ComplaintsforVistar Eye Center, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  10/27/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had an appointment with Dr. **** ******** for a pre-cataract surgery evaluation on 18 August, 2023. At this time, I paid in advance $53 for required eye drops. Later I discovered that I needed to cancel the surgery and informed Ms. ******** ****** of this on 23 August. She informed me that the order for the eye drops would be cancelled, and I would receive a refund. This did not happen. The eye drops came to my house, whereupon I notified Ms. ******. She said to bring them in, and I would get a refund. I did so. After waiting quite a while I contacted her. She said she received the drops and a check would be sent. If I did not receive it in a week I should call back. I waited two weeks. I called and left a message. Another week has passed and no check and no call back. Over this two-month process I have called numerous times and left several messages. On only one occasion have I been called back. Conversely, when I got the bill for the office visit, I sent a check the following day. It really is not that difficult!

  

  Business response

  11/06/2023

  Thanks for reaching out about all this and I am sorry for any confusion.  The surgery drops charge was reversed and the $53 you had paid for those drops was applied to other open balances on your account.  Yes, we received your payment in the middle of October, but even after that payment and transferring the surgery drops money you still do have an outstanding balance. This is why no refund money was sent to you.  Our surgery coordinators do everything they can to assist you, but they are not billing staff and Ms. ****** was not aware of the other pending balances (that had not been sent to you on a bill at the time of your communications) Again, I am very sorry for any confusion.Sincerely Herby PierceVistar Eye Center CEO

• Initial Complaint

  09/18/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On April 21 2023 I had eye surgery at Vistar Eye Center on the recommendation of Dr *********** to have an Astigmatism Lens replace the Lens. He sent me to Dr **** ******** to evaluate. He recommended Astigmatism Lens also. I did Surgery and paid the extra money $2000 for special lens since not covered by insurance. The Surgery made my eye worse than before. Had appointments with both Doctors and said dont know what happened and why didn’t work. Told both Doctors about my out of pocket money and eye was worse and both said would get back my out of pocket expense. In May Recieved the Lens money but not the 217.00 paid day of Surgery. I called and asked abou the 217.00 and was told was waiting on the Anesthesiologist to get back with them but had 125.00 coming from them. I have called many times about every 2 weeks and nothing. Now I have got an bill from Anesthesiologist which makes total out of pocket @ $270. I have left 2 messages with account manager about refund and no reply from them. I was told one thing and then ignored and guess hoping would go away. I even sent message on Sept 7th on website complaining and informed them was filing a complaint and still no response. I would like my out of pocket expense back. As far as Doctors and procedure going wrong will file complaint with Virginia Medical Board on them.

  

  Business response

  09/26/2023

  Yes, our doctor did agree to refund the entire balance from his surgery however there was a balance owed from on office visit in the recent past.  The amount not refunded to the patient was used to pay that balance.  The entire amount from the surgery, including anesthesia, was written off and refunded minus this transferred amount. 

  Customer response

  09/26/2023

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. The money they kept was from the office visits that told me i would need the lens. It was not written off because just paid a bill from Anesthesiologist last week. Also day of Surgery I paid 217.00 and was told was out of pocket expense. If previous balance was paid with it that should of been part of refund since balance if any was do to meeting with Doctors for Surgery that was a mistake. I never seen any proof of bills and why couldn’t the Account Manager answer messages and tell me that and would not of accepted that. I am out of pocket money that should of been refunded for a Surgery that made vision worse. Regards, ***** *********

  

  Business response

  10/24/2023

  We have reviewed your account again and are refunding all payments made.  Please allow 2 weeks to receive the payment.

