Boisen, Ronald, MD

I first went to Dr. Boisen about a pain under my left rib cage that was affecting my bowel movements. He only half listened to me for about 3 minutes before telling me to get a colonoscopy. Dr. Boisen never called me himself afterwards to discuss what the next step were considering that I still had the same obvious and specific pain, yet the colonoscopy did not reveal any issues.
An associate at the office FINALLY told me I should get an endoscopy next.
In the fall of 2016 (after a very busy summer where it would have been difficult to make it up to Anchorage), I called to schedule the endoscopy that they had recommended. I had about reached my deductible maximum and wanted to be sure that I got the procedure done in 2016 so that I did not have to start paying down the whole deductible again in 2017.
I called at the end of October and the office told me that the soonest procedure I could get was in December. I scheduled the endoscopy for December 27th. Though it had been sometime since my last visit, the office staff agreed that I did not need to come to Anchorage for a pre-op.
I called my insurance company to make sure that the procedure would be covered. They said that they had not heard from my doctor’s office yet and would need to hear from them. I called the doctor’s office and asked them to please call the insurance provider.
Dr Boisen’s did not call until 12/23 because the next thing I knew, I was getting messages on my cell phone from the doctor’s office on 12/23 saying that they were going to cancel the procedure because insurance would not cover it.
The insurance company said that they had denied coverage when they were finally contacted on Friday. They made it clear that if my doctor would put in a little effort to explain why I needed the procedure and to justify it, then it should not be a problem getting it covered.
Waiting to contact them until the business day before my procedure was a major lack of effort and professionalism on the Dr Boisen's office’s part. I asked the office staff if the doctor could put a call in to the insurance provider and do a peer to peer so that I could get approved.
The office manager called me back after talking to Dr Boisen and explained that Dr Boisen did not feel comfortable calling the insurance provider because it had been too long since I had seen him for a consultation! I explained that her staff (and assuming the doc was consulted on this) told me that it was okayed that I did not need to come in-person prior to the procedure because I live far away and it was inconvenient to have to drive 6 hours just to see him for 3 minutes and get charged $400.
So after all my scheduling ahead to get this done in 2016 so as to not have to pay my deductible all over again, prepping to take the appropriate time off, coordinating a ride, following through with my insurance company, etc, the procedure was cancelled that day before by Dr. Boisen’s office. The procedure was cancelled because the office staff SHOULD have told me I had to come in for a consult if that is their policy. Because they SHOULD have called my insurance company more than one business day before the procedure to make sure it would be covered. Because their office and Dr. Boisen DON’T care about the health or financial (deductible) situation of their patients, or making an effort to do their jobs properly and in a timely manner.
I am disgusted with the lack of customer service, follow through, competence, and caring that Dr Boisen’s office exhibited. I will find somewhere else to go and I will spend a few extra thousand dollars to do that now since there is clearly no way to get rescheduled anywhere in this health insurance year of 2016. I would not recommend anyone going to Dr. Boisen’s office.