Dr. Stasia Blyskal, DO

I had five visits with Dr. Stasia Blyskal. The first consisted of an interview and examination that lasted 1 and 1/2 hours. I also left her some medical history documents to review after our meeting and I estimate that it took her, at most, 1/2 hour to read these documents. Her fee was $400.00, which comes to $3.33 a minute; that is a bargain compared to what she charged me for each of the four subsequent visits. Each of these four visits consisted of hands-on treatments in a time slot that was 1/2 hour in duration; the charge for each of the first two treatment sessions was $200.00 and for each of the subsequent two session was $220.00. Thus the average treatment session cost $210.00, or $7.00 per minute. I was l0 minutes late for two of these sessions, so the actual treatment time of these two sessions was 20 minutes each, thereby making their actual charge $10.50 per minute. Had Stasia's treatments helped to improve the medical conditions for which I sought her help, I would be… less concerned about their cost. But her osteopathic manipulations did not help me. In my third session I complained about how little pressure she was applying to my body but she increased that pressure only slightly, if at all, thereafter. Never did I feel any better after any of her treatments than I did prior to receiving them. I did get some relief from some of the do-at-home exercises that she prescribed. My main dismay about Stasia concerns her billing practices. The most appalling of these practices is reflected in the fact that she never offered to give me a single extra minute of her time to make up for the minutes I was late. In a lengthy email correspondence that we had after our last session she tried to justify this practice by explaining that, unlike the policy of many other doctors, her policy is never to keep a patient waiting past their scheduled appointment time. This sounds laudable but it is not, not when you consider the fact that she books her own appointments and is fully in control of how far apart she spaces them. She knows very well that patients often come late, and she must realize that these latenesses may well be caused by the very conditions for which her patients seek her help, yet she books her appointments so close together as to make no allowance for lateness. It is a selfish and unseemly practice that puts her profit-making ahead of her patients' welfare. Another feature of Stasia's practice distinguishes her, and not in a good way, from the practice of many other doctors. Many other doctors have staff who assist patients with getting ready for a treatment and with paying for that treatment thereafter. Stasia works alone. Accordingly, even if you arrive on time, some part of the 30 minutes you are allotted will be spent taking off your shoes and outerwear and another part will be spent paying her. This reduces the actual treatment time significantly. Again, if Stasia's treatments were more effective, these features of her practice would be more tolerable; as things stand, they pile insult upon injury. My experience of the ineffectiveness of Stasia's perfunctory manipulations was reinforced by my sharply contrasting experience with a physical therapist whom I found online after discontinuing my relationship with Stasia. This remarkable doctor has a Ph.d. in physical therapy and he is an expert practitioner of craniosacral therapy. He uses a much wider range of techniques than Stasia ever did and I feel much better for days after each session with him. I had five visits with Dr. Stasia Blyskal. The first consisted of an interview and examination that lasted 1 and 1/2 hours. I also left her some medical history documents to review after our meeting and I estimate that it took her, at most, 1/2 hour to read these documents. Her fee was $400.00, which comes to $3.33 a minute; that is a bargain compared to what she charged me for each of the four subsequent visits. Each of these four visits consisted of hands-on treatments in a time slot that was 1/2 hour in duration; the charge for each of the first two treatment sessions was $200.00 and for each of the subsequent two session was $220.00. Thus the average treatment session cost $210.00, or $7.00 per minute. I was l0 minutes late for two of these sessions, so the actual treatment time of these two sessions was 20 minutes each, thereby making their actual charge $10.50 per minute. Had Stasia's treatments helped to improve the medical conditions for which I sought her help, I would be less concerned about their cost. But her osteopathic manipulations did not help me. In my third session I complained about how little pressure she was applying to my body but she increased that pressure only slightly, if at all, thereafter. Never did I feel any better after any of her treatments than I did prior to receiving them. I did get some relief from some of the do-at-home exercises that she prescribed. My main dismay about Stasia concerns her billing practices. The most appalling of these practices is reflected in the fact that she never offered to give me a single extra minute of her time to make up for the minutes I was late. In a lengthy email correspondence that we had after our last session she tried to justify this practice by explaining that, unlike the policy of many other doctors, her policy is never to keep a patient waiting past their scheduled appointment time. This sounds laudable but it is not, not when you consider the fact that she books her own appointments and is fully in control of how far apart she spaces them. She knows very well that patients often come late, and she must realize that these latenesses may well be caused by the very conditions for which her patients seek her help, yet she books her appointments so close together as to make no allowance for lateness. It is a selfish and unseemly practice that puts her pr