Orthopedic Urgent Care

"Im very disappointed with this place. They overcharged me and are clearly taking advantage of our healthcare and insurance system. Its places like this that cause insurance premiums and health care to be soo expensive. Shame on these people. My daughter fractured her foot. We took her to AFC Urgent Care in paramus. The medical staff at AFC is wonderful. We were in and out in 30 minutes. We got an xray and the dr said my daughter fractured her foot and that the fracture was non displaced. The dr recommended a walking boot that I could get on amazon for $75.00 and no gym for three weeks. They provided a medical note for school and said the fracture will heal fast. Total bill was $160.00. Later that evening my wife and I decided to get a second opinion by a pediatric orthopedist just to be safe. Summit health in Emerson was the closest to our home that accepts our insurance and they had immediate openings. They were also okay with reading an x-ray taken by another doctor. Summit Health charged us $1800.00 dollars for a walking boot (the same model amazon had for $75.00) and a 20 minute second opinion which we waited 1 hour in their office for. $1800.00!!!!!??????!!!!! I called their customer service department and got a response from their billing department that blew my mind. They said we should blame insurance companies because insurance companies dictate what healthcare providers charge. They also said if I wanted to pay less I should go to office located in Newark or paterson because the offices charge patients less money. Can you believe she said that!!! This can not be further from the truth. Health insurance companies provide service providers with a fee schedule only. Practitioners dictate what they charge based on the services they say they did. They also determine how to alter language so that the highest fees are assessed. In a lot of cases practitioners are not even aware that the third party medical biller is doing this. They see the money coming in and figure if insurance is paying it that it must be fine. Its not. And hard working Americans are paying for it. What a disgrace Summit Health Care is. Im not paying this bill. My insurance already paid half and Summit is lucky they got that. Shame on you Summit Health."