Ginger.io Reviews 2

Was in a dark emotional place and I decided to use the service provided through my job. Kept making appointments and then canceling them. Asked for female. Kept getting males. Each appointment further out then the last. Like thank God I didn't want to take my life cause with this service. My God. The struggle for help.

Where to begin?! I was with Ginger mental health services for under a year and had the WORST time with them through insurance. This is partially an insurance issue, but the following points are Ginger specific.

Ginger uses a 3rd party biller that is probably the worst medical biller I've ever seen...and I'm a medical student in Brooklyn. I've seen dysfunction at its genesis. Who asks patients to pay fees within three days of getting a bill?! What if the statement has an issue, like in my situation? I had to pay over $600 in dues to ensure the biller didn't go to collection. These were supposed to be paid by the insurance, but since there was an issue, I had to pay in the meantime. Doesn't work for someone with no income in NYC (med students don't make an income last time I checked).

What medical services go to collections that fast? You're there to treat anxiety, not cause it like in my case. Even the therapist acknowledged that this was not ok.

In a typical office, your insurance would get billed reasonably quickly. Many offices determine your copay or coinsurance while you're with the provider or waiting. It should not take OVER 3 months for a bill without any date of service rendered.

Additionally, I have a unique position where I help my residents' patients with their insurance hiccups. There are a lot, and it happens. I find it odd (maybe even fishy) that I, a medical student, can move mountains for my patients in a few hours regarding coverage or formulary issues. Still, your entire team couldn't figure this out the entire 6 months this was happening. I have written appeals and PAs for patients. I know someone in your ranks can do it. You all were more than happy to send those "due in 3 days" bill emails. Your negligence in billing gives mental health a bad taste in many peoples' mouths. It fuels distrust in the doctors who are my teachers and my colleagues. Your inability to advocate for your patients is why you have no right to call yourselves medical providers or patient-centered services.

This billing catastrophe took patient-directed appeal after patient-directed appeal to get resolved with ZERO help from Ginger or their billing partners. My hospital billing department was floored when I showed them. This tells me there is serious mismanagement that I will not ignore.

If you have health insurance that covers everything, first: congrats, don't quit that job, and second: even then, use this service with a grain of salt.

My therapist was lovely and empathetic to my life and billing situation, but she had no pull there, no fault of her own. There was a significant lack of clinical therapeutics within the discussions, so even if I didn't have a billing issue, this service was not worth the $100 per session I was getting billed.

The people at Ginger are just that. People. Mistakes happen. We do our best. But the level of decisions made to make mental health care so automated is unacceptable, irresponsible, and unethical.

The date of experience is when the first of the bill avalanche started. This continued until May 2023.