Health First Medical Group Gateway - Melbourne, Florida

Kailyn K.

Booked an appointment with the obgyn office and was told at the time of the appointment that I couldn’t be seen because I needed another appointment that I was not informed about. Incredibly ridiculous that a doctor’s office wouldn’t take the time to schedule a patient correctly or inform them of important information regarding their appointment in a timely manner. I was brushed off by the staff and it made me feel that my healthcare is unimportant to them.

Inkd P.

I just came for my second appointment here and I work across the state… I arrived 10 mins late and they told me that I had to reschedule my appointment with ZERO people waiting when I arrived because of me being late because of traffic. I have blood pressure issues and some things that can be potentially serious but they don’t care because I already paid my money… go somewhere that actually cares about patients if you are seeking medical treatment.

Alice

Absolutely do NOT use health first as your provider and especially at this location. Terrible billing procedures and they will absolutely do everything in their power to screw you over financially with no empathy to chronic illness or diagnosis. No accountability or transparency and what you are quoted will not be what you’re billed.

Demi H.

Came here for genetic testing blood draw and it took three tries to get my blood, she finally got it bandaged me up and then says Opps I forgot one and had to go BACK in for another tube of blood! Horrible experience! THEN, they just called to say I have to come back and redo it cause they forgot to label the tubes before sending off! No thanks I will find another lab this is ridiculous! Worse experience ever! They tried telling me I was going to have to come back to the same lab always get a second opinion from anything you hear here because I called my doctor at another office and they were very helpful! Unfortunately I will have to go and have blood drawn all over again but hopefully can prevent whoever is reading this from the same issue I had!

D. R.

The facility is good and my doctor is great unfortunately their call center; patients need to use to communicate is absolutely horrendous. It is indictivite of the problem with the medical industry and a step back from personal medical care. As much as I like my doctor I despise their terrible call center customer service and I'm looking for other options. This call center always has phone issues, rarely follows through with call backs, is so uninformed its laughable, and has no sense of urgency. I did one time get a normal person on the phone who was actually good but that was one time out of dozens. Who ever instituted this call center should have their hell composed of daily conversations with this call center for every task they need done.

Part 2: I called every day from Wed to Monday to get my prescription sent to a new pharmacy because every pharmacy is out of the medication I need. I found 1 pharmacy out of 30 that I called so I asked health first to expedite the prescription transfer and it's been 6 days and they still haven't completed it. They told me it was escalated on every single call but I guess we have a different definition of "escalate." My definition would be "make it a priority and act with some type of urgency". Health First's definition is let the patient call back for 5 days and pretend to send over the request but really misplace it and say that our policy is 24 to 72 hrs for change of pharmacy requests. Just glad the medication wasn't for a life threatening illness.

This was the last time for me. Im done with health first. I'm going to need therapist just to deal with their custom service center.

Jolka K.

Very poorly functioning system. Health First Gateway failed to fulfill contracts for some of physicians with Florida Blue. The results of this claims are denied by the insurance. Gateway collected on one of my test my full deductible $500.00 but insurance denied the claim so my deductible shows not fulfilled. It has been 5 months already. Currently I have a procedure done in different facility and today I have to pay another $500.00 deductible plus a coinsurence to get my procedure performed. I made numerous calls to billing department during last 5 months with no resolution. It is unacceptable that a patient has to pay for Health First incompetence. It is unacceptable that patients have to carry the financial burden caused by the provider. As a patients we are constantly forced to fulfill our financial responsibilities toward providers by threatening us with no service rendered but there is no repercussion for the provider/facility holding our money hostage. I understand and fulfill my responsibilities to a provider and I expect the same in return.

Amy Z.

Terrible Experience with Dr. Ramon Colina's billing Office*

I had an extremely frustrating experience with Dr. Ramon Colina's office regarding my annual healthcare check-up. During my annual healthcare check-up, my family Dr. ordered several tests for me, including a colonoscopy. Prior to the procedure, I confirmed with my insurance company that it would be covered since I hadn't had this check-up for five years.

During the consultation with office members and also before the procedure, I was asked couple of times if I had any symptoms and I clearly stated that it was just an annual check-up and I had no any symptoms. Despite this, right after the procedure Dr. Colina told me that everything is good and you are very healthy. You don’t need to come back for 10 years on 2/9/2024. But I started receiving bills over $300 from the hospital. Upon contacting my insurance company, I was informed that the doctor’s billing office had sent the wrong code—diagnostic instead of preventive—resulting in the insurance not covering the procedure.

The insurance company reached out to Dr.’s billing office multiple times to correct the coding mistake, but they keep sending the wrong code and insist that they are right. Due to this continued error, I had to file an appeal with my insurance company by using their form, as instructed. To make matters worse, the doctor's billing office sent the bill to a collection agency. After explaining my situation to the collection agency, they disputed the case on my behalf.

It's incredibly disappointing and unacceptable that Dr.’s billing office cannot distinguish between preventive and diagnostic codes, especially for a routine annual check-up. Their repeated mistakes have caused me significant stress and inconvenience, and I am now consulting my legal service to resolve this matter. The billing office has incompetence and poor handling of billing and insurance matters which I never have this kind of experience before for any annual check-ups.

Millie F.

This place is not what it use to be. Awful customer service. No empathy at all. When checking in feles like a bother, and you can't even ask a question. Awful, So sad!