Dr. Julie Griffith Update - More Fraud

Just when you think "Doctor" Julie Griffith might have actually learned something from this whole fiasco with me stopping payment and going to court and my complaining to anyone who will listen about her, she continues to amaze me with  her lack of integrity and level of corruption.  Either she is more conniving then I have given her credit for or she has poor judgement and no business sense. 

I've had 14 people contact me in various ways, all with similar complaints and issues with Dr. Julie Griffith.  Most issues with her have been regarding her hijacking and extorting money from unsuspecting patients during a serious health crisis. There is definitely a theme to all of the comments, stories and emails I've received and that is that they think there is some serious crazy and unethical medical/business practices going on at that office. Her billing practices are beyond reasonable and now I have just one more personal experience with her to prove what a fraud she is.

I've been making Dr. Griffith monthly payments for the one and only consultation we had with her that I had stopped payment on.  I'm paying her $100 a month on the 20th of each month.  My original bill was about $1600 for the one consult with her.  I stopped payment and with good reason.  We went to small claims court and the judge knocked $500 off the total due to her.  So that's what I'm making payments on, the JUDGEMENT + she is tacking on 10% interest. 

One of her patients emailed me and told me according to Marin County tax records, Dr. Griffith was in default on her HOME/office (since she lives in the same place she sees her patients) property taxes and that it was being sold in foreclosure.  Surprise! I could never figure out why this brilliant Neurologist would even bother with collecting a measly $1600 after what she had done to my son.  At $500 per hour, this doctor must be doing pretty well right??? And what doctor who makes $500 per hour would want to waste their valuable time sitting in Small Claims court?  You have to figure their time is worth something.  But when your patients are dropping you like flies and you have nothing better to do, I guess you fight for what little business revenue you can get; even from someone you knowingly wronged and has opening and legitimately disputed it. How many exceptional and reputable neurologists do you know who are broke and chasing $1600?  Sorry.  I digress.

So I get this "statement" from her office the other day in the mail, letting me know she has "moved her practice".  But what was even more curious about the statement was how inaccurate it was. With Dr. Griffith's track record, I highly doubt this was by any kind of innocent mistake or clerical error. 

First of all she is charging me interest for the last year + that we have been in dispute over this payment; when she can only be billing me for the small claims judgement-yet she's going all the way back to April 2009 and trying to tack on interest from there. 

I also love how she has me classified as being in "collection".  Hmmm.  I did exactly what the court judgement told me to do.  I had so many days to contact her and 1.) either pay her in full or 2.) make a payment agreement with her--which I did within the time frame given.  I contacted her to make payment arrangements, she did not contact me as if to collect.  So as long as I keep my agreement and make my $100 payments per month to her, how am I past due or in collection? It's what SHE AGREED TO.

My favorite discrepancy within the statement is how she has my original balance at $2300+ showing a $975 credit memo.  NONE of her numbers even add up.  What the hell is that all about?  Never, ever was that my amount due to her from our one and only consultation.  She's concocted an arbitrary amount that was never charged or billed or authorized or documented to me and now is acting as if she is giving it back to me in the form of a credit memo????  Uhm, excuse me but I'm thinking that has TAX FRAUD written all over it.  Is she trying to write off this pretend balance as a "bad debt" on her taxes perhaps?  Whatever it is she is trying to pull is totally suspect; just like her "practice".  I called her office and tried to speak with the bookkeeper, but there was a definite language barrier there.  She couldn't understand half of what I was saying.  She tried her best to explain to me that even though Dr. Griffith never actually billed me for the $2300 that she did work on our case and so that's what the charge is there for, but rest assured, I don't have to pay it because it's a credit to me like I should be thanking her for that.

Trying my best to keep my composure, because by now I have more than lost my patience with this "practice" and their shenanigans, I questioned her as to why a Doctor, who was fired for negligence and unethical billing practices, would be working on a file trying to drum up more charges?  I surely never authorized any further work.  Was she trying to come up with a new misdiagnosis to give us?  I know it wasn't from ever actually speaking with Dr. Griffith on the phone because she won't come to the phone for less than $375 per hour and I never ever spoke with her on the phone before.  So, what could she have possibly been working on besides her malpractice defense?  I told the bookkeeper I wanted the statement corrected with the real and actual documented amount that I owed on it and not some random amount that Dr. Julie Griffith pulled out of her ass.  Why not just put $10k or $15k down on my statement???  it wouldn't be any less true than her putting down that I owed her $2300.

