Complaint Review: Dr. Svetlana Kogan

I have been a patient for about 2 years -- referred by my gynecologist -- and thought Dr. Kogan was wonderful.  But this morning when I arrived for a 6-month follow-up appointment I was informed that I would owe $200 instead of the $25 co-payment because the office no longer took my insurance.  I inquired why I was not informed of this change prior to the day I took off from work so I could make this appointment and basically got a shrug of the shoulders from the receptionist -- she didn't make policy.  At one point the doctor passed through and apologized but no one was able to offer an explanation as to why I hadn't been informed.  Basically, I had to ante up $200 or find a new doctor.  This was a follow-up visit to have a prescription refilled and to have cholesterol levels checked, so I needed to be seen.  Then another woman came out who said she was the boss, the owner of the business and the one who wrote the checks and paid everyone.  She went on to pontificate about how doctors can no longer practice profitably because of insurance companies, blah, blah, blah.  Really full of herself and I learned later that this woman was the doctor's mother.  In any case, she said that because I had been referred by my gyno who they know, she could offer me a special consideration.  I could pay them $200 and that would be for the whole year.  I could come anytime.  Now I only need to go twice a year so this would be $150 more than I would pay for an in-network doctor.  And I have the feeling that if I had to come every week for a year, there wouldn't be an appointment available to me for that price.  I told her I wasn't interested in making a deal.  I pretty much lost it at that point -- I felt that I had been backed into a corner and being held hostage by unethical business practices.  I said absolutely not -- the woman huffed off saying she was going to make a phone call to my referring doctor -- I guess I was being threatened with being blackballed like the Seinfeld episode where Elaine gets a reputation among doctors as being a difficult patient and can't get an appointment with anyone.  I stood at that reception counter and told them that I wanted Dr. Kogan to write me a prescription for my medication to last until I found a new internist.  Which finally she did.  When I spoke with my gyno she was really not amused that they used her name in this whole episode.  If there has been any fraud going on it's possible that Dr. Kogan wasn't aware because she doesn't actually run the office.  At least I hope that's the case because it would be a terrible shame.