Demott Deborah L, MD

Dr. Demott is a kind person, but I found her lack of interest in root causes of my condition alarming. Month after month, I had a prescription for Ambien filled (although every time, I had to call the office at least twice to have them send it to the pharmacy after it had not been filled). This went on for two years, and never once did she recommend stress reduction courses, CBT, or other treatments to help my insomnia. When I started with Kaiser, the first thing they did was make moves to get me off Ambien, which I had taken every day for 4 years. I wish she treated the cause, and not just the symptom.

Really personal doctor and professional office.

The billing department and the doctor are awful. I have been accused of not paying my bill when I had insurance. I was studying in England for a year and came back to find myself with a bill from a collection agency. I have been accused of leaving bogus phone numbers when I was merely out of the country and never received bills (I left forwarding address but they kept sending it to the old address), even the present when I asked to see the bill. My credit has been excellent and now its definitely soiled. Demott herself, not warm, another day at work.

I have to say that I love this office, both Drs. Demott and Ross. They see a lot of patients in a day, which his the name of the game in internal medicine. They run late, which can be annoying. Until you realize that they’re going to spend extra time with you you’re annoyed. But then when they do spend extra time listening to your stuff? You are a-​OK about checking in a little late.

Dr Demott’s medical practice is a particularly horrifying example of the American medical system. But not because of the long wait times, doctor rushing in-​and-​out, obviously not caring about you. Yes you’ll find all of these things here, but mediocre service from a doctor is about par for the course eh?
No, the reason you should run away from this office is because you may get charged hundreds of dollars for service you thought you paid for. Even if you’re a current patient, you may have a bill in the mail to you even now.
When my insurance changed I asked the receptionist here a simple question: «Is my insurance still in-​network?» She said yes it was in-​network, so I had two appointments with Dr. Demott. TWO appointments where they had me pay a co-​pay and then go on my way. And then they sent me a bill telling me it was out-​of-​network. For hundreds of dollars.
I’m not sure the right word for how this happened. Incompetence? Scam? I made a lot of calls to the doctor to try and get them to remove the charges, but i ended up paying them. Because who has the energy to deal with something like this?
Take a look at some of the other reviewers, you may notice a pattern about the billing. And think about whether this is something you want to deal with. After all, I’m probably the lucky one. The next person might be in for something bigger, and end up with a bill for $ 5,000. And who has the money for that?

Dr. Demott is a great doctor and I would highly recommend her. She is very patient and spends as much time as is necessary with you. She’s Stanford educated and very smart. I have really appreciated having her as my doctor.

Like other reviewers I also got billed incorrect by Berkeley internal medicine.
Like other reviewers I think the office staff is horrible. I was mischeduled several times, and ignored. Received no follow up on things like physicals.
Demott seems very busy, like she is triaging hundreds of patients in a war zone, instead of operating a private practice in Berkeley CA!

As someone in their 20’s, it was a little off-​putting when I stepped into Dr. Demott’s office for the first time and realized, whoa, everyone here is at least double if not triple my age. However, Dr. Demott is very genial and has never rushed me whenever I visited, and was also never condescending, as I’m sure none of my health problems are as pressing as the other patrons here.
One time, she had me try out a prescription, and actually personally called me later on that week to ask me how it was working out for me! Super nice!
There is definitely a wait time, even with an appointment, but I think this is true of most doctors’ offices. As someone who doesn’t visit the doctor very often, I don’t see myself switching anytime soon.

I’d rather have a good doctor and a mediocre office staff. Dr DeMott is thorough and catches things others have not. Really helpful.

I actually just put Dr. DeMott’s name into google to get the office phone number and saw all these bad reviews, so I thought I’d weigh in. I’m really surprised the reviews are bad. I agree, the office doesn’t run as smoothly as it should, but I’ve seen worse (much, much worse). Also, this entry is supposed to be for her, not her practice, so I don’t really think it’s fair to rate her badly because her office is bad. Unfortunately, insurance doesn’t really pay enough to have 5-​star offices anymore.
I really like Dr. DeMott, she generally spends the right amount of time with me, I never feel rushed, and she’s not the least bit condescending. I’ve seen a lot of different primary care doctors over the past 18 years (more than 20), and only two of them I can say would earn 5 stars from me, most would earn 1 or 2 stars, so she’s well above average in my experience. In fact, I go well out of my way to go to her since I moved because I don’t want to switch. I would say the only thing I’d change is her enthusiasm for the newest, most expensive drugs, but I probably wouldn’t care about that as much if my insurance actually covered them…

I am totally uninmpressed with this office. I only visited the office once for a Dr. visit a while back and was given about 5 minutes of Dr. Demott’s attention and was sent on my way. I figured since I don’t generally go to the dr. (i prefer Naturopathic care) I wouldn’t worry about it… that is until last weekend when I had symptoms consistent with a heart attack while running in a race. Even though I probably wasn’t having a heart attack, the symptoms were uncomfortable enough and worrisome enough to warrant a dr. visit. I called the office several times and never once recieved a live person – always a voice messaging service. I left a message and never heard back. A day or two later I left an explicit message decribing my «heart attack» symptoms and urgently asked for someone to call me back. I got nothing! In the meantime I switched doctors right away and had already been seen by someone else by the time they finally called me back. That is totally unacceptable in my book. I do not recommend this doctor or office.

