Reviews of Pacific Coast Psychiatric Associates (Psychiatrist)

SONIA VILLALTA

I've been going to my Dr. for over two years and she is SO knowledgable, thoughtful, a wonderful listener and very helpful with all the trials and hardships I've been experiencing. She's been more like a Friend than a Psychiatrist.

Victoria Williams-Ononye

My therapist was fine, but the billing department is horrible. For 5 months they outright didn’t bill me. They then made several mistakes when they finally billed my insurance, including double billing for one appointment and billing for an appointment/service that never happened.

Pino Pollaio

I selected Dr. Patel from an insurance list because she accepted new patients: big mistake. She let a psychotherapist drive the evaluation and diagnosis of her patient and casually prescribed a highly addictive FDA Black Box Warning medication without seeking a real understanding of her patient's condition. She caused a lot of harm and pain to her patient and patient's family, and showed no interested in trying to understand or help, or to adjust the treatment, in spite of pleas from the family. Patient ended up having a psychotic break and finally moved on to a qualified provider. Please stay away from this doctor. We are now in the hands of a good doctor who finally provided a thorough evaluation and is now addressing the underlying condition as well as the damage caused by "Dr." Patel.

Irene Serrano

If I could give zero stars I would. My psychiatrist was a piece of work, and never let me get a word in during our sessions. The billing department is HORRENDOUS as outstanding charges would continuously show on my account DESPITE my having paid them in-office on the same day. Don't wast your time by coming to this office.

Kai Haswell

PCPA reinforces that mental health care and wellness is for the rich and already mostly sane. The good: 1. Psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Hersevoort seemed really good. She made reasonable medication suggestions and I believe she did everything correct on her end to make sure I got the medications. I recommended her to a friend who has also had a good experience. 2. For the most part, I had an excellent experience with therapist Antje Hofmeister. I didn't feel that supported around my issues with PCPA, but I also don't know what kind of limitations there are on supporting patients through disputes with one's own agency. I wish I could keep seeing her without going through PCPA. 3. I didn't mind the web portal. I never had that much difficulty navigating it. 4. I usually received callbacks quickly. The bad: 1. Other people have mentioned the absurd cancellation process. They will bill you ruthlessly for any cancelled appointment, no matter the reason or even if you call just inside their cancellation window. I believe in paying people for their work and incentivizing people to cancel well in advance, but frankly I can't afford to even risk the possibility that I might miss an appointment here because it cost almost as much as half a year of co-pays. 2. Also with billing - they invoiced me for months for the full cost of my care without insurance applications. Whenever I called them about it, they told me it was an issue with Kaiser and to ignore the bill. Then I get a PAST DUE notice because apparently part of the bill was "real" (i.e. my responsibility), but I wasn't looking too closely because they told me to ignore it. It was very stressful and frustrating and confusing. 3. Maybe, in a mental health care practice, follow up with your patients when they miss appointments? I missed one psych appointment because I was very much in crisis, and there was zero follow-up, just a $200 bill. Never asked how I was doing. This is not holistic mental health care, it is a business and it cares about profit. 4. I'm not sure if this is an issue with PCPA or Kaiser, so it didn't influence my star rating. I never once got a medication filled by a PCPA medical professional. I submitted all the paperwork and got signatures from my PCP at Kaiser to permit PCPA to submit prescriptions. The first time my prescription wasn't filled, I let PCPA know (via my psychiatrist) and then just asked my Kaiser PCP to fill it instead, which she did. The second time, months later, the issue still hadn't been fixed. It caused me a great deal of anxiety and frustration. 5. When I quit services with PCPA, I was very upset and wrote them about some of these issues. Read: I am not happy with the tone I took with them; I was very upset and in full panic mode. But also, this is my mental health care team. I've had months and months of therapy exploring how issues like these are triggering for me and difficult to deal with. Some amount of outreach or effort to understand my distress would have been appropriate from mental health professionals. I felt I was treated like a customer, not a patient.

Andrew R

ZERO STARS is not an option unfortunately; $170 late cancelation charge BUT there is no one available to help with appointment changes and their pt portal doesn't allow changes on the weekend. MD Siva is a poor patient advocate she would rather me go off my medication just so she can have an appointment on the books.... OH AND SHE IS ALWAYS LATE!!!!!

