Dr. Neema Millad Heivand, MD

Summary of my experience: • Waited 109 days for an appointment • Appointment was changed without notifying me • I arrived and was told I had cancelled it, which was not true • My copay was charged to my credit card anyway • Multiple attempts were required just to reach the clinic manager I am sharing this review to describe my personal experience as a patient at the UCLA Health Thousand Oaks clinic so that others can understand what occurred and make their own decisions. I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Neema Heivand on November 21, and the earliest available appointment date I was given was March 10. That meant waiting 109 days for the visit. Like many patients, I accepted the long wait assuming that once the appointment finally arrived the process would be straightforward. Prior to the visit I received reminder messages confirming the March 10 appointment. I also completed the required online paperwork and entered my credit card information for the copay as requested. When I… arrived at the office on the day of the appointment, the front desk informed me that my appointment was not scheduled for that day and that it had been moved to March 18. This was the first time I had heard that the appointment had been changed. I showed the staff the reminder messages confirming the March 10 appointment. At that point I was told that the appointment had been changed the day before. However, I had received no phone call, voicemail, text message, or email notifying me of any change. Instead of acknowledging that a scheduling error may have occurred, the situation became frustrating. During the conversation I was told that I had cancelled the appointment, which, is simply not what happened. To make matters even more confusing, I later discovered that my credit card had been charged the copay the day before the appointment, even though the office was now stating that the appointment had been moved and I was not being seen that day. After waiting 109 days for this appointment, I arrived on time only to be told the appointment no longer existed, was told I had cancelled it, and later saw that my card had already been charged the copay. I attempted to resolve the situation by contacting the clinic manager, Anahit Khacheryan, and left several messages. It took quite some time before I finally received a response. When I did hear back, the discussion felt focused on explaining the situation rather than acknowledging the obvious problems with how the scheduling and communication had been handled. I want to be clear that I fully understand that physicians sometimes become ill and schedules occasionally change. That is part of healthcare. What was disappointing here was not the change itself, but the lack of communication and the way the situation was handled when I arrived after waiting more than three months for the appointment. Patients who wait that long for care reasonably expect clear communication, professionalism, and basic accountability when something changes. Because UCLA Health uses an electronic scheduling system, the timeline of this situation should be easy to verify. The system should show when the appointment was changed, whether any notification was actually sent to the patient, and why a copay was processed for a visit that did not occur. I would welcome the office reviewing those records so the facts of what happened can be clarified. I hope the clinic reviews its scheduling and communication procedures so that other patients do not experience the same situation. If someone from UCLA Health administration or the clinic leadership would like to review this situation and help clarify what occurred, I would welcome that conversation.

Ok doctor, but tried to sell me on extra tests.

Very knowledgeable about health in general —