Family Medicine practitioners - Corpus Christi, TX

"This is not a review of Dr Hamish but a review of my experience at his Practice. When looking for a new provider when I moved to Corpus I called this office based on reviews and told them what insurances I had. I have two insurances - one which is a Choice based primary insurance that does not require preapprovals/referrals and one that is a more restrictive secondary insurance that requires pre approval of referrals when it is the primary insurance. I had to wait two months for an appointment which was then rescheduled by the office twice. So I arrive today to be told by the front desk that they would not accept me as a patient because my secondary insurance requires approval for referrals even though the primary insurance does not. I was told it was Corporate policy to not take my secondary insurance because of the referral process. When I said fine just take my primary and don't list my secondary. I was then told it was state law that they had to bill all insurances I had sp could not take me as a patient due to my secondary insurance. To say I was annoyed after taking 1/2 a day off of work is putting it lightly - why did you not say that when I gave you all of my insurance information verbally and online prior to my appointment. Why would you refuse a patient because of their secondary insurance which may or may not pay after the primary as there may not be any money due? Surely the potential coverage from two insurances is better than a payment by one insurance? So I get home and start to research what I was told by the front desk and the information provided about state laws and my secondary insurance was incorrect. So the insurance that would pay secondary does not require pre approval for referrals or treatment when there is a another insurance that would be primary - it states that clearly on their website. In addition, there is no law in the state that requires doctors offices to bill all available insurances that a patient has - it might be a Practice rule but it is not a state law per the State DOI. Now I am left with one of two reasons they refused to treat me - they did not want to take my primary insurance and did not want to say so or they did not want to take me as a new patient and did not want to say so. Certainly their choice either way but definitely a really bad experience for me. Either way I would not recommend this practice to anyone. "

"Dr Sifuentes has been my primary primary physician for several years. I find him competant and very caring. His staff is friendly and supportive."