Thriveworks Counseling, Willow Grove PA

I have been extremely patient with this provider before leaving this review. I have even filed a complaint against Thriveworks with the BBB only to find out that this location is a franchise location. Please read on but understand that I have taken every measure I know how to before leaving this review.

First of all, the provider I saw here was incredible. She was professional with me about her reasons for leaving, but some things she said when I was going through billing issues made me believe she was unhappy working for Thriveworks.

I saw a provider through Thriveworks Willow Grove 43 times between 9/8 2021 and 8/9/2022. After insurance payments to Thriveworks Willow Grove, I only had a patient responsibility for $109 for seven of the visits totaling $749 for all 43 visits. All of the other visits were covered in full by my insurance company. In this time frame, Thriveworks billed $3,966.19 to my personal AMEX card, including billing charges made after I requested they no longer bill to that card. They also charged an additional $428.01 to my HSA debit card. The total amount of fraudulent charges I received from Thriveworks Willow Grove to my personal credit card and HSA is $3,645.20 (the totals above minus the $749 I actually owed).

After nearly six months of reaching out to Thriveworks corporate and getting no response, a coworker suggested I file a BBB complaint. Magically, someone reached out to me from Thriveworks 24 hours after I filed the complaint. They could not find my patient record and it was determined by them that Thriveworks Willow Grove is a "franchise location" and that they handle their own client billing. I found this out the first week of November and called Willow Grove immediately after I learned this. I was told I could not reach their billing department directly and would have to leave a message for them.

I have called Thriveworks Willow Grove five times over the past month and left five messages for their billing department. I have been patient. I have been polite and measured during my calls. During the last call, I explained that I was frustrated that this was the fifth message I had left and had not even received a call to discuss my billing issue. The girl that took my call told me she understood and would leave an "urgent message" for the billing department. That was five business days ago, and I've received nothing.

If this is happening to me, I'm sure I'm not the only one. It was at least the case with me that I was deep in addiction and depression when I reached out to Thriveworks and started counseling sessions with them. The overfilling went unnoticed I am ashamed to say. Once I figured out what was happening near the end of 2021 due to large sums being billed to my credit card at once. I told my provider to remove my credit card from the account, that Thriveworks was no longer authorized to bill to that card and gave her my HSA account instead. My provider worked with me to contact billing on my behalf and she believed that the billing would "all get sorted out, even if it may take some time" even as they continued to bill my HSA and my insurance provider for my sessions. My provider offered to stop billing me for a while until it was "figured out, " which I agreed to. She said she sent some emails to the director of billing on my behalf. When she left the practice in August, a lot of my sessions were billed at once and she said she thought the issue was corrected. Then Thriveworks Willow Grove billed me $582.30 to my personal AMEX, which I had said they no longer had permission to use. I believe my HSA was likely declined, and instead of sending me a bill, they billed a card I no longer had on file.

I feel taken advantage of. I was suffering and not managing my finances well, and this billing fraud went unnoticed by me for a long time. I am a military veteran dealing with a lot of post-service issues, and Thriveworks Willow Grove was exceedingly eager to take my money. I feel like I do not matter to them.

I am trying to find a therapist to help me work through some of the heaviest stuff I’ve ever felt. Searching is tiresome and annoying. I called thrive because of the other reviews, but I have to say… I feel pretty cheated and I haven’t even had the session. It says $99 on the website, and the person booking me spoke so fast that what I thought what I was doing was paying for the first session. But as it turns out I paid an “enrollment fee” to even get into the door to book a session. After making the appointment I figured I ask about the $99 I authorized a was told it’s non-refundable.

This is a deceitful practice.