• Initial Complaint

  08/21/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Our two children had their routine eye exams on 6/19/23. We confirmed with the front desk to ensure that these were routine eye exams and not medical visits during our appointments. However, we received bills, and the claims were filed as medical visits. We made over six calls to the office in an attempt to address the issue. Eventually, on 7/19/23, the account manager ****** informed us that she had already resubmitted the claims as routine exams and had refunded the previous claims for medical visits. Additionally, ***** representatives had been in contact with Vistar's account manager ****** multiple times, and ****** confirmed that the previous medical claims had indeed been refunded. However, it's been over a month, and ***** informed us that although Vistar had submitted the new claims as routine exams, the previous medical exam claims had not been refunded or retracted. As a result, Vistar charged us twice – once for a routine exam and once for a medical exam – for a single visit, and this happened for both of my children. The total charge for two children is close to $1000, this is absolutely ridiculous. Evidently, Vistar's account manager ****** misled both us and *****. ******** conduct has been highly unprofessional and rude, as she not only hung up on our phone calls but also provided false information on multiple occasions to us and the insurance company. We attempted to contact Vistar's front desk to see if we could speak with someone higher up than the account manager, but we were told that this was not possible. We are in urgent need of resolving the billing issues for both of my children as soon as possible. Since our children only had routine exams, Vistar needs to withdraw/refund the medical visits claims and keep only the routine exams claims for our children.

  

  Business response

  08/22/2023

  I acknowledge that Vistar made several mistakes during this process, and I sincerely apologize for that.  ***** has been sent a corrected billing to have both exams billed as routine and any monies received on the medical claims will be refunded asap.  The patients' family owes no money at this time.  We have a new billing manager that is still learning, and this has slowed down the refund and the corrected billing.  The process will be corrected going forward and I appreciate this being brought to my attention.

  Customer response

  08/25/2023

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. I've been checking my insurance claim status on the ***** website for the past four days, but there hasn't been any change. I've also attempted to contact Vistar's billing department, but my calls always go to voicemail. I'm unsure about trusting Vistar's response since they promised to fix the issue six weeks ago, yet the billing problems remain. I'll need to see the updated insurance claim with corrections before I can choose the "satisfied with this resolution" option. Regards, *** ****

  

  Business response

  08/29/2023

  I have instructed my billing manager to contact this patient today to resolve this matter.  

  Customer response

  09/02/2023

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.The incorrect insurance claims on the ***** website have not yet been retracted. I spoke with the billing manager this week. ***** informed me that they only received the documents from Vistar on 9/1/23, and it will take 7 to 10 business days for the claims to be updated. Regards, *** ****

  

  Business response

  09/15/2023

  We submitted the corrected claims electronically on August 22 and we did receive an EOB from ***** on September 6th so I am not sure why ***** has informed you that they have not completed processing the claim which they received 18 business days ago.  Your account continues to have a hold on any patient billing at this point.

  Customer response

  09/18/2023

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. The problem still hasn't been resolved after three months! I received updates from ***** regarding the claims on Sep. 7, and it appears that Vistar hasn't retracted/refunded all the incorrect claims. The medical visits for each child have been retracted, and ***** has covered the routine visit cost ($172) for each child. However, Vistar has NOT retracted the two procedures, namely "SENSORIMOTOR EXAMINATION" and "DETERMINATION OF REFRACTIVE," which were submitted alongside the medical visit. These procedures are not covered by *****, and each child has been billed $100.43 for them. My ***** account had a $100 health fund, which has already been applied to this bill, leaving a remaining balance of $100.86. Since ***** already paid for the routine visits, it's unreasonable to request any extra payment and my $100 health fund should be refunded. It's been over three months now, and I urgently need a solution. Regards, *** ****

  

  Business response

  10/24/2023

  We have been in regular and constant communication with ***** about both your son and your daughter.  On July 13th we adjusted off both the tests in question however you continue to voice a complaint about these tests that have been adjusted off and no bill has been sent.  On July 13, Aug 22, and Oct 12 we instructed ***** to reprocess the claim and to refund the money to your HSA however they have neglected to do this.  You continue to hold us responsible for the inaction of *****, but we have no control over your insurance company.  Within the last few days, we informed ***** that we were sending you a refund check for the amount paid out of your HSA and instructed them to discontinue any refund to your HSA. ***** also informed us the claim has been properly submitted but they require up to 35 days to process it.