Ihab Riskalla

The absolute worst. They don't care about your wellness at all. They don't tell you about their 3 appt evaluation until they've roped you into the first appt. I went in seeking help. I was desperate. I was informed when I sat down with the dr that I would have to come back for 2 more visits before we could even discuss getting me help. They are crooks. DO NOT GO SEE THEM.

Myla

I waited about 1.5 months for a confirmed first intake appoinment after adding myself to about 3 of their doctors' waiting lists. On Thursday before my Mon. appointment I get a call that they don't take Federal Employee Blue Cross. I call and leave a voice mail within an hour to cancel which shows on my cell outgoing calls. I still get appoinment reminders on the weekend, so I call and leave a VM over the weekend. They say they don't have my VM from Thursday, so they want charge me $175 for cancelling within less than 48 hours. There's no way I'm paying that or ever going to a medical practice with such business practices.

Meredith N. Fiori

I did not mean to review this

Elisa De Petris

Can I give negative stars? STAY AWAY!!! SHAME ON THIS 'BUSINESS'!!! (this review is not for the psychiatrists but for the way this association runs their business) As a mental health facility claiming to care about their patients and wanting to improve the lives of people struggling with mental health, they have actually contributed to my mental illness by inducing stress and anxiety. I initially made an appointment through the portal (very buggy, counterintuitive and NOT user friendly, it's almost 2020, get with it, especially since we know you can afford a new system with all the no show fee money you make) for an appointment with a psychiatrist for an evaluation. Since the appointment was very far out and my old psychiatrist moved states and my antidepressants were running out, I called the office desperately asking if there was a possibility to squeeze me in sooner. They were able to book an earlier appointment on the phone and I was very relieved (things were looking up). My first session with Doctor Ward went well and I even booked a follow up session with her. Upon checking out I asked the front desk if they could cancel the very far out appointment that I had scheduled previously with another doctor. They said sure no problem. I went on to see doctor Ward one more time and scheduled another follow up session. A week goes by and I receive an email reminder for the appointment I KNOW I had cancelled. I called the office right away and told them the situation (it was more than 24 hours before the appointment). The woman on the phone put me on hold for TWENTY MINUTES as she went through the recordings trying to find 'evidence' that I had cancelled the appointment. There was no leniency, sympathy, benefit of the doubt even though I am positive I cancelled the appointment. I got stuck with a $175 no show fee more than 24 hours before the appointment time. This is VERY bad business!!! I was a repeat patient, with standing appointments. You lost a patient and my money you idiots. Based on the countless other reviews with similar experiences you may want to change your policy unless you want to go completely out of business (which I hope you do!).

Wayne Barakat

Left four messages trying to get an appointment for my mom in laws medication. Two during working hours and no call back. Are these people closed or just terrible at what they do?

Andrew Smith-Garzón

They never pick up the phone, hence bad customer service/support. Very difficult to use their online portal system once you are a client, not user friendly at all (and I work for a tech company!), service was average to poor. I do not recommend using these guys at all. Go else where. Trust me.

Adam M

Unethical, disorganized practice that stigmatizes medical cannabis use. If you have a cannabis recommendation I would suggest avoiding this practice, or if you must see someone here, avoid mentioning it. You will be stigmatized and treated like a drug seeker. The practice also doesn't seem to have their s**t together regarding obtaining necessary documentation. When I came in for my second appointment I was surprised to learn that they had not done anything to obtain the info they had requested in the initial appointment, despite my following up with them to make sure they had everything they needed. Doctor refused to admit any accountability on the part of the office for not obtaining the records and basically blamed me for not signing an additional release (that I didn't know I needed to sign, since they didn't tell me). The mind blowing part came when I asked to reschedule the appointment since we couldn't move forward and asked that I not be charged. The doctor not only took no responsibility for the error, but suggested that we didn't need to do that since, "insurance is paying, right?" Apparently this practice's "high ethical standards" go out the window when it comes to getting money they haven't earned. I was taken aback and appalled by the attitude that was displayed decided that I wasn't going to return. Not surprisingly, I received a call the next day from the doctor telling me that our discussion made "uncomfortable" and that I should seek help elsewhere. That's fine, you were already fired.

