Dr. Mark A Tapscott, DO

I went to Tapscott because I'd hemorrhoids and a fissure for a while and wanted to finally remedy the problem. Here is m...y experience from start to finish:

The office is dingy and is shared with two other unrelated doctors.

The male nurse used his iphone to take my vitals.

The doctor saw me, looked me over for a few minutes and concluded I'd need surgery right away. Dismissed all other options immediately and didnt discuss any with me at all. Should have been my first red flag as there are always alternatives to at least consider. But to flash forward, I'm healed now and I think he did an okay job with the surgery.

Anyway, I'm told to schedule a colonoscopy the day before the surgery to rule out anything internal; which was a good idea because my system would be clear.

I'm called a few days before the surgery so they can take prepayment for my deductible and for a pain medication tube that will be inserted near the surgery point. The deductible we will get back to later but for now the medication tube…I asked why am I paying for this, my insurance should cover it? Bridget the office manager tells me that sometimes insurance doesn’t pay for it so they have to get payment in advance. She is telling me this like it’s a necessity. I said well what does the tube do? She explained it releases pain meds directly to the site so I would be able to take less orally. Um, ok…So then I asked her what my insurance said, if they said yes I would pay it now and if not then I would just manage without it (which was absolutely fine, I was perfectly good with the oral meds). She said she didn’t check with insurance and they take only prepayment for it. I called my insurance and they said, what I know she must know too, that you need to submit stuff like that in writing and they will make a decision but she just didn’t do it. Essentially they were trying to sell me some piece of useless medical equipment that I didn’t need and the insurance companies don’t pay for, for a reason, BUT presented it to me like it’s a must have.
So flash forward, I had the surgery at 10am. Ive been drinking tons of water as instructed and I realize its nearly 6pm and I haven’t peed. I try and I can’t, just dribbles some if at all. I call the doctors cell phone and said what should I do it’s been 6 hours since I left the hospital and Ive drank at least 7 cups of water and cant pee. He tells me go take a warm bath to see if that helps…Flash forward again, by the time I got to the ER my bladder had nearly burst, literally. The first catheter bag filled up immediately 1600ml. Do the math. Imagine being a road trip and you cant stop to pee for 6-8 hours but you haven’t stopped drinking. TAKE A BATH?! Then of course, this is Thursday, he won’t see me until Monday which means, with no preparation I suddenly have an open wound on my anus and I have a catheter to boot. LESSON: DO NOT LEAVE AFTER SURGERY UNTIL YOU HAVE PEED. Ask any nurse or doctor you know any they will tell you that is a no-brainer. I later researched, while I was sitting on the couch watching my pee drain into a bag, that 1 in 5 patients experience this after rectal surgeries. ONE IN FIVE (according to an NIH studies about hemorroidectomies). That is insane not to check for that. It was one of the worst four day spans of my life.
So I go in that Monday for the follow up and to remove the catheter. No complications. No UTIs, thank goodness. Nurse used his dirty iphone again in appt prep. He then tried to charge me a 30 day copay for my surgery follow-up. LESSON: YOU DO NOT NEED TO PAY A COPAY FOR A SURGERY FOLLOWUP. He went and checked with the biller and low and behold I didn’t owe one! Research later shows that it is common practice for crummy doctors to collect fees they aren’t owed and just get away with it because patients don’t know any better.
Flash forward over a month later. I get a bill from the hospital for $250. Hm, that’s the same total as my deductible that I ALREADY gave to the doctors office. I called the hospital and they said call the insurance or the doctor, if I paid the doctor already. I called the doctor and they said they’d check with “their biller” and get back to me on Monday as it was Friday when I called. Reasonable. No word from them on Monday. I called back in Tuesday because I still didn’t have a call back and they said, YOU DO NOT OWE THE HOSPITAL. Oh cool, tell that to the hospital who gave me a bill. After reassuring me that I didn’t owe the hospital several more times on that call I hung up and called my insurance. My insurance explained to me that the hospital submitted their claim first and WERE owed the deductible and when the doctor’s claim was filed the deductible had been met, at least in theory, meaning the insurance would pay the doc the full amount he was “owed”. I call the doc’s office back and talk to a woman Beverly now, I had been talking to Bridget who was cordial throughout. I explained to Beverly what insurance had revealed and she told me I should call the biller. I explained this is not my responsibility to call a bunch of people to track down the money I gave them. She got short with me and said ok I will have her call you today. No call, of course. This is when it gets good…
I call the biller Velma. She is instantly contentious with me as I found out later it was because Beverly had said I “called everyday” and implicated it was for sport…Good start. All I wanted from my convo with Velma was to confirm that I would be getting a refund and when that refund was coming. I tried to ask these questions but Velma wouldn’t stop talking over me, contentiously, telling me things like “I cant tell you a day ‘cus youre just going to call back if you don’t get it by then”. First, I hadn’t even asked for a specific day, just simply “when should I expect the refund”, and of course I would call back if I was told a day and it didn’t come by then. That’s what adults do, right? Two more minutes of her claiming to answer my questions and talking over me EVERYTIME I started to speak, she hung up on me. Not because I was being rude, I was far from it, but because she didn’t want to deal with it. She had the answers, told me none of them, and hung up. I took a few deep breaths and called back. I implored her immediately to allow me to just speak clearly without her talking over me and just ask the two questions I wanted to ask. She let me! She told me 7-10 days. I said why couldn’t you have just said that before? She said I did. I say you didn’t. She said, I did, just now…Wow. Ok so, I know I’m getting a refund and when its expected. All it took was getting yelled at and hung up on. Velma had originally claimed, per Beverly no doubt, that I was calling just to complain and that I knew all the answers. You know, because instead of doing work for my job I like to yell at medical billers for no reason…?

So here we are today, 43 days after the surgery and I’m waiting 7-10 days for my $250 “to post in the system” (What system, Velma? THE SYSTEM, ITS GOTTA POST…found out she meant the doctors acctg system). After reading this, and knowing about the copay, do you think I would have ever been refunded that $250 if I wasn’t vigilant? NOT A CHANCE.
Tapscott may be medically adequate to perform his duties but his office, business tactics, customer service, and employees are the worst I’ve experienced. To put it casually, it was all just sheisty. Not someone or some place you want to cut into you. Now I have to say it because when else would be more appropriate…Tapscott and his office are a real pain in the butt.
Go take a warm bath!? more details