Shady Financial Practices

Unfortunately, my experience and my son‘s experience with Dr. Sands is not a good one. We didn’t have a lot of time to interact with Dr. Sands though the surgery went well and my son did recover relatively well. There were some complications that developed post-op, but the nurse Michele was amazing and helped with that. In terms of my son’s final outcome, one side of his chest is a bit larger than the other as it appears more breast tissue should have been removed and the scars are a bit puffy in some areas. We also purchased a compression vest for my son’s surgery through Dr Sands office. I believe this vest may have resulted in some of the post op complications as it was much too large for him. He wore it for one week post op as instructed. It was placed on him post op by the medial staff at the operating facility. At the 24 hour post op appointment, all seemed well. Then at a week out, it was discovered that the binder we purchased from them was too loose and should have been providing more pressure during his recovery week. A seroma had developed on one side and needed to be drained often as a result of the drain no longer being in place. I was instructed to buy a different binder on Amazon that would fit better. The nurse said my son could come in as needed to have it drained. All of this seemed to be fine and each visit went easy enough and no charges were presented to us at the follow up appointments.

A few things that we find to be extremely disheartening given I am a teacher with a limited income, and I trusted Sands with the money we paid to them. My son is a member of the LGBTQ+ community and transgender. We scrimped and saved so he could have top surgery with Dr. Sands. They collected what was thought to be our insurances $1000 deductible for the surgery in July 2024. The surgery took place on July 1. We believed that we had paid our deductible as this was the amount disclosed to us from Sands office and that would cover my son’s care pre and post-op. It wasn’t until last week, in November, when my son had an unexpected trip to the emergency room and we received a bill for an additional &1000 for a deductible that we uncovered the misstep. Dr. Sand‘s office and their billing department kept an overage as our insurance never collected a $1000 deductible. The patient responsibility was only $220 according to our insurance agent when we contacted them to investigate. The billing department and Dr. Sands office were deducting amounts from that overage unbeknownst to us for months as my son went in for post op and follow up appointments. We gave Dr. sands office over $1000. Instead of reimbursing us immediately, they held that overage and then deducted amounts from the overage without our knowledge during subsequent follow up visits. The way this situation was handled was unethical. Had my son not gone to the ER, we never would have discovered this overage. After several phone calls, I was given an email that stated it was at the doctors discretion as to if certain charges would be eliminated so that the maximum amount could be refunded. The insurance agent I spoke with also attempted to advocate for me with Sands billing department and was met with annoyance and dismissal. Ultimately, the billing department and Dr. Sands refused to refund the amount my insurance company stated I should be awarded. The office didn’t even have the decency to call us with their decision as to how this was to be handled. Just emails with excuses and apologies that we “felt that way.” We ultimately had to cancel all follow up appointments with Dr. Sands given how this situation was handled. I will say that the nurse, Michele was amazing and very kind. Even so, I do not recommend you use Dr. Sands given how this all played out unfortunately.