Gloria

I’ve been working with my doctor at PCPA for three years. I’ve had no issues the company itself and my mental heath improved significantly due to the DRs investment in my well-being. I would give the DR more stars

Stephen Cefali

They might have the worst online portal I have ever encountered! I have made dozens of calls and emails and I still cannot log in online. Whoever is in charge of making sure the website works properly deserves to be fired!

Riley Bitterli

To say they treat their patients like customers is an insult to hardworking customer service reps everywhere. If this was just a business, the employees would simply be painfully incompetent and unhelpful- as a mental health provider they're borderline criminally negligent. Trust the reviews. Go somewhere else.

Carl Parker

I have to agree the online portal was a bit of a pain at first, took two weeks to get a login, but once i did it was fine. I have not had issues with anyone answering the phone. Dr Tulley has been a great help to me and the office is quite pleasant.

Kimberley Johnson

Where do I even begin when describing how terrible I think this place is. I should have trusted the terrible reviews that I read before bothering to come in. 1. The billing practices are deceitful, and borderline unethical. I had to cancel an appointment for jury duty and was still told I would be charged a ridiculously high cancellation fee because I called a few hours past the 9am cutoff (nevermind the fact that I called in the morning and no one ever bothers to answer the phone.) 2. The IVR tells you that you have to use the portal to change appointments, but when I log into the portal it says my doctor does not allow for appointment changes online. 3. All the doctors care about is getting you on meds. If you try to have a conversation or ask about ways to make changes to your routine or behavior, you're treated as though you're crazy for even asking. 4. They don't do any of their own testing, so hopefully you have amazing insurance because you'll be referred to a very pricey specialist and it may take weeks to be scheduled while you continue to see your PCPA doctor every week for no reason. 5. Everyone in the office is cold and unwelcoming. No one says hello when you walk in or goodbye when you leave. The therapists come get you from the waiting room and act as if you are an inconvenience or keeping them from more interesting plans. If I could give PCPA negative stars, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Jessica Thompson

Great service, excellent counsellors. Incredibly convenient. Very nice, and good coaching. Highly reccommend.

Rathin Neogy

I am writing to complain about the incompetence and unprofessionalism of PCPA. I had made an appointment for my son to see Dr Humera Chaudhari as a new patient on 3/14/2019. At that time my son was being treated as an in patient resident at Life Healing Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Due to my son's illness he told me to cancel his appointment and I did so by phone. However this was not recorded and we have been continually harassed and told that we would have to pay $175 as a penalty. This is sheer unprofessionalism and I have made a client complaint dated 7/24/2019. I would not recommend this facility for anyone seeking medical or psychiatric help!

Therese Leopard

I just separated from the US Navy and went to see my psychiatrist from before the Navy, Dr. Jessica Stewart for a follow-up appointment to renew my bipolar meds, (only 1 month was provided by the Navy following my suicide attempt to ensure that I followed up). Dr. Stewart refused to renew my meds given that I was not officially residing in California but was staying on my husband's couch temporarily before looking for a permanent home. It is HIGHLY DANGEROUS to stop bipolar meds suddenly, and her refusal caused me to ramp down my dosage while I worked on getting renewal through the Veteran's Hospital system. Terrible and unethical behavior that has serious repercussions for patients suffering from grave mental disorders.

Adam Buran

Not sharing confidential medical information

Brian Lam

Don't go to them. They'll tell you your copay is $0 to take their appointments but then pass you the bill through your insurance. When you follow up, they'll act confused and say they received a 100% payment through your insurance, who you will pay.

Roxana Lo

This factory is NOT at all about PATIENT-CARE. It only USES patients ( and it's doctors) to make $$$. It is all about MONEY and filling the schedule!!!

Kim Moody

I have had a great experience here. Dr. Beri is amazing-- very professional, attentive, patient, friendly.

Krystle Thornton-Talley

I'm shocked to see such negative reviews! 1. The phone line is certainly frustrating. I understand that, but if you take the time to see what's best to do online, and what's best over the phone, you will get more success. 2. I see Dr. Sivia. She is a very intelligent, knowledgeable, astute, and caring provider. She is careful about prescribing anything that can be habit forming. I think this is responsible of her. As we discovered my need for some potentially habit forming medication, she prescribed it for me, and she keeps an eye on my usage as any responsible doctor should. She has never made me feel like a drug seeker, nor has she shamed me for cannabis usage. I can't speak for every provider in the clinic, but Dr. Sivia is absolutely one of the best providers I've had, in every aspect.