Dr. Emilio Carullo did a surgery on my son's lip after he had an accident, at Baptist Children's Hospital when we took our son to the Emergency Unit. After the surgery he told us to take him to his office in 3 to 4 days, which we did. Dr. Carullo was happy with the progress of his lip and told us that he would remove the stitches in a week. When we were on our way out I was given some insurance forms to sign, which I did. But when we asked for the appointment we were told that Dr. Carullo would see my son to take the stitches out, only if we paid the cost of the surgery Dr. Carullo had done at the Hospital, which was $ 4,200. Surprised I told the assistant that we didn’t have that kind of money, that we had insurance and that the insurance was going to pay for that. She said that Dr. Carullo was not registered to Blue Cross Blue Shield and since the check for his payment was going to take months and the check was going to come to our house, it was up to us to pay him. She even added that I could pay with a credit card.
My wife and I left the office very angry and frustrated. My son was miserable thinking that he couldn’t have the stitches removed. We called a nurse friend, we called BCBS and Baptist Hospital and at the end, we were told not to worry that we could take our son to the Children's Emergency Unit at the Baptist Hospital to have his stitches removed. A week later we took him and we were very well taken care of.
I think people should be aware of these tactics and be very well informed about their insurances. A Doctor like this could get you into trouble.