? They said it is non-refundable, so if I only have the one visit and decide they are just not for me, I'm out $250. Also, my insurance company said they COULD NOT charge me for anything that "may" occur in the future. It would be like seeing a neurosurgeon and being charged for a "possible" future surgery. Anyway, when they called this AM to confirm my appt I explained all of this to the woman on the phone and she ended up just telling me to discuss it tomorrow with the office staff. I don't mind paying for any paperwork or phone calls/emails with the Drs, but I don't see how they can charge you $250 for something that may not be needed.
Any other info would be greatly appreciated also.
Thank you so much.
Jennifer

Hey there.

I was a little confused about the 250 charge myself. The best way to explaine it is that its just like a security payment. They have you pay that to garuntee that you will be there for your first visit, so Its just a one time charge. It won't be refunded, but they should put that dowards the medical expenses that you will have to pay for. So if you for the follow up the next time, it should go toward the co pay or any other expenses. SO you don't get a refund of the money, but you shouldn't have to pay anythin on your account for a little while. This is what they at least did with me.

If you need a migraine specialist, I would strongly recommend Diamond. I wasted over 2 years on a worthless doc and finally switched to diamond. It was the best move I made. I see dr. nissan there but I have seen dr frietag also. He is wonderful. He was the weekend rounding doc over the weekend when Iwas in the hospital last time. He is very attentive and thurough. I am wishing you tons of luck. If you decide to go, let us know how things work out for you.

Jennifer,

-:¦:-•:*'""*:•.-:¦:-•*Hello!*•-:¦:-•:*'''''*:•-:¦:-•*Welcome to the family!*•-:¦:- •:*'""*:•.-:¦:-

Hello and welcome to our forum family! Our goal is to provide everyone with the information and support that we all need to manage our Migraines and/or headaches. To that end, we consider this a “safe harbor,” where nobody tries to sell us anything, and we all use “family-friendly” language so parents are comfortable letting their children read the forum with them.

Please take a few minutes to review our policies and guidelines along with the other information in the START HERE folder. For information about Migraines, a good article to begin with is Learning About Migraines - Where to Start.

I'm so sorry you didn't get more answers sooner.

That $250 charge will be applied to the charges for your appointment, I'm sure. You can hardly get an appointment with a family doctor for that these days, let alone a specialist.

Please, tell us how your appointment went?

Welcome again!

Hi, Jennifer! Please add my welcome to Teri's. I'm sorry I missed replying and welcoming you to the forum sooner.

I've never heard of paying up front like that, buy I'm sure they'd apply the money to your first visit, and perhaps any labwork they order. My last "initial visit" with a doctor ran around $250, so it could well be that they base that up-front cost on their initial visit charges, in which case you'd be spending it all anyway, if their charges are in line with that. I wouldn't be surprised if you easily used it up with one initial visit.

Hi Jennifer! I just wanted to stop by and add my welcome to the pile

I hope you had a great appointment! When you have a chance, let us know how it went for you, okay?

Take care,

I'm taking my wife there in a week or so and the way that $250 charge was explained to me was that it was actually an annual charge and it secures easy contact/access with your doctor via phone/email/etc.

I don't mind paying the money - if that is truly what it is for. Having dealt with this problem (migraines) now for the past few years I can honestly say that this has been a problem for my wife. She has been to one of the best headache clinics (supposedly) in the country already and went more than 24 hours in some cases before she received a call back from a doctor. She'd get a headache that would get out of control then call - then wait - and wait. My wife had no choice but to go to the ER on more than a few occasions because she simply couldn't wait any longer for a doctor to call her.

I know it probably shouldn't be that way. That you shouldn't have to pay an extra $250 for this - but the way I see it - its peace of mind that situation won't happen again. And as bad as my wife suffers from these things its $250 well spent to get a quick line to a doctor for a few days in a row if necessary.

Hi-
I too had scheduled an appointment at Diamond. I canceled mine because I am going to Mayo Clinic- I leave tomorrow- but also because of that $250 fee. I was also told it was non-refundable and would be applied to "being able to reach my doctor at any time". I was not told it would be applied to anything else at all.

You know what, if the doctor has to charge extra to talk to me I am not so interested. I have never heard of such a thing before and I have been paying for migraine specialists and clinics for 30 years. I know many people are happy to pay the extra fee....it's not for me. Makes me see the doctor as more interested in the green than me even if that isn't the case.

And frankly, I can't afford $250 as an out of pocket expense.

I hope your wife's appointment went well and that she was happy with her doctor. They are supposed to be good and there have been good things posted about them on the forum.

Be blessed!
Dawn

Hi Dawn -

I'd be interested to know how your appointment at Mayo went. Please share when you get a chance. We don't go to the DHC until next week.

Dave,

I wanted to try my best at explianing the $250 charge you mentioned. There is a $250 charge for your initial visit and its not refundable, but it will go towards the other medical charges you may recieve. If you have an insurance deductable, it could go to that. Basically I think they hold the $250 over our heads kinda saying, if you are serious about seeing us, you can have this. If you are a no call no show, we can have this, LOL. The money just like holds you place there to make sure you get to the initial visit, i think.

The $250 charge about call/meds/email. That is an optional charge. I am just starting to pay on that one myself. I need to call my doc A LOT inbetween visits. But if I have to speek with doc or get new meds, its a $55 charge for phone/email treatment. Thats 55 bucks a pop . But granted, you can still speak with the nurse and that is a free call.

Now, once I pay off the 250 for this new thing they are starting (called Advance Program) I will not recieve another bill for callin in to the clinic. Its $250 for an entire years worth of call to the doc. This means that I will only be paying for about 5 calls the whole year, but could actually call as much as you need to, no limitations. It sounded good enough for me to try.

I hope this helps. Good luck to both of you in your search for a better treament!

Dave-
I saw Dr Mokri at Mayo on Tuesday. We spent 2 hours with him! He is very thorough, very likable and definitely instills confidence that he knows what he is about. Thus far his impression is that I do NOT have psuedotumor cerebri- a diagnosis that has followed me for about 10 years and for which my latest migraine doctor recommended a VP shunt- brain surgery. I then had an MRI/MRA and saw the neuro-opthomologist.

Unfortunately Dr Mokri had not been able to get me scheduled for a lumbar puncture under fluoroscopy during this visit so I am returning January 4 - 6, having that done, seeing a neurosurgeon for his impression and then seeing Dr. Mokri again.

It took a referral from my migraine specialist and 4 months wait to see him but I am sure glad I did. I am interested to see what happens in January.

Be blessed and all the best on your wife's appointment!

Dawn