Michael Levinson, MD, PhD

Been a great help to me. Always responsive and really cares about the patient. Recommend him to anyone having issues with their medication or want to explore scientific alternatives.

I’m very sad to say my experience (four appointments) with Dr. Michael Levinson for rTMS therapy was terrible. Let me preface this with he seems to be a nice person and seems to care about his patients.
Where he let us down:
1. Getting ahold of this doctor is difficult. He seems to bounce between offices and has some assistants that don’t seem to know where and when he’ll be. They tell you to call him directly to set up an appointment. You do so and he picks up his mobile in his car and tells you to call some other number in San Francisco to set up an appointment. Get a phone system Dr. Levinson. It will save you a ton of hassle and your patients too.
2. They do rTMS therapy for depression etc. BUT they are only interested in cash paying patients. We are going on five months now waiting for Dr. Levinson and his «team» to pre-​auth the treatment. I ended up calling the insurance company to get the list of requirements and provided this to Dr. Levinson and his «team.» I don’t mind helping out, but shouldn’t they know this? Ok, so I provided them the list and they still have no submitted the information. Do I need to come into his office to show them how to use the fax macine?
3. Appointments: I had four of them. All four of them I waiting in his waiting room for over 30 minutes while he bounced between two rooms having what seemed like private conversations with patients and other providers as he walked by me and other patients. It was like a scene out of a Seinfeld episode. I lost faith in his HIPPA policies. On my fourth appointment he was 45 minutes late! Are you kidding me? its not like he is doing an emergency surgery. He could have came out and explained and suggested I go out for a cup of coffee…
4. Fees and service: If you don’t have medical insurance don’t bother. His fees are insane. $ 250 for a 15 minute appointment? Please. Don’t be so full of yourself. And for $ 250 you should at least get your act together and follow through on the treatment and paperwork. The rTMS is terribly over priced as well.
5. Call backs (or lack thereof): On four (or more) occasions Dr. Levinson or his «team» were to call me back. How many returned calls? Zero.
6. Walk-​in interruptions: I couldn’t believe it but during three out of four of my appointments with him strangers walked in to ask him a questions. Are you kidding me? This is a professional appointment between a doctor and his patient. Not a Q&A for his team. One time he had me come into my appointment and his previous patients were still sitting in there! I didn’t know if I should offer some advice to them or excuse myself. So at least he does the same thing to all his patients. Maybe he wanted us to get to know one another? Either way it was awkward and unprofessional.
After four appointments and a lot of $ from my insurance company Dr. Levinson never authorized the rTMS for me. I called him (and yes he picked up the phone) and he seemed surprised and said he will find out what the status is and call me back. That was two weeks ago. Think he will call me back? Doubt it.
Good luck to anyone seeing this doctor and working with his «team.» I’ll find another provider.