I calmly wrote Dr. Griffith another Letter and sent it certified so that she can't say it was never received.  How long can this woman, pretending to be a doctor, actually stay in business like this?  I'm stumped.  What's she going to do for money when I'm done paying her for our one "consultation"? 

I also spoke with HIPPA last week and they are going to continue with investigating my complaint of how she illegally obtained Doodle's records 11 1/2 months after we had been seen (once) in her office as if she was our treating physician and provided them with an invalid request for information.

My Small Claims Court Appeal Ruling...

Two posts in one day? Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Just as I had suspected; ruling for the Plaintiff. (Dr. Julie Griffith, San Rafael, CA)

Just got our ruling in the mail today and the Judge has ordered me to pay the unethical Dr. Julie Griffith, San Rafael, CA the sum of $1260. Not a surprise since he made it really clear this court date wasn't about who lied, misdiagnosed, over prescribed medicine, showed poor ethical behavior, had ridiculous billing practices; was insane, shady, grandiose, mislead patients, money-grubbing, fraudulent, and gave other DAN! Doctors a bad name.

The judge did not include a written reason or decision which kind of bums me out. He said nothing. No explanation at all. He must have seen some dishonesty or delusion in her character because he was nice enough to knock $500 off my bill. Gee. Thanks. I guess he felt like maybe alarming the parent of a two year old unnecessarily and diagnosing her son with a severe brain malformation and then talking about an untrue diagnosis of Dandy Walker for 2 hours might seem a little excessive and calculating; even on the brilliant Dr. Julie Griffith's clock. (insert big court room outburst sigh here)

Will I pay her? Yes. But only because of this terrific legal binding court order to do so. But unfortunately, since all of my money is tied up in change and we have real doctor bills received from real doctors who provide actual medical care instead of taking the patient on a trip to Never-Never Fantasy Land, she is going to have to accept payments in the form of maybe $10 a month for 129 months or so. What's 10 years or so between adversaries?

The only good thing from all of this is that I now have even more ammunition to take this doctor down...with the former patients that have since come forward and because we now have PROOF of Dr. Julie Griffith's misconduct to take to a very different venue so that she can be held accountable for being the FRAUD that she is.

The way this Doctor has behaved will surely raise some eyebrows at the State Medical Board and also at the Federal level.

Still waiting for a silver lining on this one. I guess it has taught me not to be so trusting of someone just because they have a degree on their wall and claim to be a Doctor. Next time I will thoroughly check out a physician before I make an appointment. Next time I will pay better attention to the RED FLAGS such as how many reputable doctors are literally working out of their living room and refusing to bill insurance. Hmmmm.

It's clear that Dr. Julie Griffith, San Rafael, CA is card-carrying member of the Liar's Club...Stay tuned. I'm in this one for the long haul. I will take this as far as I can until I can get some justice.

Losing the Battle to Win the War

The more time I spend listening to the narcissistic Dr. Julie Griffith of San Rafael, CA speak the more I realize how very crazy and calculating she is. Professional medical and ethical practices are completely lost on her.

She lied. Repeatedly.
She perjured herself.
She changed her story from the last court appearance.
She said I had cognitive difficulties.
She said she provided "medical care".
She said she dismissed me...when she was fired on April 15th.
She said she had more training than our other Neurologist who disagreed with her.

Since we lost our Small Claims Court case last time with her, and since she sent me a threatening letter, I decided to appeal it. It's supposed to be a "do-over". The first Judge we had only took into consideration my breech of contract since I agreed to pay her $500 per hour and we were there for 3 hours...end of story. She didn't take into consideration any of Dr. Griffith's misconduct and negligence and behavior as to WHY I stopped payment in the first place.

