Dr. Mitchell Jay Galerkin, MD

I have suffered from depression and some degree of a bipolar condition for almost 30-years. I have been with Dr. Galerkin for almost two decades. I have been to many previous doctors seeking relief - from Kaiser quacks to egotistical divas. Dr. Galerkin has worked with me through my darkest times to fine tuning daily medication. He has made a huge improvement in my life - give him a try, he might just save yours. With respect to office staff, some older comments are close to the truth. But, for approximately the last year, there have been great improvements. Do not let older reviews shape your decision to see Dr. Galerkin.

Would not recommend this doctor. No one answers the phone after 4 so if you try to call them they don’t pick up. Had an appointment and there was a bad accident that caused me to be 13 minutes late, I called 4 times no one picked up the phone, and when I got there the girl just said “oh I must have been on the phone”. The office staff is non existent, they never know what they are doing. They overcharged me on my co-pay by $100 and I had to call my insurance when I was there to straighten it out and then she told me that they would refund be later. I demanded them to reverse the charges and she finally did, but she didn’t know how to do it that’s why she didn’t want to refund me. They always have someone new working there. The problem is if you make an appointment after 4 there is no way to talk to anyone in the office so if your late due to an accident they don’t care they will charge you $150 for 13 minutes. This place is a joke, not only did I miss my appointment I’m… going to be charged a fee, your time does not matter here. I’ve never been late, I’ve even waited 10 mins a few times because he was running late but my time apparently does not matter. They just want there money.

Dr. Galerkin and his Staff go out the extra mile to ensure the best mental health care. His expertise literally changed my life.

If you want someone who spends your entire 20-minute appointments typing on his laptop, is unavailable in emergencies, turns you over to hospital staff completely when you’re hospitalized, is only there to write prescriptions and get paid, and basically will prescribe any and everything you can make a case for, this is your guy.

Dr Galerkin is a great listener, a kind man, and overall very helpful.

Dr Galerkin is an excellent doctor and very good with military

I was totally satisfied in all areas. He was very professional . It was a very good match for me.

Not very personable and will only write scripts for 30 days.

Dr Galerkin used to be good but has gotten worse. His office staff (his own family) is terrible about getting in contact and he has let my prescription run out of a drug that is dangerous to drop cold turkey. He is not answering his emergency line of any other line for that matter. I have been without the med for 2 days and if it goes past tomorrow I will be going to the emergency room to avoid seizures!

I went to Dr. Galerkin for several years. He was competent and provided excellent feedback. He was good about returning calls. However, his staff was horrible. When they didn't get insurance approval for my husband's bill, they didn't properly follow up with us or the insurance company. We ended up with an $800 bill that we had to pay when our insurance should have covered everything. I faxed Dr. Galerkin a letter, explaining my position. The only reply I got was that all billing matters were handled by his billing staff. He believed his nasty staff over me, even though he knew our circumstances. I was so overwhelmed with other matters that I let the bill go into collections. The collections company was very good and they arranged a plan where I only paid $25 a month. We figure that given the circumstances, $25 a month was the fairest repayment plan we could come up with; I figured he didn't deserve any larger or faster repayment. My husband and I had been very clear with… the doctor about our financial situation and did the best we could to pay bills. He did not believe us when we told him we were not notified of our billing problem in a timely fashion. Another difficult quirk of the doctor is that he tended to dismiss a person from care if they missed 2 appointments, even if they had a long-term record of keeping appointments. This happened to me and given the stresses I was under, felt I should have been shown more understanding. When I was dismissed from care, I was told by letter/staff and was not given a chance to personally discuss the matter with him. After thinking I had a good relationship with the doctor for several years and to be treated in this matter was upsetting, to say the least. The effect of this on my husband is that he no longer wants to see a psychiatrist for medication management. This is not a good thing! In all fairness, he did charge me an adjusted fee for visits when my insurance no longer covered my care. All those payments were made in a timely manner and there was no problem with my billing. Because of what happened with my husband's billing issue and the way we were dismissed from his care, I would never recommend him to anyone who was looking for a compassionate psychiatrist.