Dr. Smirnoff - The Way The Office Is Run
 

I have a friend who is a patient of Dr. Smirnoff. They have expressed frustration with the way the office operates. You cannot be more than 5 minutes late or you won't be seen. Also, instead of charging what the insurance doesn't pay they make you pay an amount and you end overpaying. They have been trying to get a credit balance refunded for some time. It is a small amount and won't make or break them, but it is the principal. Told to come in and get the refund. When they went there, they said they were too busy and they would mail the check. They said they mail checks all the time. Never got the check in the mail. Called again. Said they would have to come in and that they do not mail checks. Went again to the office and they were not open. My friends aren't up that way alot and they aren't going to make a special trip. There are other discrepancies and problems they have had with this office. Then they were told the office would mail a check out, but would have to deduct for mailing it out. How cheap is that office? How about they pay for my friend's gas for driving there to get the check and them being too busy to mess with it?

Stopped going to him because he was always late.

Quick to prescribe dozen of medicines. Wait time in office can be hours. Very sarcastic. Always carries a small black bag - made a joke about it, and was told to mind my own business. Look for another doctor please.

Contact Seniors Vs Crime to deal with the doctors office. They have been successful in past cases of this nature. They are located at the Sumter County Sheriff's Office at Morse and 466 or call them at 352-689-4600, Ext. 4606.

His wife runs the office and him as well. I stopped going to him 2 years ago.

This is interesting, as I think this is the same Dr. Smirnoff associated with a Compass research study. Wonder if he is spreading himself and the office too thin.

I don't know the first thing about this doctor or his office staff.. I just wonder why we didn't hear from the patients themselves.

Umm, I believe that three of the comments on this thread were from ex-patients...

It's possible that none of his patients, except the few who responded, are members of this forum.

My point was the OP was not his patient. I question the purpose of someone publicizing potentionally harmful information about a person or business, all the while having no first hand evidence of anything that the doctor or his staff does, or doesn't do.

The OP is not a patient of the doctor.

I don't know this doctor or how his office is run. However, in my experience, a physician's office run by the doctors wife is never a good thing. Dr. Smirnoff might very well hate how his own office is run, but it's not like he can fire his wife. But I agree with bagboy----the comments by a third party have nothing to do with the doctor, only about the office management, but gives a negative connotation to him as well. It may be deserved, but maybe it's not.

Former Smirnoff Patients
 

My husband and I were also patients of Dr. Smirnoff and left his practice because of shoddy and illegal billing practices. After declaring our insurance carrier (Bankers Medigap) the worst insurance they had ever worked with, they required payment of office visits and then billed the insurance company and were promptly paid by Bankers. They had never submitted any prior claims to Bankers on our behalf despite our repeated requests to do so.

Once we paid the balance Smirnoff's office said we "had" to pay, we submitted our claim to our insurance company and they informed us that Smirnoff had already submitted a claim and had been paid.

I tried repeatedly to have Smirnoff's office refund our money but they said "prove that we have received the insurance company claim check." I did that (provided a copy of Bankers cancelled check with Smirnoff's office endorsement on the back and they still refused to make the refund of over $300 to us. I finally called the Florida Insurance Commission and they advised me to file a complaint and they provided me with a complaint number to use.

I decided to give Smirnoff one last chance and informed them that I had started a claim with the bureau in charge of physician fraud and gave them ten days to refund our money. The refund was sent to us within a few days. This process took over one year!

The office is managed by his wife and his daughter is the bookkeeper. There is no way to speak with the bookkeeper and I was informed that she "never makes a mistake" and "your insurance company are liars."

The entire process was disgraceful. Unfortunately, our experience is not unique as I had sat in their office and watched other elderly patients in tears because of billing/insurance issues.

I take no pride or comfort in this post but have decided to share my experience in the hope that it will help other patients deal with or stay away from this practice.

They made us wait for 2 months for an appointment,and when we arrived, they had forgotten about it. Then we rescheduled, and that time they made us wait for over an hour before we saw the doctor, and all he and his nurse had to say was how unreasonable I was to complain about the office staff and that the doctor would not take our son on as a patient.

This guy sounds like a real tool. Nepotism is never a good thing for a family and most definitely not for the customers.