I Call It As I See It With Facts: University Foot & Ankle Institute

I started this BLOG in December of 2009 after I found out I never had cancer at UCLA Medical Center, that now I describe as Torture (which I refer to in my blog of August 9, 2016).  I am now going to address another problem and one I bleive my viewers in the 45 countries around the world (including the newest country of Turkmenistan located in Central Asia) will want to know about because it deals with an “independent” Doctor’s office/surgery office instead of a hospital where all doctors are located for any medical need..

 

I am talking about University Foot & Ankle Institute located at 2121 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, California.  I think everyone understands the word “Hungry” regarding a business. And that is what this business is from my personal experience.  I did not know they are a Podiatrist practice and not an Orthopedic one.  And that is what I needed on February 9, 2015 when my son took me there after being released from the Marina Del Rey ER for my broken ankle and tibia bone in my left leg.  Dr. Gary B. Briskin the head of the office saw me on February 9, 2015 but turned me over to Dr. Jason Morris after the CT scan showed I had major injuries to my ankle and needed surgery to repair the break, which required a steel plate and screws to hold it together to help it heal – which will remain there for the rest of my life.  That is for an Orthopedic surgeon and not a Podiatrist (for bunions, etc.)

 

Instead of referring me to an Orthopedic doctor or to Saint John’s Medical Center in Santa Monica, or Cedars Sinai Medical Center just 8 miles from my home, I was scheduled for this major operation on their 3^rd floor where they had one operating room.  But it represented $15,672.00 which Medicare would be billed for (all doctors did their own billing), and the more than $600.00 that was demanded up front at the reception desk for the surgery. 

 

Medicare does not work that way. They send in a bill, and Medicare pays what the doctors know they will pay, but tell the patient how much they will be billed for at 20%.  They charged me more than Medicare would allow so I demanded a refund and a check came from an office on the EAST COAST, but without the word REFUND printed on it.  That is important because I now realize this practice does not include PAYMENTS made by the patients.  I made 5 payments altogether and none of them were applied to my bill.  So when I left in July of 2015, I still had a balance of $600.00, but only billed for half and the whole bill was sent to collection (even though Medicare was not billed yet as harassment) 2 days after I requested my file to be sent to an Orthopedic practice I was planning on seeing.   I made payments totaling $400.00 after I left, but none of those amounts were posted to my account – only the amounts that Medicare paid.  Do they pocket the money that the patient pays because there is no record of it for the IRS or partnership?  That is “Hungry”.

 

As I mentioned before, my ankle had to be opened up and the doctor inserted a steel plate and screws to hold it together until it could heal, but they will remain there for the rest of my life..  (Does that mean the alarm will go off when I’m going through the TSA at the airport?)  Within 6 hours from arrival to release, I went home by a medical van transport which my son hired at a cost of over $300 round trip. I had expected to spend the night after the surgery and was very surprised after having a major operation that I was released the same day as an “outpatient” when I really should have been an “inpatient” as Saint John’s or Cedars would have called it.

 

Because my break was so bad, Dr. “M” said I had to keep off my feet for 8-10 weeks because he had never seen such fragile bones. He said he “could have crushed them with his hands”.  I followed his orders and only got out of bed for doctor’s visits with the help of my son Tony in a wheelchair; my other son I have not seen since his graduation from Beverly Hills High School in 1992 but we live in the same city.  I will however acknowledge the help from his wife who I have never met, but she helped Tony with obtaining my medical equipment and all my needs with respect to being confined to 10 straight weeks of bedrest.  I have been told by my physical therapist that this length of time was “very unusual” and it should have been 6 weeks to get me up and start therapy to walk again.

 

My problems started the night of April 13, 2015 when I went home with the “Boot” on my left leg (almost up to my knee).  I do not know what the Asian-American male nurse did, but by 10pm, I was writhing in excruciating pain.  Before the boot, I had had a plaster cast on my leg and had experienced no problems.  But after having the boot put on, it felt like I was walking around with a cement block on my foot.   What I did not know until December of 2015 was that my left foot was actually “fractured” and had not been properly cared for, after the boot was put on.  With the weight of my body, I was walking around with a broken tibia, along with a severely damaged ankle on a fractured foot.  This resulted in my SCIATIC NERVE being damaged, which has left me with CHRONIC PAIN SYNDROME and I take pain pills daily specifically for damaged nerves, not like an Advil for overall pain.  I will most likely need to continue this for years to come. 

 

Did any X-ray show prior to April 13 that I had a weakness in the area between the ankle and toes, both on top and underneath the foot?  Did the two straps on the boot which held it closed (right where the first strap covers that area) cause my foot to fracture?  Even though I had complained of the pain from the pressure and tightness of the boot?   Nothing was done, and I only found out about the fracture 8 months later and Dr. Morris was nowhere around.

 

I found out in June, 2015 that University Foot & Ankle Institute has an office on the grounds of UCLA Medical Center and if I had been told this before the surgery, as I should have been due to a “conflict of interest” I would never had agreed to the surgery.  I believed the fractured foot and the conflict with UCLA Health, and all the problems I have had that are long term are life altering.  That these to facts were never told to me.  UCLA is a power house in California and the entire United States, and especially in Southern California, all doctors on the “Westside” of Los Angeles from Beverly Hills to Malibu are beholden to them for work and referrals.  I experienced Torture I UCLA Health, and I have also now experienced Torture at University Foot & Ankle Institute.