Chirra Annapoora MD General Internal Medicine

I have been with Dr. Chirra for about 5 years. She is wonderful. She gives me the time and attention I deserve and always listens to my concerns regardless of how trivial they may sound. She is great about following up with test results and I feel the care and concern she shows her patients is truly genuine. I highly recommend her.

I went in for a cold that just wouldn’t quit. I was coughing so hard that I bruised my ribs. Let me preface this experience by saying that I have never had a good experience in my entire life with general doctors, especially at Kaiser, except for when I was living in Santa Barbara.
So I found Dr. Annapoora on the Anthem website. She was close to where I lived, so it was convenient. I called and made an appointment. Easy so far.
On the day of my appointment, I went in and ended up waiting for about 20 minutes. Not bad for a doctor’s office. Then I got into a room and waited another 20 minutes. Again, expected. She finally came in. She wasn’t very warm to start with, and her bedside manner just got worse as the appointment went on.
I told her that I hadn’t been to a general doctor in probably 10 years because I rarely get sick. Also, I told her about my cold and the reason for my visit, my crazy cough and the fact that I felt like someone was punching me in the ribs every time I coughed.
Since it was my first visit with her, she said that we should run tests for all of the normal things, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. I asked if this was included into my free initial health exam. She said yes. So she goes on checking things on her paper and she says I should go to two labs in the same building and that they’ll take care of me there. Then she leaves the room. I’m bewildered at this point because she didn’t address the reason for my visit. I go out my door and I can’t find her anywhere. Alas, again, a terrible experience with a general doctor. Also, the entire time, she never looked directly at me, nor did she feel where I was having pain or anything. No antibiotics or anything else for my month long cold.
So basically after all this, I receive a bill for $ 800 for lab fees for tests that she told me were part of my free health check-​up. Also, I receive a second bill for $ 150 because she is some kind of special office that charges a fee to see her. I called UCLA Medical Center about this and they said that when I made an appointment, they were required to tell me about this additional fee. Luckily, I was able to contest the $ 150. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do anything about the $ 800. The doctor wouldn’t return any of my calls, and her receptionist said that this was a bill from the labs that was separate from them and that I would need to deal with them.
So again, I’ve been disappointed and scammed by the medical industry. It’s crazy to me that people care this much more about money than doing the job that they took an oath for. No wonder out healthcare system is messed up. When are doctors going to start helping people the way they’re supposed to?