My husband and I have had Kaiser insurance for the past 9 years, recently my employer switched to Aetna. I searched and searched the internet, spoke with friends and received a bunch of different recommendations from everyone. We wanted a family physician's office that would care for my family of 5 and had great reviews. I found Hilltop, since it was close to our home we decided to try it out. My husband was in a lot of pain and he needed to see a physical therapist but from experience with Kaiser we knew that we needed a doctor's referral so that it would be covered by our insurance. It had already been a couple months since our Kaiser insurance and we weren't able to get a prescription from our previous doctor any more. He decided to go to Hilltop since we wanted it to be our family practice. He was there early like the office girl advised him. When he got there she asked him what he needed to be seen for, he said his back. She then asked him if it was preexisting which he replied with yes. Before he was even able to see the doctor, the front desk girl, Sandy, told him she would not allow him to even see the doctor because "they are not a pain clinic". On top of this, instead of being empathetic about the situation she told him this as if he should have known or as if he was a child. My husband called me to let me know. I called and left a message with Dr. Teter (I had a new patient appointment scheduled with her that very day). I left her a message and explain what happened. I received no call. I expect better service at any physician's office. Customers should be cared for by all of the staff. If someone comes in to the office in pain then show empathy and ask probing questions to better understand their needs. Don't make assumptions that the customer in front of you is there to try and fix his pain, he might be there to get a referral. If you aren't able to see the person then offer options and do it with a smile. If you're going to run a business, know how to provide exceptional service.
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