Discrimination at UCLA Bariatrics???
After fighting for four years, I finally received approval for bariatric surgery through medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) and was instructed to log onto the UCLA Bariatrics web site, download their patient history questionaire/application and submit it. I did this on February 9, 2005. According to UCLA's instructions, I should have received an appointment after 3-4 weeks, to be examined and begin the evaluation process. The only way to contact this department is through a recording where you leave a message and if a message is left with their office, they "will return your call within 48 hours". It has been 14 weeks and I have left approximately 60 messages and even went to UCLA in person twice to re-submit my application packet. I have not received any type of response (phone, mail, e-mail) from UCLA.
I then contacted patient relations at UCLA 3 weeks ago to get some help and even they are unable to contact the Bariatric Dept. except by email. Several emails were sent and finally the program director, Deborah Frickel, sent an email back to patient relations saying that she'd already called me, which is blatantly UNTRUE. When patient relations tried to email her again about this discrepancy, all she had was a vague response that didn't address the fact that she never called me: "there are no openings at this time."
I have since filed a grievance with my insurance (Blue Cross of California - Medi-Cal managed) and am waiting for their investigation to be completed. Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this? Are there any legal venues that I haven't already explored? Please help!