This time, I got to talk more and I focused on the fact that she never gave the Doodle an actual "physical exam" as it is stated four times in the same "contract" and welcome package where her fees are located that I signed in good faith prior to the appointment. I also provided a pretty colorful graph that the Judge barely looked at where I broke down the 3 hour appointment in a percentage pie chart so that you could see at a glance how much time was spent talking about the misdiagnosis of Dandy Walker...38% of the appointment. I tried to make it clear that the only reason I stayed for 3 hours is because she had just told me my son had a severe and life threatening brain malformation--Done masterfully only as a true con-artist might do.

Since Dr. Griffith's section of vitals statistics, weight, temperature, measurements etc. was left blank in her report to me proves that she never did a physical on the Doodle. She gave him a visual once over and that was it. The Doodle was in the exam room for 10 minutes max with no standard physical exam. Therefore, Dr. Griffith was in breech of her very own contract.

I got to tell my story again but the Judge pretty much stated he is not going to determine or consider any malpractice or misconduct or ethics in this case. That it was strictly about the 3 hours @ $500 per hour. Was I there? Did I know she was $500per hour? Did I sign the document? Yes. Yes. And, Yes. But, I disputed the charge with extenuating circumstances after the fact because of her actions. It wasn't until after the appointment that I realized she had misdiagnosed him, over prescribed him medication and then refused to come to the phone unless I provide her with a credit card when the Doodle was having the new head-drop seizures from the medicine SHE PRESCRIBED HIM.

I had a sworn declaration from a former Dr. Griffith patient who had similar complaints and was charging her $500 per hour to track a fed ex package...she complained and wrote Dr. Griffith and a statement for the court and the Judge refused to see it. Even though it shows a distinct pattern in Dr. Griffith's unethical billing practices.

So if the Judge won't take into account Dr. Griffith's intentional and disingenuous methods of alarming parents with sick children so that they will stay longer in her office, in my case--3 hours...and trick them into making follow up appointments to discuss her wild ideas, opinions and diagnosis then I have Lost once again and will have to pay her for her purposeful negligence and my waste of time. It has to be purposeful because no doctor could be that wrong or stupid about so many things in one consultation.

I didn't even get to the part where since our first (and last) consultation with Dr. Julie Griffith, the Doodle has $34,000 in REAL medical bills for actual treatment. And it is because of her over prescribing him antiseizure medication which triggered the head drop seizures which is why he now requires a nurse. I didn't get to mention that the Doodle has racked up $48,000 in nursing bills since our appointment with Dr. Griffith. Those facts, would not be relevant...

I will be following up with the California Medical Board and the Marin County District Attorney's Consumer Fraud Department just the same. I will not let this rest and some new things came to light today during court that will clearly get us some kind of justice.

My first favorite part of court today was when Dr. Griffith asked the Judge if she could triple the amount of the charge like you get to do if someone bounces a check to you...Of course the Judge told her NO. It doesn't work that way with credit cards...the same law does not apply and she would have had to ask for that amount in her original complaint...if that does not prove what a money grubbing "doctor" she is and speak to her character, I don't know what does.

My second favorite part of court today was when she asked the Judge if he could have me remove my report of her at www.ripoffreport.com and he told her NO. To read the report you can cut and paste this link into your browser:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/doctors/dr-julie-griffith/dr-julie-griffith-www-mybrain-7c42d.htm

The Judge will send us his decision next week. So for now I will wait to hear his decision with no unrealistic expectations. I'm really lucky to have had the support of my mom and Jerry at my side during all of these court appearances. I'd like to thank them for being there for me even knowing we probably didn't stand a chance.

My Letter to the AMA

To Whom It May Concern:

It is with complete disdain that I am writing this letter to you regarding the blatant misconduct and unethical practices of Dr. Julie Griffith.

I would like this letter to go on record as I am disputing a paid invoice for Dr. Griffith’s alleged services on April 3, 2009 for my two year old son, Dominic based on the following aftermath:

I made an appointment for a consultation with Dr. Griffith for my son who has been diagnosed on the Autism spectrum. Subsequent to his autism diagnosis he began having grand mal seizures in January of this year. It was my understanding that Dr. Griffith would complete a medical examination on Dominic and possibly refer us to various labs for relative testing.

