The GW Medical Faculty Associates

I saw someone below say that they wish they could award 0 stars and I'd like to second that. Over a year ago, I went to GWMFA for a few visits. I didn't have any issues, they were pleasant enough. But upon my second visit, I had an outstanding bill for a couple hundred dollars. I could not check in for my next appointment until it was paid even though I was fairly certain my insurance had covered this.

A few days later, when I had some free time again, I looked into it more. They had indeed overcharged me. I called to get this taken care of but got the run around and was told to try my insurance. So I tried my insurance multiple times and ultimately learned that they would not reimburse me because it was GWMFA that had overcharged me, not them. I came back to GWMFA with this information and this is when I stopped getting any responses.

They do not care at all. While this may seem like a trivial amount of money, for me this is a lot of money. It's disappointing to see how little they care about the their patients. I enlisted the help of a health advocate who has been attempting to reach them since last year. Also no response. They have tried reaching out to the customer service rep Shanna via phone and email and have been completely ignored.

They reached Darvis who told them they needed to talk to Shanna. Kind of hard to do when she's blatantly ignoring us. Darvis provided them a generic billing email to request Shanna's supervisor, which just seems like another way to ghost us. I would recommend going else where if you want the people treating you to actually care about you.

I don't understand all the negative reviews. This place is amazing. Doctor care across disciplines is coordinated, the MyDocs app has test results show up within minutes of getting your tests. There's a pharmacy here and you can get your prescriptions almost immediately. I've never experienced care so loving and kind.

I called today to schedule a consult with a doctor in the Division of Gastroenterology since my Primary Care Doctor recommended a colonoscopy due to blood in my stool (I'm only 30 years old). I was told that their earliest opening to see any GI doctor was 7 MONTHS from now, in December 2022. That is insane, especially for something as important/time sensitive as a colon cancer screening.

If I could award zero stars, I would. After receiving numerous emails and texts about my appointment (and confirming from my end), my appointment was cancelled at 7:32am for a 7:45am check in today. I was on the elevator headed up to the office when I got the call cancelling my appointment. I went to discuss this matter with the check in staff, but they weren't even aware my PCP had cancelled and was not coming in!

I had to actually inform them (which they then confirmed)! Life happens and I understand appointments need to be cancelled occasionally, but more notice is definitely required. I work, so rescheduling it for 1pm as they offered was not possible. Trust the reviews and look elsewhere for care if possible. Par for the course re the abysmal customer service in DC generally.

If you need organized prescription management this is not the place to go. Terrible primary care. Over the past 3 years as a GW patient with internal medicine I've been following up after my appointments to point out mistakes a variety of different internal medicine doctors have made with my medication and I'm done with it. When I'm told a prescription is sent to a pharmacy the pharmacy never gets it.

I've been told by doctors they can't figure out how to work their computers to print or send my prescription. They lost the paperwork for my neurological disorder. The patient portal, where you can reach out to doctors, I do not receive responses from for weeks. The dept phone line puts in "48 hour emergent requests, " but I have never heard back from a doctor in that amount of time per that request.

I would give zero stars if I could. This place is full of liars, scammers, and frauds. Forget about medical care - protect yourself from their harassing billing practices and DO NOT GO HERE. I have been getting bills for $1000 for over one year that I never owed. The doctor has been fighting with their billing department on my behalf and they still keep sending me bills. I have started the paperwork for a fraud claim with the FTC - they have one more week before I file - that is how severely outrageous my experience has been.

If I could give 0 stars, I would. I was scheduled for a surgery consult with Dr. Vargas (after months of waiting). When I got to my appointment, they told me it had been canceled and they didn't know the reason. I received no call, no email, no text message (except texts asking me to confirm my appointment). They gave me the number of Dr. Vargas' admin, who I called.

She told me that Dr. Vargas was not going to be performing any more surgeries, so I was rescheduled with one of her colleagues in another month (keep in mind this was all for a surgery that was supposed to relieve severe pain, which is apparently totally fine to continue delaying). When I researched the colleague I had been rescheduled with, I learned she was an NP, not a surgeon.

The doctors at GW have been okay in my experience. if you can manage to see one. On the day I was supposed to have my consultation, I arrived to find a long line of people who were at that point an hour late seeing their doctor and were waiting to reschedule for another time. This is by far the most disorganized medical system I've ever had the displeasure of working with. It's honestly disgraceful.

Dr. Vargas is outstanding as a surgeon, advocate and person. I have had three prior surgeries and can confidently confirm that she is an incredibly skilled surgeon and has the best personal interaction with patients that I have ever encountered. She was very patient with me and answered all of my questions. She was always accessible and helped me feel at ease when making one of the most challenging decisions of my life. I strongly recommend Dr. Vargas.

The star is for my provider. The one visit I had with her was great. However, it was rapidly downhill from there. I came in for chronic foot pain, and the entire experience here has been made needlessly stressful and distressing from the sheer difficulty of getting appointments made and honored, expensive billing mistakes, dismissive office staff, and, the cherry on top, getting my MRI results indicating something is up with multiple notes to my doctor to follow up, only to never hear back.

I came here because the doctors were recommended, as they would take me seriously when others did not, and I received great service there. But the rest has been a kind of "care" so dismissive and stressful that I think I would have been better off walking on this foot for the last few months without any of this. And it's not like I can call my doctors office and ask for an appointment-the other reviews say it all.

I can confirm that's been an issue too. The staff here act like we are inconveniencing them by coming in. I wonder how the providers here get anything done with such support.

I would advise anyone who is looking for a primary care physician to carefully consider other options before looking here. Over several years as a patient with GW Medical Faculty Associates, I spent hours on hold in the phone trees that other reviewers have described. As far as I can recall, I was only able to get through to a medical professional via phone once - and only after breaking down in tears with a call center employee.

While I was never treated rudely by administrative or medical staff, I was routinely shocked by the level of dysfunction that occurred behind the scenes. I had prescriptions repeatedly sent to the wrong pharmacy despite clearly specifying my preferred pharmacy in each refill request. I had staff submit refill requests for the wrong medication even after multiple calls in which I spelled the name of the medication letter by letter.

I once had to go several unpleasant days without a prescription after a refill request from my pharmacy received no response for nearly a week despite call after call. As a patient, I never received a phone number for my doctor's office. Every phone call went through a call center who would send "urgent requests" via a mysterious portal to my doctor.

In my experience, those "urgent" requests could take days to receive a response. I endured frustration after frustration with this practice for several years simply because I didn't want to bother finding a new doctor, but when systemic administrative incompetence began to infringe on my sense of wellbeing, I knew it was time to move on. Ironically, the time I felt most respected and heard while a patient with this practice was when speaking with a patient experience representative to share these concerns after I decided to find a new doctor.