Nadya Friedman, MD

Shady and seriously inept.
Friedman was cold and seemed inexperienced. I can’t imagine that the favorable reviews posted elsewhere (and the filtered one here) are legitimate. She handled my case in an incredibly unprofessional, careless and downright lazy manner, as discussed below. In addition, she tried to rope me into an (expensive and controversial) biofeedback program offered at her clinic, which my regular doctor confirmed would be totally inappropriate for me. This person should not be working anywhere near the medical or mental health fields. Or for that matter, in any endeavor that entails communicating in a reasonable fashion or that requires respecting anyone else’s time or needs.
I saw her for the purpose of having some genetic testing done by a specialized lab that tests your metabolic enzymes in regards to medication processing. A week after she administered the test, I got a call from her office saying that she is not registered with my insurance at this lab so she cancelled the test. And she wanted to know if I still wanted to keep the follow up appointment, which had been scheduled solely to discuss the test results. Huh, for what? I ONLY saw her because she provided this test, as she was well aware. So I called the lab (since Friedman had not bothered to), and they said that this doctor should not have agreed to do the test since she is not yet registered with my insurance for lab testing, despite the doctor telling me that she was definitely registered and able to provide this test. They said they’d contact her and explain how to go about the registration process. I checked back with the doctor’s office assistant, who then tried blaming the lab for the whole debacle and told me that Dr. Friedman didn’t have time to deal with this. Seriously? Then she said that Dr. Friedman would call me on a specific day but I never received a call.
No explanation and no apology for having me come in and pay for an office visit amid her being unaware of her status in regards to this testing. I tried emailing Friedman and received a brief dismissive response several days later saying that they are still looking into the matter. Meanwhile, the lab told me that the doctor hadn’t even contacted them, now close to three weeks after my office visit. I finally just asked to be reimbursed the portion of the office visit fee not covered by insurance, which the office assistant agreed to. We’ll see if that actually happens. She also claimed to have contacted the lab and said she was met with complication, but this was not the case according to two different reps who I followed up with at the company. The lab gets paid for the test, so they’d have no interest in hindering communication from the doctor’s office. And Friedman didn’t hesitate to file a claim for reimbursement from my insurance company for this pointless visit. She presumably didn’t bother trying to fix the problem since she gets paid only for the office visit, not the test. No concern or sense of obligation to even attempt to do what was in my best interest.
Given how she misled me, wasted my time, and then completely dropped the ball, I certainly would not trust this doctor with anything else. Aside from not knowing her status with the lab to begin with, she made no attempt whatsoever at resolving (or even inquiring with the lab) about what was clearly a very simple matter. Complete lack of accountability. And then she did not even contact me when she said she would. Utterly confounding and very frustrating. Plus, I had cancelled an appointment for the testing with another doctor (who I’ll now see months after my original booking) since Friedman had a sooner appointment available. Let me guess why she has so much availability. What a senseless waste of time, and what a disgrace of a doctor and disgrace of a human being. Shame on her.