1.) Prior to our consultation appointment on April 3rd in Dr. Griffith’s home office, I had taken the time according to the instruction of the Office Assistant, Laura, to print out and fill out—the 26 pages of questions relating to Dominic’s condition and health history. I did as instructed, which took me hours, and I brought the information with me to our appointment. It was at this time that I saw that she had just raised her hourly rate from $410 to $500 per hour—never did the Office Assistant let me know this when I was making the appointment.

A). During the appointment, Dr. Griffith did not once look at my completed paperwork-she instead asked me the same questions and typed my answers while charging me $500 per hour. 90% of the appointment was her asking me repeated questions from her website that I already answered while I watched her type her notes.

B.) This initial appointment, at my request due to financial hardship, was supposed to be 1 hour. It was confirmed during our consultation that the appointment be one hour and Dr. Griffith instructed her Office Assistant to ring her phone and let her know when one hour was up.

C.) 3 hours later, I was still being charged $500 per hour. I was charged $500 per hour even when Dr. Griffith was not actually examining or consulting with me. I was charged $500 per hour to sit in the living room of her home office while her Office Assistant gathered lab kits and filled out the paperwork for the lab requisitions. My bill came to $1566.67 for her time. Time, which she also used for bathroom breaks.

D.) During the 3 hour office consultation, she only examined Dominic by looking at him for no more than 10 minutes. Never did she check any of his vitals or conduct an actual medical examination as I was told would be completed within the actual consultation.

E.) I would also like to mention that it is the policy of Dr. Griffith’s office to NOT BILL INSURANCE for her service—now a huge red flag for me…

2.) More alarming and disturbing conduct of Dr. Griffith and her staff would be that she sent us away from her office with a very serious possible diagnosis of “Dandy Walker” a potentially life threatening brain malformation. I had brought with us, Dominic’s MRI, CT, and EEG’s—All of which had been reported by Doctors at Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa, CA as being “normal”. Dr. Griffith looked at the MRI and surmised that Dominic had a possible brain malformation and wanted to get a Third opinion from Stanford. Needless to say, this was very upsetting to me and my family.

When I was able to contact our Neurologist in Santa Rosa, he said Dominic most certainly did not have Dandy Walker…that he did not exhibit any of the other typical signs of Dandy Walker and in so many words described Dr. Griffith as “different” with many unsubstantiated and misleading ideas.

To make matters worse, the following week, Dr. Griffith’s office phoned me to say that they wanted to see Dominic back in the office for $500 per hour so that Dr. Griffith could “re-examine” him because she now felt he had another potentially life threatening brain disorder; but when I asked the office what it was, they would not tell me unless I paid for either a $400 per hour telephone appointment or came into the office for $500 per hour. It has always been my experience with any other Doctor I have ever had that if they wanted to see you—they would first tell you WHY. I could not get this information unless I paid Dr. Griffith more money first.

I expressed my grave concern and disgust for their practices to the Office Assistant. She told me she would pass this along to Dr. Griffith and give me a call back. Later that evening, I received two very startling voicemail messages from Dr. Griffith explaining to me that she now thought Dominic had Mitochondrial Disease. Although, she never once explained what Mitochondrial Disease was—she took the time to tell me it was genetic and that it was probable that my mother and I had passed it down to him. She told me we would need to be counseled and tested and that the testing was very expensive to the tune of $3000. She also told me that my mother and I would have to sign consent forms of some nature, but did not go into any other detail. This message was left for me on the following Friday, April 10th at 5:00 p.m. Now, I had to continue my weekend thinking not only does Dominic have Dandy Walker, but now my mother and I are carriers of a Mitochondrial disease of the Brain. She was nice enough to tell me…”You are welcome to call your other Neurologist, Dr. Jannean, if you have any questions”.

Of course I had questions about this new disease I had never heard of, yet when I phoned her office on the following Monday, April 13th, I was told in order to get answers I would need to make a $400 per hour phone appointment or come in for a $500 per hour.

