Dr. Radha Mikkilineni, MD

Talk about MONEY HUNGRY DOCTORS!!! WOW! Steer clear of this place, and find yourself a real dermatologist that will actually take the time to look at you!!! I went in, waited about 2 hours and Dr. Mikkilinenini took less than 10 minutes, she barely looked at my moles, which some even i as a normal person can tell need to be removed. These people are the worst, honesty i have never felt so mistreated by a doctor before. No wonder Dr. Doshi left this place! These people remind me of the words of Jerry Seinfeld – you’e a bunch of pimple-​popper MD’s!

I made an appointment through ZocDoc and her office then called me to cancel the appointment and reschedule. Then they canceled my rescheduled appointment because I was 10 minutes late for the appointment. There was confusion whether my appointment was at 12:15 or 12:30, I thought I was 5 minutes early for a 12:30 appointment, but they didn’t care and didn’t accept any responsibility. In short her practice appears to have no sense of accountability or respect for a potential new patient.

Dr. Mikkilineni is a superb dermatologist; I’ve been seeing her for 5 years. She is, by far, the most competent dermatologist I’ve ever seen. As a bonus, she’s warm, friendly and very easy to talk to.
My five star rating is for her alone.
Unfortunately, the practice is another story. Yes, they’re rude, incompetent and won’t return your calls. They might be surly right to your face. Personally, I’m inclined to live with the incompetent staff to see this wonderful doctor. But if your bad customer service threshold is low, I’d suggest going elsewhere.

I went to Dr. Mikkilineni twice. The plus side to my office visits was her office had a lot of free lotion/​sunblock samples. I actually liked the doctor as a person, but felt like I was going against the clock. I had a lot of minor questions to ask her about skin/​hair/​nails. She was nice enough and provided decent answers. However, on my last visit she really upset me. When I scheduled the appointment I said I wanted a year mole check. The dermatology profession should find this encouraging when younger people take the initiative to get this done. After asking her my list of questions I asked her to do the mole check. She said she didn’t realize I wanted this done and it was not scheduled into our appointment because it take a while (um, like three minutes top). She said I could come back for a whole body mole check (sure, and you can collect another co-​pay from me and another $ 250 from my insurance). What dermatologist would not take a look at someone’s moles in an appointment. I had already waited an extra 30 minutes to see her anyway. I walked away questioning the doctor’s true commitment to her patent’s health. Actually, I could almost see this being a liability if I ended up having an issue with my moles.

Dr Mikkilineni has an unprofessional and unethical attitude toward patient care. When I was having an adverse reaction to medication she had put me on (my face and eyes were swelling), and I called to try and get in to see her, she left me a voicemail telling me to go to the emergency room if I had concerns. I called back and explained that I needed her to examine me quickly to determine if that was even necessary (who has time to sit 5 hours in the ER when (supposedly) you have a doctor?). The office told me to come ahead, but then called back to tell me NOT to come BECAUSE DOCTOR MIKKILENINI WAS LEAVING FOR THE DAY, knowing I had this issue and was on my way. She basically refused to wait for 5 minutes to see an existing patient. I have never been treated like this by any phsyician. One of the more experienced doctors there did what doctors are supposed to do, even though I was not actually her patient — she saw me at the end of her appointments to asses me (it was not anything I needed to go the ER for) and gave me a prescription for relief from the swelling, When I asked my GP what he thought of Dr M’s conduct, and he is one of Washingtonian’s top doctors, he said it was in his view unprofessional conduct toward an existing patient, to whom a doctor has professional obligations, Basically, she was out of there at 4pm no matter what, and would not spare an extra minute to see a patient, I will never go back to her again.,

The nadir of my experience with this Dr. was when she said «I am really at a loss on how to treat you.» A bit of background, I have been breaking out in an itchy rash repeatedly for about 2 months. Topical steroids make it worse. And every time I go to her she says it looks like something different (1^st poison ivy, then eczema). But the biopsy shows a different result – allergic hives. It has been very frustrating and is obviously a particularly challenging case. I have not been impressed with the office (still tracking down a second biopsy result 2.5 weeks later and they didnt call me with results initially) and at least 1 error in scheduling me with the wrong doctor. But I also have been frustrated with the lack of real medical engagement by the Dr. I am a patient who aks a lot of questions (particularly when I am covered with an oozy rash!). The general sense I had was that the Dr. had neither the time nor the inclination (skills?) to answer my questions.

Dr Mikkillineni was very professional and cleared up a skin problem that had baffled good LA Dr’s, so I was very satisfied. I would have gone to 5 stars except that I also had a problem getting the office to phone me back.

If you are ok with your calls not being returned for 2 weeks in a row (after leaving messages with their so called answering service DURING business hours), not once, but twice, sure, you can schedule an appointment with them… Otherwise, run from this practice.
As for Dr Mikkilineni herself — no attention to the patient, the whole appointment took less than 2 minutes total.

Other than being left in a room waiting for the doctor for a long time, Dr. Mikkilineni was ok. She checked my body for moles very quickly. I chose to have a couple of moles tested. Received a followup phone call very quickly saying there were no problems. My issue is with the office. I didn’t have my medical card but had called and received my policy number. Instead of just taking that and calling to confirm it and checking my ID, they made me pay for my visit in full before I left. that in itself was annoying, but fine. I submitted the itemized billed they gave me when I left the office to my insurance company and received my reimbursement. My major issue is with what happened after that. I received a standard looking envelope from the office, which I assumed was my test results. Admittedly I didn’t open it since I had already received a phone call telling me my test results were fine. However, I just received a «final delinquency notice» threatening to turn the bill over to collections if I don’t pay it within five days. Of course it is dated two weeks ago. If they incorrectly calculated my bill, they should have called me to apologize for charging me for the wrong amount, faxed me over an updated receipt that I could submit to my insurance company and requested that I pay the remaining amount. To send me an unitemized threatening delinquency notice (which I can’t submit to my insurance company) with at most one prior notice (assuming that is what the previous envelope was) for an amount that is twice what I already paid with only five days to respond is ridiculous. I’m too busy to deal with this kind of nonsense. After this experience, I won’t be back to this office or any other Doctor associated with University Dermatology Association.