[BayLady57]

That is unfortunate you did not have a good experience with Premier. I had my initial appointment with Dr. Seemab Malik at the Premier Old Camp Rd. Office by LSL. Before I share my experience I want you to be aware I am a retired R.N. of 44 years and the last 20 of those years worked as a Primary Care Case Manager at a large VA hospital based clinic in R.I. Just before my husband and I relocated to TV in June I was having some abnormalities with my kidney function tests and my R.I. PCP advised I get under the care of a new internal medical PCP as soon as we got to TV to have my labs repeated. I would have gone with TV healthcare but they do not accept my Federal BC/BS which acts as my Medicare Part B supplement but Premier did and they offered me an appointment right away. My R.I. doctor forwarded my medical records and lab results to Dr. Malik before my appointment which she reviewed them prior to my appointment and we discussed my abnormal labs immediately then went on to address any other issues I was having. I have worked with many PCPs over the course of 20 years, and the one I worked side by side with for the last 10 years went to Harvard undergrad and Brown medical school and he was the best and I feel Dr. Malik has similar expertise judging by what we discussed and her approach to my care. The medical assistant who screened me was also on top of her game as was the front desk clerk who checked me in and out. Having worked in Primary Care, although it was one large clinic, the clinic consisted of multiple teams and some functioned better than others. And when one of my R.N. colleagues was out sick or on vacation who was on a poorly functioning team which could include doctors I did not care with and I had to cover I would count the hours until my colleagues return. That being said, you may want to give another Premier office a shot as you may have better luck. I had the same positive experience with Ocala Eye and I used to get my care at Mass Eye & Ear in Boston as I have an optic neuropathy issue and you can't get much better than ME&E. Now, if we can only find an ethical dentist as we just had a pretty horrific experience with one here and I won't bore you with the details we will finally be settled with our healthcare.

[ronsroni]

Originally Posted by Babubhat

Why are there so many complaints by first time posters?

I hasten to guess that folks from other areas are tentative with medical exams by new clinicians.
Some of the docs are Awful. When you have drs for YEARS, it’s stressful to start to assess and trust. It’s concerning.
We were all new once; kinda like immigrants. ☮️

[jswirs]

Originally Posted by Carol@TV

I do not recommend Premiere Medical Associates! I was charged two co-payments to see Dr. Luis Alvarado in Lady Lake (no exam - just a consultation and then a second one to go over lab work), and then he never followed through with sending in my prescriptions. I called three times to ask about my prescriptions and they never got back to me and now I can't get my co-payments refunded. I ended up having to see another doctor before my prescriptions expired. I've called Premiere Medical Associates asking about refunding the charges, but they insist they were for services rendered. The two 2 minute appointments (which gained me nothing) were an expensive learning experience! I should have had some warning when they required me to make a second appointment just to go over lab work (with all labs in the "normal" range). I've never had a doctor require me to make an appointment to go over normal results. They are in it for the money.

Most seniors here have inadequate insurance, that is, the insurance will discount the doctor's fee by about 50% - 75%. Therefore, medical doctors, and dentist also, cannot spend sufficient time with patients, or, they find ways to do more than necessary, in order to make what they believe they deserve. I'm not complaining about the doctors, it's the system that seems to be causing the problems. All said IMHO.

[Inexes@aol.com]

The problem is everywhere. My experience was with TV Health, including their specialty clinic. My husband has an implanted heart monitor that is a continuous EKG reading, 24 hrs/day. Once a month this report is sent to the Cardiology Clinic. It was implanted in 2016 and every month from July 2016 - March 2022 the office billed Medicare and Tricare For Life two bills for $45.00 each, one for reading the report and one for office visit to give us report. We never had the office visit. The report was available on our patient portal. Funniest part is.... we left The Villages in August of 2020 to be nearer family in NC. We did not get established with a cardiologist here in NC due to Covid, etc until March of 2022, so the reports continued to go through the Specialty Clinic in TV. For 19 months Medicare/TFL continued to pay $90.00/month for a patient who no longer lived near there. What's even funnier.... the cardiologist here has billed nothing for the report. He laughed and said ":why would I bill Medicare for reading a report"? He says he reads the report and if there is a problem, he will call for us to come in for office visit. And "no", I have not reported it to Medicare. If they are too inept to pick up on the fact that I changed our address in August of 2020 that hope is there? And further, I have reported other issues to Medicare and the answer was, it would cost more to investigate it than just pay it....

[kkingston57]

Originally Posted by Carol@TV

I do not recommend Premiere Medical Associates! I was charged two co-payments to see Dr. Luis Alvarado in Lady Lake (no exam - just a consultation and then a second one to go over lab work), and then he never followed through with sending in my prescriptions. I called three times to ask about my prescriptions and they never got back to me and now I can't get my co-payments refunded. I ended up having to see another doctor before my prescriptions expired. I've called Premiere Medical Associates asking about refunding the charges, but they insist they were for services rendered. The two 2 minute appointments (which gained me nothing) were an expensive learning experience! I should have had some warning when they required me to make a second appointment just to go over lab work (with all labs in the "normal" range). I've never had a doctor require me to make an appointment to go over normal results. They are in it for the money.

Sounds like 90% of the doctors here and in other parts of the country and it is not going to get any better. Most doctors these days want to be highly paid specialists, except OB/GYN doctors due to their high end malpractice insurance.