  

  Business response

  12/18/2023

  ***** ****** Chief Executive Officer Vistar Eye Center &  Roanoke Valley Center for Sight ***** corrected the claim processing for ****** on 9/12/23.  There was no payment made from the HSA account for ******.  ***** came in and paid the visit in full. No payment from the HSA. ***** sent Vistar an HSA payment for $100 for Owen on 7/6/23 and we refunded the $100 to Hao on 10/27/23. There was only 1 HSA payment made from ***** and that has been refunded to the patient.   Revenue Cycle Manager  

  Customer response

  12/20/2023

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. Regards, *** ****

• Initial Complaint

  09/07/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Aug 15. Appointment. To get new prescription in current frames. Was to take 2 weeks. Called Sept 6th. Was to receive a call back. Today is Sept 7. No response. . Have paid one half down, and received a bill for the balance due upon receipt. But I do not have my glasses. Poor customer service...

  

  Business response

  09/07/2022

  When we received the glasses from the lab in late August their was an issue with the quality so we returned them and had them reprocessed.   The glasses have now been received and passed our inspection. This slowed down the time line and we failed to notify the patient of this delay.  The patient was notified today and is coming in tomorrow to pick up the glasses.

  Customer response

  09/09/2022

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  The complaint has been resolved with Vistar on Sept 8. .***** ******* 

• Initial Complaint

  07/09/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  They called me yesterday, saying that I was referred to them by Dr. *****. I canceled the last appointment, due to the following reasons. I do not like eye doctors, they upset me.

  

  Business response

  07/11/2022

  We were following his doctors orders in attempting to schedule him for an exam with one of our eye doctors.  Since he has stated he refuses to see an eye doctor we will document this in our records and discontinue calling him.

  Customer response

  07/11/2022

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. Regards, **** *******

• Initial Complaint

  08/30/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I purchased a set of glasses with my brand new insurance from my new job, and Vistar said they would take the insurance. They gave me the glasses, and I paid the remainder then and there with my card. Then, about two months later, I got this ridiculously dire missive from Vistar saying if I didn't pay them an additional $158.08, they'd send some collections agency after me. I was angry, since I had already paid all of the money for these glasses, and because I've been seeing Dr. ******* for years without issues. I resent the payment online at the site the letter said to use, hoping that I would be able to get the money back after I had straightened things out with the insurance. Fast forward to today, when I got an ADDITIONAL dire letter saying I still owed the $158.08. The heck I do! I want my second payment back, and an explanation as to why they treat long-time patients this way. Additionally, I want an explanation of exactly why they felt it necessary to threaten me.

  

  Business response

  08/31/2021

  This patient was seen on April 6th and did pay for his portion of his glasses that was left over from his vision insurance.  The amount that was still due was for his exam and refraction which was billed to his medical insurance and he received an explanation of benefits (EOB) from his insurance showing that this $158.08 was applied to his deductible.  He was sent bills in May, June, and July for the $158.08 which he never responded to and he never called our office inquiring about the amount still due.  In August we sent a final notice that read "Our records indicate that our statement for the above referenced encounter is still outstanding.  If you have any questions about the statement or if you have not received your statements please call me at the phone number below.  If this is an oversight please send your payment by check using the top of this letter at your earliest convenience.  You may pay by credit card by logging into our website at ***************** and using the online bill pay function. If you would like to make a credit card payment by phone or inquire as to a payment plan please call me at the number listed below.  Thank you for your business and your prompt attention to this matter. Unfortunately, if we do not receive payment within 10 days we will be forced to turn over this bill to our collection agency."Due to the fact that this patient never responded to the 3 bills mailed to his residence and never called our office to inquire as to why he still had a balance, we did send the final statement which notified him that we would be sending this matter to our collection agency if we did not hear from him. His account is now paid in full and no refund is due the patient at this time. 

  Customer response

  08/31/2021

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. Regards, ****** *****

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