3.) Finally, the most appalling, unethical and serious conduct of all was that Dr. Griffith prescribed two medications to Dominic for his seizures at our appointment on April 3rd: Lamictal and Zonisimide. She told me not to immediately stop his current medicine: Trileptal and Keppra—she said we had to slowly taper him off of the current medicines giving the new medicines time to “load”. She gave me a very clear and precise schedule on how to increase the dosage of his newly prescribed medicine, but neglected to give me a complete schedule on how to taper him off the existing medicine. In the notes that I was given from her office, it only said:

“4/17/09 Appt and consider taper Trileptal”

“4/23/09 begin taper Trileptal go down ½ tsp beginning in the morning every 5 days until off. Continue taper discussion.”
Never was the Keppra taper mentioned in any of her notes. She had told me at the consultation on April 3rd that “we need to get him off of the Trileptal and Keppra because they could be causing the seizures”.

When she prescribed the new medication, she never told me that the new medicine, Lamictal, that she was prescribing could cause seizures. As a matter of fact, the only two side effects she discussed with me were that one of the new medications could cause a fatal rash and I should watch for that and that one of the medications could make him sleepy.

Once I started Dominic on the additional two medications that Dr. Griffith prescribed, along with the two he was already taking, he showed immediate severe signs of side effects after the first day. He was now having head-drop type seizures and acting very strange. He could not walk two feet without falling down, he stopped making any eye contact, cried constantly as if he had a headache or other type of pain, and was very weak to the point of not being able to walk up or down a stair.

Very alarmed with the side-effects, I called the Office Assistant so that I could talk with Dr. Griffith about Dominic’s adverse reaction to the new medicines. The Office Assistant asked if I would authorize Dr. Griffith to do some “case study” on this subject at $325 per hour. I was totally outraged! I told her absolutely NOT, that this taper schedule of his existing medicine should have been provided to me at the same time she willy-nilly prescribed him the additional two drugs! The Office Assistant told me I should make another appointment and bring Dominic in to the office for $500 per hour so that Dr. Griffith could tell me how to taper the medicine and explain the potentially fatal-genetic Mitochondrial disease to me. At this point I was almost hysterical at the thought of having to pay this Doctor more money to tell me what she should have already told me. This was a serious matter and should have immediately been treated as such. I even put my request for a taper-schedule for the existing medicines into an email to Dr. Griffith so that I could get a simple response in my email without having to pay a $400 per hour phone appointment or come into the office for a $500 per hour appointment. I still have not and have never received a response to my request.

It was during that call that I told the Office Assistant to close out our file, that I would NEVER be bringing Dominic back. I hung up the phone and immediately phoned our other Neurologist, Dr. Jannean, and although he did not prescribe the two additional drugs to Dominic, he was able to tell me how to take him off of them and why. He explained to me that he would have NEVER prescribed those medicines in combination with the two Dominic was already on. He went further to say that the Lamictal can cause head-drop type seizures. These are the kinds of seizures which Dominic had never, ever had until Dr. Griffith prescribed him the Lamictal. Yet, Dr. Griffith refused to come to the phone and discuss them with me for less than $400 per hour.

I thought, once seen by a Doctor in their office, and especially after they have prescribed medicine to a patient, that you are officially a patient of record and the responsibility of that Doctor. How can this Doctor refuse to speak with me when she undertook the treatment and changed his medication without me first paying her more money. This is tantamount to extortion.

Seven hours later I received a voicemail message from Dr. Griffith telling me that I should bring Dominic back into the office so that my insurance might possibly reimburse me. She told me she would give me a 15% discount. Wasn’t that nice? Still, Dr. Griffith has not addressed Dominic’s near overdose of the medicine she prescribed, given me any kind of taper off schedule for the Keppra or answered my questions concerning the potentially terminal and genetic Mitochondrial Disease of the brain.

I think besides Dr. Griffith being a shark only out for money, I think she purposely tried to alarm me with these two possible diagnoses for my baby: Dandy Walker and Mitochondrial Disease –knowing I would be terrified and pay her more money to tell me for sure. Aside from being highly unethical, to me, this conduct borders on criminal fraud.

Regards,
Angela

Cc:
Dr. Julie Griffith
Dr. Jannean
Better Business Bureau
Susan Courteau
BMQA, Board of Medical Quality Assurance
Medical Board of California
Marin County District Attorney’s Office
TACA
Autism Research Institute
http://www.generationrescue.org/