Pergament Eugene, MD

Outlandish billing policies.
My pregnant girlfriend and I were told to get a genetic screening as she’s 35 and jewish. We were referred to this place. She came up as a carrier for one random thing we’d never heard of so I, the Dad, was told to do a screening as well. To see if we both were carriers. We found out the screening for me would be $ 600. We also found out the odds of our child having an issue were 1 in 600 and even if he did, it wasn’t life-​threatening and we certainly weren’t going to terminate anyway. So we decided I would not get the test as we didn’t see a point in spending the $ 600. We explained this to the front office staff.
They said, «Well, why don’t you just talk to a genetic counselor so she can explain it.» We said, «we’re not doing the test.» They said, «It doesn’t hurt to just have a quick chat to rest your mind.» Ok, what would you do? A very nice counselor explained to us in 10 minutes we indeed did not need the test. The odds were extremely low and we weren’t going to terminate regardless. Just as we thought, thank you. We left.
A couple weeks later I got a bill for $ 250. You guessed it, for talking to the genetic counselor. We called and explained the situation, they gave us to the billing department. She, in an extremely curt tone, responded, «Even if you exchange words with a counselor in the hallway for a minute, it’s $ 250.» End of story.
Here’s the deal. It’s real simple. The front staff only needed to say, «Why don’t you talk to a counselor, by the way, it will cost you $ 250.» Which we would have responded, «No thank you.»
Communication People!
I’ve never written a bad review in my life.

I’ve been to Dr. Pergament’s office three times now. The first time we went through routine first trimester and Ashkenazi screening, gave birth to my baby and thought things were just fine. About over a year later I receive a bill from this office for $ 25 or so — thought it was odd to get billed all of a sudden after 1+ years after my kid’s birth, but I paid the small amount even though my insurance covered everything 100% because I didn’t want to spend time digging everything up.
Second time I went to his office with the second pregnancy. This time I had an unfortunate experience of having an ultrasound for NT at his office along with the first trimester screening. The ultrasound tech sees a tumor and completely freaks me out talking just about it. I run to my OB, they do the ultrasound two days later — not even a shred of any abnormalities. Ok, so that experience was out of routine. What was not extraordinary, unfortunately, was that — surprise! — a year plus after I give birth to my second baby I get yet another bill, for another $ 20 – 25, while my insurance is once again supposed to cover everything 100%. Both pregnancies I have different insurances, but the billing practice remained the same. This time I don’t pay.
I get pregnant the third time and I’m referred to this office again for just a blood test for the 1^st trimester screening. I get there on time, hand my drivers license, insurance card and complete the paperwork. However, this time I’m asked for the credit card «to keep on file» and «we would ask your permission to charge» if there are some insurance balances. Well, two problems: (1) Pergament’s billing has been inadequate as detailed above and (2) nobody mentioned the need to bring the credit card when I was scheduling an appointment — I didn’t have one with me! «Well, if you can’t give the credit card, we can’t see you.» I simply couldn’t believe that such practice would be appropriate when I handed them my valid insurance card that covers everything 100% and asked to speak with Dr. Pergament. After I waited for 40 minutes, indeed, he felt pretty adamant that nobody should be seen without leaving a credit card. In fact, when I mentioned inadequacy of his billing office, he had the following to say:
1. He didn’t feel there was anything wrong to turn away patients who didn’t have a credit card on them even though they weren’t told of that practice while scheduling an appointment and;
2. He didn’t feel there was anything wrong with keeping sick and pregnant woman waiting 40 minutes to talk to him about his business practices that go beyond any comprehension.
3. Finally, if I didn’t like his billing I could go somewhere else. When I asked him if it was appropriate to deal with his billing problems by scurrying people away who point it out to him, he felt affirmative.
I actually don’t even understand how he can be considered a physician, let alone a decent human being. I never write reviews. However, I feel pretty strongly that this person who I wouldn’t even call a physician cares nothing about but his pocket. My STRONG recommendation is for EVERYONE to RUN THE OTHER WAY!

We originally went to Eugene after our twenty week ultrasound when it appeared that our baby probably had club foot. Club foot raises the odds slightly that there will be other genetic issues and so we were referred to him. We met with him in his office. We talked about some probabilities and how we were concerned about the heightened risk, particularly for Down syndrome. He recommended an enhanced range of tests. He looked me in the eye and told me we were covered by our insurance and that we were receiving «The Rolls Royce of genetic testing.»
Well we have certainly paid for it.
We have been receiving a never-​ending stream of bills ever since for a service that was 99% useless.
So far our insurance has been billed a total of $ 14,009 and paid him $ 4400. He also uses an out of network lab in Washington called Signature Genomics to do some of the work. They have been paid $ 2500. We are now personally out of pocket for an additional $ 2700 and counting.
I don’t feel that the genetic tests are very useful. A simple Down syndrome test only costs a few hundred dollars. The rest of the tests are for very rare disorders and even then the tests only indicate a «range». They really aren’t very useful, and besides, what are you going to do with the information?
Some of this is our fault. After the ultrasound we were scared and we didn’t say «no» or «let us go home and think about this.» We’ve paid for our ignorance now and made our contribution to America’s rising health care tab. We feel taken advantage of in our moment of vulnerability.
If you are going to go here, be very, VERY sure to find out what is covered. Ask yourself what is the value of these tests? At the end of the day the information is not useful, and almost all the things they are testing for appear in the population at much lower incidence rates than 1%. The odds of you having a healthy baby are very high. Don’t go here unless you absolutely cannot sleep from the anxiety, and then be prepared to pay big bucks for that sleep. Maybe buy a new mattress instead.

I believe Dr. Pergament is a class act. He definitely has a solid understanding of his field of expertise which is genetic testing. He made me feel very comfortable and explained everything thoroughly throughout my appointment and ultrasound. It is a hard decision anyway to determine to have the testing but Dr. Pergament and his staff help ease you through it. His office also has the ability to call your husband or significant other and conference them in to the ultrasound where they can see it from their computer, very cool.

As first-​time parents, we consider ourselves incredibly lucky to have had Dr. Pergament overseeing our genetic screening, which seems to have become standard practice in the first and second trimester. This guy has spent decades perfecting his methods, and it positively shows.
I couldn’t dream up a question that would stump him. .. seriously, I tried! And though I’m a total layperson, even I could tell his statistical models were among the most sophisticated available. (They supposedly detect 97 percent of Down Syndrome cases, which seems awfully good to me.) If you have a choice in the matter, I wholeheartedly recommend Dr. Pergament! He’s a class act.

Dr. Pergament is THE doctor to go to if you decide to do genetic screening while pregnant. I feel very reassured that I will give birth to a healthy baby. Dr. Pergament went over the testing procedures and how my results compare to the population; he takes the time to talk to you, answer any questions you have, and to make sure that you know exactly what is going on. His nurses and office workers are also pleasant. Making an appointment was easy, and in the two times I’ve been there, I’ve waited less than 5 minutes to be seen.