Jiva Health - Walnut Creek - Walnut Creek, California

Jame E.

I have been a patient with this practice for over 15 years, since before Jiva bought out the practice.

Initially I chose this practice as they were well reviewed and one of the few options that treated symptoms for Hashimoto's patients and not just labs. And were willing to try a variety of treatments. Overall my symptoms were steady or improving, and that was the reason I hadn't switched as the practice transitioned.

As a Hashimotos patient, I visit an endocrinologist between 2-4 times a year to check my thyroid so I am a frequent user.

Initially things were fine with the transition, but I have seen a steady decline in quality of care over the last several years. And there has a lot of turnover in the practitioners. My primary provider has switched every 9-12 months since Jiva picked up the practice.

This is very disruptive, as with every other appointment or so re-explain my history frequently. There doesn't seem to be thorough documentation on my history or it isn't being reviewed deeply, despite my long history at the practice.

And this wastes a lot of time in each 15 minute appointment making it difficult to address ongoing care plans. This of course is a flaw in our healthcare system, but it is particularly frustrating as I have had continuous care at the practice for nearly 20 years at this point.

This also makes it challenging to get refills as if the assigned physician has left or changed I am not notified. I am also not able to request a refill via the app since I have no doctor assigned. They need improve the provider off boarding process so patients are not left in the lurch and confused about who to contact when needs come up.

Additionally, despite all of my attempts to adjust my preferred name so they pronounce it correctly, it goes ignored. I need to correct the pronunciation with every single staff interaction I have.

This is not an issue with any other provider I see, as they read the preferred name when they start the interaction and pronounce it correctly. This is very frustrating and makes you feel like just a number and not a person.

Jiva Health has a practice of collecting payment before the appointment, even virtual ones. None of my other providers do this, and they do not send a meeting link until payment is collected. Over the past 2 years they are overcharging me for the copay, and then sending a refund after the fact - which feels very sketchy.

I have moved to just about exclusively virtual care since the pandemic started and I do not think I have had a single appointment that started on time since, typically it is 20-30 minutes behind schedule. A recent appointment I waited almost an hour and had another engagement so I had to reschedule. I had to proactively reach out to get refunded for my appointment and it took a couple of calls to get it done.

Over the last 3 years the overall quality of care has declined significantly and I am looking to transition to a different practice. The doctors are no longer listening to me when I complain about issues and worsening symptoms - they are only treating the numbers.

I had a recent poor interaction with one provider who didn't listen to anything I told her about my backgrounds and habits, made wrong assumptions, and offered useless lifestyle advice of things that were long term habits. It was very clear that her own biases came from looking at my numbers, and she made a lot of assumptions and brought those into our conversations instead of listening.

It is also extremely difficult to get appointments as there is no online booking and the phone lines are very busy, so you are either left on hold for 15 or 20 minutes or directed to leave a voicemail that may not be returned.

Overall my experiences here have been poor and getting worse over a long history of being a patient at the practice and prior practice. I'd recommend fellow hashimotos or hypothyroid patients look elsewhere for a more patient-friendly practice.

Marcia W.

Do not, I repeat do not, use this group for sleep apnea. The list of mess ups on their part is astounding. First, they lost the referral several times, then they asked me to bring the equipment back on the wrong day, when I told them they told me to ignore the email and then sent me another one saying the same thing. Three weeks later I had not heart from them. When I called, they said they would call me back which they didn't. I called again and left a message. They returned the call asking me to set up an appointment. I had done the study based on a referral, but they haven't sent the results to my doctor. I told them I didn't need to see them because I was working with another doctor. I asked if the referring doctor had received the results - which he hadn't. They told me I could see the results on MyHillChart. I went there and there was nothing. They said they could mail them to me, not email. I asked if they had yet sent them to my doctor and she hung up on me. I called back and the new person had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. This is the most unprofessional clinic I have ever worked with.

Goodman L.

