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September 2023 by Camma Jones
If I could give 0 stars I would. I first came here with my son who had very severe ADHD, prior he was being seen for 2 years at Stanford Children's Psychiatry but the drive from San Jose to Palo Alto sometimes 2 times a week was getting to be a lot. Then I discovered BACA and they were literally walking distance to our house, I was so excited. I got him signed up and on the BACA wait list which was about 6 months. He started seening Hari Nare (can't remember spelling). This guy was a joke. The worst Dr we have ever encountered. After 3 or 4 sessions the Dr decided my son was too bad off and that he needed to go to a residential live in home. After that he immediately dropped my son as a client and refused to see him. No referrals for residential or nothing. Left my son high and dry with nothing. Luckily the special Ed director for my son's school district knows more than Dr Hari. She got my son into Esther B Clark and my son is now 17, graduated from high school and doing great. So a big middle finger to that Dr. who didnt care enough to help him. That is just the first complaint. My second complaint is that while I was being seen there myself I was taken advantage of and I wouldn't doubt if they do this to most/all of their clients. They like to use extra billing codes when they charge you. Dr. Smita Thakkar was billing me for 2 years with 2 codes. I didn't realize it until the last few months. The maximum any Psych appointment should be is $200-250. I literally have been seeing Dr's for the last 15 years with my son, daughter, and myself. Stanford charged $200. Smita charged me $396.90 + $226.01.....over $600 for a 10-15 minute phone appointment. When I asked her and challenged her about it she denied she was over charging me so I let her know I wouldn't be seeing her anymore. So what does she do? Charges me more! For my last appointment she charged me $498.21 + 259.16!!!!! I've tried contacting the founder and no response. I just called the billing department and let them know I won't be paying the almost $1000 bill. It can go to collections for all I care. This place is awful.
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September 2023 by Nobuko T
WARNING BUSINESS ‼️ I contacted them over two years ago on their website for interest in in-person sessions at their San Jose office. Someone wanted to talk to me on the phone. We spoke, and I quickly realised that the person who called me was in San Diego, and she said sessions would be telehealth. I said it would not work for my son. We ended the conversation - I believe it was less than 10 minutes.I don't quite remember, but it was apparent that the person quickly got my information during our short conversation - address, my husband's name, etc. Over two years later, we had a bill for nearly $600.Please be very careful when you make an initial conversation on the phone. You may be charged a high bill without realising it at that time. I am very shocked!!!
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March 2023 by Sarah W.
I'm fortunate that my daughter met her doctor prior to his becoming a member of the BACA team, because if this had been my first experience with the organization, I never would have continued to do business with them. I grew up in a medical household. The medical care I received in my youth came from my family's practice. I have used this experience throughout my life to rate medical organizations, and I can share wholeheartedly, BACA is a Kaiser for mental health care. The patient is just a number, and no one cares about providing comfort or customer service. It's a machine and your a cog. The two offices; Berkeley and San Jose, do not communicate. No one seems to know what to do if a doctor works from one office but wants to meet a patient in another. Supervisors in the office will tell you it's not their responsibility to help you schedule an appointment if the doctor doesn't work there generally. I've been in telephone purgatory trying to schedule an appointment for my daughter, whose doctor works in San Jose but is meeting us in Berkeley. The San Jose office says I need to schedule with Berkeley since the appointment will be there. The Berkeley office says they aren't responsible for scheduling for doctors who don't work in the office full time. Meanwhile, this is a mental health service. How critical does the patient become waiting for these asinine people to do their jobs? Not to mention, it would be great if the reception staff had some notion of business phone etiquette and were perhaps older than 12...just saying. Grand disappointment from a parent who has been managing an ill child for over 20 years. You'd think these folks were in business to help.
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March 2023 by Will F.
I've had a lot of bad customer experiences. But rarely to this extent. I will add to all the other 1 star reviews that complain about the difficulty it getting setup for a first appointment. I am into month 4 and still have not had a first appointment. In my case, it is a 1-2 week response time by email from them. Trying to call into their phone is a waste of time. And then they keep insisting that their providers are covered by my insurance provider (Blue Shield of CA - PPO), but when I call my insurance provider they say "no they're not." Of all their providers I found 4 that Blue Shield agrees are covered. But BACA says they are not accepting new patients and they won't make any accommodations. It's inconceivable that a outfit dedicated to mental health can let a client languish for 4 months without getting this resolved. Epic failure. For some potential clients this could have led to disastrous outcomes.
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February 2023 by sangya s
One should be vary careful while registering with BACA. After collecting our personal information through their online registration, the provided link didn’t offer any available appointments, even till next year. After numerous attempts,when complained about it over the phone, their simple answer was that our website is having some technical issues and we don’t have any clinician available at present and you are most welcomed to check with other places.
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December 2022 by Laura Hutchins-Korte
The bureaucratic part of the intake process is so frustrating; it nearly made me give up on them all together. However, I'm really glad that I didn't, because the clinicians I met are *very* good at what they do. BACA definitely deserves 5 stars. Also, they take insurance, which is not nearly as common as it should be in the area of youth mental health. Thank you, BACA!
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September 2022 by Cristina L.
We've been trying to get an appointment for over six months. In the spring, we navigated their confusing scheduling system to see limited providers with either an immediate appointment or one several weeks out. We scheduled an appointment only to receive two last minute cancelations by the provider in a row. We scheduled a third time, only for the provider to never show up. I left voicemails after 10 min and waited another 20. An office manager from the San Diego office reached out after, but we did not attempt to reschedule until the Fall. No one from the San Jose office (where we scheduled) or the provider that stood us up ever reached out with an explanation or apology.Fast forward to August - It took over a week for my appointment request to generate a scheduling link, and same issue - only one provider had availability soon. Last minute cancelation again, after moving around our schedule to accommodate the one time available.I'm not willing to keep trying here - they clearly don't value the client's time. It's too bad I wasted all of this time when I could have already gotten off a waitlist elsewhere.
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September 2022 by Will S.
Good luck, I know it's hard to find good help but I think better to keep looking.
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July 2022 by Emma Loomis
If I can give no star I would like to choose that. First, the psychiatrist was late for the call, and my child did not like the psychiatrist and can’t even continue talking with her on the video call. My child was called “patient” in the beginning of the call. Second, They did not have any fee information in the appointment schedule and you can’t find it in their website either. If you called, you will be directed to some registration because you are not a patient yet, but they will ask for over $500 payments after the first visit which is only a video call. So you can’t know how much the bill will be because you were not a patient, after you see them once then you are expected to pay $500 although you had no idea before. My insurance was listed in network with them in the BACA website but BACA tell me later that another party take care of mental health so they are out of network. So do I expect to pay over $500 for a 45 minutes phone call that my child would not talk to them and will not talk to them again? Third, they billed 2 CPT codes for the first call when other therapist only billed one. So yes, I think they deserve no star at all!
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February 2022 by Andy G
Terrible customer service. The psychiatrist there don't know what they are doing so totally avoid going to BACA.
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December 2021 by Maureen M.
Thank you for addressing my concerns so promptly and compassionately. We look forward to starting the program.
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December 2021 by Luisa G.
I contacted these people for my 17 yr old teen. They responded after 3 days and i scheduled an intake. Not only was the intake 1hr but they did not tell me, my daughter need to be present so we had to schedule yet another. Each time paying the copayment. Then MY daughter tells me that she was told she did not qualify for the program! That "counselor" has yet to call me and tell me. But they are fast to ask for my money. Such a rip off, initial intakes should be free!!! shame on this clinic
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November 2019 by Nathaly Hernandez
They are the best !
