Manatee Urgent Care-Lakewood Ranch

We are from the area but now live in NC. During a recent visit our 18 month old came down with a pretty high fever. She has a history of ear infections so we decided to take her in. We have BCBS federal (which we've used in various settinfs from providers & urgent cares to EDs over the last few years.) We had all the standard insurance card, info and ID at check in, Sunday evening. The medical assistant/ front desk person took the info & shortly after said their online verification was not able to pull up our coverage. She said they would have to charge us $130, then if they can verify our insurance coverage in the morning, then they will mail us a check. We agreed but asked our card we use to pay (which was a FSA/health savings account), be credited, instead of a check being issued. One would think- that is not a big deal as any professional institution with legitimate billing processes could easily reverse payment (instead of mailing a refund check.) WRONG- they not only declined but also eagerly noted if our daughter needed any labs, or other work-up, there would be added charges. The med assistant/ secretary was incredibly rude. I asked to please speak to the person in charge, since she kept saying "its their policy you will have to talk to them, i just work here." She called her boss by phone and intentionally shared a very passive aggressive and condescending summary of the situation. Then hung up and said we could write a check they'd hold. We are traveling and didn't bring our check books. I explained I wanted to talk to the person in charge. She said, "she didn't want to talk to you." WOW- rudest experience we have had in a medical setting! Thankfully our daughter's mood had improved while going through this ordeal, and her fever subsided. We left and called our home ped office (they have an on-call nurse) who was very helpful. She indicated we could wait until the morning for our daughter to be seen. She also indicated the payment policy seemed a bit suspect, as charging a FSA/health savings plan then issuing a check to the patient (individually) after charging their insurance, is not something most medical providers would want to be part of. ( We never thought of that.) Its possible the medical assistant/secretary was misrepresenting this practice. If so, then hopefully they address her behaviors. If not, then clearly there are reasons to be ware.

Very disappointed! I rushed my 2 year old here to be seen (Nothing that would have taken a long time) since they said they closed at 8pm. I got there at 750pm and they had already locked the door and when I knocked the rude lady came to the door and said we wont see her we close at 8pm, however it was only 750pm. On their front door and on there website it says they close at 8pm. NOT 745pm-750pm. I have been to several other urgent cares in the area and they will let people in to be seen until the time they have posted on their door. I try not to use this place as in the past they seemed rushed and they don't seem to really care about the needs of there patients. I had my daughter there almost a year ago on a saturday with a high fever and she was extremely fussy. (again closer to closing time) They said she was fine and it must be viral. No more then 2 hours later her fever spiked higher and I called her pediatrician who recommended I take her to the hospital. Come to find out she has a double ear infection. I asked the Dr. at the hospital could this have come out in 2 hours as we just had her at urgent care and they said she was fine. The Dr. advised that she had these ear infections when I took her there 2 hours ago. It by no means just got red in the 2 hours. That her ears were both very red and infected that they just didn't look. Tonight I thought I would give them another chance as they are the closest to my house and I wanted to make it there by 8pm to have my baby seen and again disappointed. There is other Urgent cares in the area that are a lot better and take their time to understand the needs of their patients no matter if they are closing in 10 mins. I wouldn't recommend them to ANYONE! I definitely wont be using them again and will advise others of their practice.

I had the longest wait 2.5 hours with my 2 year old for the doctor to say that he woudl not treat me the second time but needed to go to a specialist AND I called that mornign before I came to ask them if they would give me a refill. They asked the doctor and all he could say was come in. I came in paid again and the doctor walked int he door did not look at me and said no. Could have said it inthe morning before my daughter and I had to go through all of that. At least they have a cute kids play room. Doctor seemed nice otherwise.

I have had two visits Lakewood Ranch Urgent Care. I am grateful to Dr. Price for voluntarily taking the time to research the most affordable prescription solutions for me. Also, the casual, yet very caring, atmosphere of the clinic and staff makes it comfortable for patients. I do recommend this clinic.

What an awful experience. I went in for a sinus infection which at no point did she even ask me about my symptoms but rather just told me I have bronchitis and that I needed steriods and antibiotics and I also let her know that I was having asthma attacks in the middle of the night due to not having taken my advair because it ran out two nights prior and I am a teacher so it's been hard to make a doctor appointment until Xmas break but that I only needed an emergency fill for one advair to hold me over until I got to the doctor, which I totally understand that they cannot refill maintenance scripts but just one shouldn't be a problem as I have had this happen in the past. I was then lectured on the fact that advair has serious side effects and most doctors are not even prescribing it anymore and when I REPEATEDLY asked her what the side effects were she would not answer me. She only said you need to talk to your doctor about it. Regardless, the visit ended with me being told she will call it in anyway and then I was called 10 minutes later on my drive home so that she could tell me Walgreens no longer carries or distributes it. I didn't question it, but I panicked thinking I will be having asthma attacks for the next several nights until this gets resolved. I decided this morning to call Walgreens to check on it and to my surprise they said they DO carry it!! So I called back the urgent care and asked the man at the desk if they could please call it back in and he proceeded to LECTURE me, and say " do you realize people that take advair and inhalers die,

" and any time I tried to say to him, but why did she lie to me then and say they didn't carry it, his answer was " I don't care" ......what a bunch of unprofessional preachy bastards, that is no way to talk to customers who are coming to you for help, it wasn't like I was asking for narcotics, I was asking to be able to breathe with medication I have been taking for 15 years. It's not his place as a "secretary" to tell me what I should and shouldn't do. I WILL NEVER NEVER NEVER RECCOMMEND THIS PLACE TO ANYONE I CARE ABOUT!!!! Awful experience. Shame on them.

rip off. they said the doctor visit was only 90 dollars. and so i use my insurance and they billed me 250 dollars for doctor visit and another 25 dollars because its a weekend. and now i have to pay more using my insurance. its a little trick they do that they dont tell you and thats how they can make their money.

Buyer beware! If you have insurance with a deductible , you will pay substantially more than if you pay cash. After a recent visit in October I noticed the pricing board in the front office listed an office visit at $90.00 . Imagine my surprise when I received my bill through my insurance that I was actually charged $210.00 that was repriced down to $130.00. When I called to ask why I was charged so much more for the same visit as a cash customer, their response was " it was at the bottom of the paper you signed stating you have the option to pay cash." They failed to state the cash charge is substantially less than your insurance charge for the same level of service! What a rip off in these tough economic times. My money will no longer be going to Lakewood Ranch Urgent Care. We. pay for insurance ourselves. I feel they are taking advantage of those who are responsible enough to carry it.

Great place--Dr. Folkens is very good, staff as well. I will go there again