Dank and noisy, this facility is worth avoiding. Follow up care is horrible. They never answer the phone, nor do they call back. Haven't been able to get them to send the sleep study, or the doc's before and aft notes to my DME so I can get the new equipment - it's been over a month since the test. Inexcusable patient protocol. Perhaps Dr. Macdannald was better before his practice was bought out by Jiva. Sorry I did my study with him at this facility. There's got to be better ones out there.

Daryn L.

The general incompwtency of this place is astounding. Even my experiences have largely been informed by them forgetting to send all the lab orders so i have to go twice to get my blood drawn at my expense not once.

Matthew

Not sure how they have good reviews unless are faked. They are impossible to reach via phone. When you do reach them, it’s nearly impossible to get an appointment scheduled because for some reason they only book two weeks out and the schedule is full. Unless you are able to pick up the phone at the one random time they call you back, you’re back to calling them only to wait for someone to call you back again. Find another provider for sleep studies.

S T.

Really wanted to like this clinic as it came highly recommended, but I found this to be the worst endocrinologist I’ve ever seen. Dr Bhat is cold and quick and brushed off any concerns and questions I had without fully answering, and their office continues to send me bills for different amounts even though I’ve already paid through the portal. The office staff will never follow up to schedule your next appointment, but they will hound you via calls and texts if you don’t pay your $30 co-pay BEFORE you see the doctor.

Lastly, they are SUPER pushy about you seeing the Physician’s Assistant rather than an actual doctor. Like hello, I thought I was paying all this money to actually be seen by an MD Absolutely ridiculous, this place is a scam and just looking to take your money, go elsewhere.

Ezekiel H.

The people here are nice but useless. The phone line is almost impossible to reach a representative through, and they only follow up on voicemails about 25% of the time.
The endocrinologist I was seeing refused to prescribe the weekly medication I had been taking, and instead insisted on putting me on either daily supplements or biweekly injections. Most pharmacies would not supply me with the daily supplements, however it would take weeks to go through the process of trying different versions because she would not respond to the pharmacy at all, and any representatives reached on their phone line would often give blatantly false information.
I demanded to switch practices after the worst of my experience- after finally switching to the biweekly injections, I received notice from my pharmacy that the endocrinologist hadn't included the correct prior authorization and they hadn't been able to talk to her. I reached out to the phone line and was told there was just a delay in the system, and that it would be processed soon. I call back a week later after having heard no updates and NOW they tell me that actually, my insurance denied the medication and that I'd have to call them to figure out what's going on. I speak to my insurance and find out that she filled out the diagnostic criteria incorrectly, and was told to reach back out to her. The next day I call the phone line again and I'm told that the endocrinologist knew about the incorrect code and resubmitted it the week prior, BEFORE my first call to Jiva health about this prescription. I asked the person over the phone why they didn't just tell me that in one of the last two calls I had with them and they couldn't give me an answer.
I then reach back out to the pharmacy, where they verify the corrected insurance approval, but they tell me they also can't get this version of the medication in stock. The pharmacist explains that the prescription specifically asked for a brand she had never heard of and would likely be impossible to find outside of a hospital, but can easily get me a more generic version. I go in to pick it up and speak to the same woman in person, and she not only expresses confusion at why the endocrinologist prescribed the alternate version in the first place but also hands me the exact same medication I had been taking weekly before coming to Jiva Health. You know, the one the endocrinologist claimed she was incapable of prescribing me. I cancelled my follow up appointments with her the same day.
TLDR: This place is a mess. Avoid like the plague.

Yao H.

I came in for an appointment and told them I have already done the test and don't want to do the skin test again.. asked me to sign release form from UCSF, turns out that's the wrong form, came back to ask me to sign another form and then ghosted me for several months. Called in to ask whether they got the test result, was told that I need to call UCSF, got connected to someone else and turns out they got my test result a long time ago, they just mis-labeled it. Seems like a very irresponsible clinic to me.