95% of Podiatrists are good human beings doing their best to help patients. However, there is a small percentage that seek to exploit patients for personal profit with unproven therapies and treatments or overcharging for products. Below I have listed signs and questions about whether your Podiatrist ripped you off:
Did he sell you pills and creams? First thing you need to do is go to Amazon and place the product that he sold you into their search engine and see if it is offered for sale at a less expensive price. A lot of times it is. Now, if your Podiatrist sold you a pill, such as a nerve pill, stay on Amazon and type in the active ingredient. Often times, Podiatrists sell a product that is the exact same as a common product found on Amazon but they slap a different name on it with a 300% mark up. Remember, Vitamin B12 is Vitamin B12. Pay no attention to the name on the bottle, it is the active ingredient you need to focus on.
Did your Podiatrist make you purchase your medication through a mail order pharmacy that has compound medications? This is dirty on many levels. First of all, there is no evidence to support the use of compound medications as effective. Your podiatrist has sold you an investigative treatment. Secondly, your Podiatrist did not tell you this but he gets a kick back from the pharmacy for that prescription, which is borderline illegal. This is a very common scam some Podiatrists are practicing now.
Did your Podiatrist charge you over 400 dollars for orthotics? I bet he claimed lab costs cause him to charge you that much. That is a lie as most lab costs for orthotics run less than 100 dollars. Anything over 100 dollars is pure profit. Overcharging for orthotics is a scourge on Podiatry.
Did you get an ultrasound guided injection for your plantar fasciits? That is an extra 200 dollars for the Podiatrist and guess what, it does not improve the results. There is no evidence that ultrasound guided injections for Plantar Fasciitis are more successful than non guided. The only evidence is your Podiatrist got 200 dollars from you or your insurance company.
Laser Toenail surgery- I bet your Podiatrist told you a huge lie that Lamisil has very common liver effects. This is not true. The actual percentage of Liver complications is 0.002%. Laser toenail surgery is completely unproven and there is no evidence that it works. There have been studies and none have shown it to be effective.
Did your Podiatrist try a different scam or do you think you were ripped off I would love to hear from you send me an email sjstinehour@yahoo.com