Terry Eye Institute

Not only have I had great experience with Dr. Kim, but I brought my father who has macular degeneration in just to establish a relationship with an ophthalmologist after a move here from Michigan, and he offered an option instead of blindness. My father is now scheduled to have a procedure where a mini telescope is implanted into one eye and the hope is, while not making his vision perfect, it will definitely be better and will definitely improve his quality of life. I am so thankful for everything they have done.

Went for my 1.5 year post op. appt. and no Pterygium! Dr. Kim said it will not grow back. I use my restasis eye drops daily.

Please bare with me… this will be a long story.
I visited the Terry Eye Institute on Feb. 15^th for a chronic eye twitching problem that I had for the 8 months. When I arrived, I signed in and gave the front desk my card. She said it would be a $ 30 copay. My copayment is always $ 50 so I double checked with them on that and they rechecked their system and said no, it is $ 30 definitely. I shrugged it off thinking maybe I misread my plan, paid the $ 30 and saw the doctor.
Dr. Kim was nice and suggested I get medical botox injections from a neurologist and wrote a letter of recommendation for botox. He also dilated my eyes to double check their health and everything was OK. I saw a neurologist and thankfully my twitching is now controlled. (FYI…if anyone reads this with a chronic eye twitching problem, please see Dr. Kenneth Martinez in Aliso Viejo. HE’S FABULOUS!)
Two months later in April, I received a call from them saying that the insurance was denying the claim on my visit there. They said that I needed to personally call the insurance company to provide further information on the treatment I received from them. I said the records I received from your office are the same that you have so why do I need to make the extra phone call? They said that there was a problem when the office staff sent my claim to the insurance company so the insurance company is denying it. I was a little frustrated because why is it my problem to sort out what happens when the behind the scenes paperwork gets messed up?
I called the insurance and they said they were wondering why I had steroids assigned by the Terry Eye Institute. I told them I didn’t get steroids and just had an exam and my eyes dilated. They asked me to FAX the paperwork to them that I had of what the Terry Eye Institute did during my examination. I did and the insurance said that the Terry Eye Institute didn’t give them any of this paperwork and wrote on my claim that I received steroids. I denied that claim and called the Terry Eye Institute up and told them what the insurance company said. The front desk lady denied the accusation from the insurance company. She said she would get it straightened for me.
2 months later in June, I received a bill from the Terry Eye Institute for $ 195.00! I called them up immediately and talked to the billing department. They said that I owed them money because the insurance company denied the claim. I said I already talked to the insurance company AND someone at your office about this and gave them my reference number that the issue was a mistake. The lady told me that I needed to call the insurance company AGAIN and get it all straightened out for them. I told them how frustrated I was that I was their messenger girl between them and the insurance company when it was THEIR FAULT for getting the paperwork wrong in the first place! The lady said she didn’t have time to chase down every claim herself and that I needed to talk to the insurance company.
So I talked with the insurance company, told them about the bill, got a new reference number saying I don’t have to pay anything to this company. Called the Terry Eye Institute again and gave them the number. The lady thanked me, assured me as well that I won’t have to pay another dime and apologized for the mess.
I didn’t hear anything for 3 months and thought the matter resolved. Then yesterday, I got a letter in the mail. It was from the Terry Eye Institute. «NOW WHAT!» I thought. It said I owed $ 20 to them for the Co-​payment. I was furious and called the billing department up stating how disappointed I was in their lack of service, professionalism and quality. I said that I double checked with the front ladies that my copayment should be $ 50 in the very beginning and they said, «No. It’s definitely $ 30.»
She said the front desk ladies don’t know who has what kind of copayment or how much it is. What is up with that? So the front desk ladies just make up a number and fix it afterwards? That’s not my fault that your company doesn’t know all the details! Get the information, train your employees right and don’t expect the customers to understand when they have to pay extra for something when it was the vender’s fault in the first place! When you make a mistake in pricing, you don’t go calling up the person after they left the store saying…“Hey, you know that shirt you bought? Well it actually was $ 20 more. The cashier only has the retail value on hand and not the store value. Could you send us a check to cover our mistake?” NO! You bite the bullet, eat the mistake and learn from it!
FYI, if all the other BS didn’t happen, I would’ve just paid the $ 20 and been like, oh well… not going there again. But now I am compelled to write this negative review.
This institute doesn’t have their act together. They are lazy, self-​incompetent and expect you to fix all their mistakes. My hope is whoever reads this review will think twice about visiting this business.

the staff is nice, however, they have this thing where once you’re in their system they constantly send you cards saying it’s time for your visit when it hasn’t even been a year. they pretty much just wnt to keep «in touch» with you every 2 – 3 months and seems like they suggest you need special testing just to get you in there. the workers are just sorry slaves.

Who says these guys are for profits only??? Are you kidding me? I went in for LASIK evaluation. I’m very near sigted and have dry eyes all my life. I tried contact lenses before, but they didn’t work out for me because I just couldn’t tolerate them. So, I went to thisplace to see if LASIK would be my solution. My friend at work recommended me to go here. After a thorough examination by one of their optometrists, Dr. Kim came in to review the paperwork. He said that it wouldn’t be a good idea because of my severe dry eyes. He recommended me to go under an intensive dry eye therapy first before thinking about LASIK. He was honest… and just a nice guy.

I wrote the previous review and there is now a followup. I was contacted by Steve at Dr terry’s office and he wanted to make sure I was happy. He started out by letting me know that I had been given incorrect information. He let me know he had my lenses in front of him. I went into the office the next day and he adjusted my glasses. He asked me to try them out for at least 2 – 3 weeks. He was very professional and sweet. He really wanted me to know that they do not send Anyones lenses back for credit. I really got the impression that he wanted to make sure I was happy. My suggestion to you is, if you are not happy with the person you are dealing with, or your questions are not being answered, ask to speak with someone else.