It can be kind of a pain to change primary care physicians when you have an HMO, but after being Dr. Demott’s patient for less than a year, every minute I sat on hold with Blue Shield to change my primary doctor to someone else was worth it. I have seen a good number of doctors in my time, and Dr. Demott’s office is by far the most disorganized, under-​staffed, and actually pretty unprofessional medical staff I’ve ever encountered.
If there was just one or two isolated incidents in which Dr. Demott’s staff made a referral mistake or I had to sit in the waiting room for over an hour to see the doctor for a previously scheduled appointment, I could write it off as «these things happen.» The unfortunate thing is, I have encountered some kind of issue with literally every appointment I’ve made, or tried to make with this office. Here are issues that I have had with this office that you should absolutely never have to put up with as a paying and/​or insured patient:
1. Waiting an hour and a half in the waiting room for a scheduled appointment.
2. Being told every time you need an ASAP appointment that the doctor is too booked to see you for a week. If the doctor is too booked to see her patients, she needs to stop accepting new patients.
3. Calling more than twice to make sure that your doctor has sent the referral for a specialist that you requested several weeks ago, because of course, it has yet to be sent.
4. Getting billed for co-​pays you’ve already paid (and have the receipts and credit card statements to prove it).
5. Calling during business hours and hearing «The office is now closed» on more than one occasion, even when it’s 9:30 and the office opens at 9 am.
6. Regularly having to leave a voicemail during business hours because nobody is available to take your call at the front desk.
A good portion of these issues might be solved by doing two things: 1. switching from paper to computers (Sutter East Bay has been on this track for awhile now), and 2. hiring another person for the office. The final one would have to be that Dr. Demott needs to stop accepting new patients if she can’t really accommodate them. I am not paying for health insurance to not be seen by a doctor and wait in her office all day. My insurance isn’t paying her for my appointments so that I can get rebilled for co-​pays, either.

Dr. Demott has been my primary care physician for at least 15 years, (possibly longer but I’m terrible about dates) and I have nothing but praise for her as a doctor.
She actually listens carefully to her patients, explains things thoroughly, offers choices, etc. Unlike some male doctors I’ve had in my life, she doesn’t treat me like a hysterical female when I know something is wrong with me. All in all, I find her to be compassionate, caring and thoroughly competent.
I have HeathNet and it’s always been easy for me to get the referrals I need when I needed someone other than a general doctor.
My only minor complaint is that it’s sometimes hard to get appointments that aren’t a month away; but other that that I’m very pleased with her as my doctor.

She’s not the warm cuddly type, but she seems to really read the journals and keep current with primary care. She never hesitates to request screening tests, and always refers me to needed specialists. She listens carefully to my concerns and comments, and is nonintrusive in terms of her medical interventions!

I wish I’d read Unilocal reviews before selecting Dr. Demott. I mostly selected this dr. based on proximity — and I needed a new primary care physician quickly. My insurance had changed, and I have been getting treatment for a broken hand (which is still in a cast). The way my HMO (healthnet) works, I need a referral from my primary care physician in order to see the orthopedist who is treating my hand.
I phoned Dr. Demott on a Thursday, needing a referral for my orthopedist appointment the following Wednesday. My new insurance had just gone into effect (although I had selected Dr. DeMott from their list several weeks earlier), and I already had the appt. scheduled. I left a detailed message on her voicemail, explaining the situation. I got no call back, and called again on Friday morning, again leaving a detailed message (in both cases explaining that she was my primary care physician and I needed a referral from her prior to my Wednesday appt.) Again, no call back. On Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) I called again, this time trying to speak to anyone in the office. The receptionist told me that Dr. Demott was not taking new patients, even though she had been assigned to me through my insurance company.
I totally understand that such snafus can happen, but I really thought it was egregious of the dr. to not return my call to let me know, given that she knew my hand was broken and I needed a referral. She also knew that as far as I or my insurance company knew, she was my primary care physician. Given the fact that this had happened, I asked if she might be willing to give me the referral as my assigned doctor, and I would go ahead and find another doctor. I was told there was absolutely no way she would do that.
I understand some doctors have a policy of not giving referrals without seeing you (although, honestly, I think for a broken hand most doctors would give a referral without having you come in – my previous doctor did, and my physician husband would, and the doctor I wound up finding did). But even if a doctor had this policy, I would think a she might be willing to bend this policy when it was her own fault that I was scrambling at the last minute. She could have easily returned my call immediately, said she was not taking new patients, apologized for the confusion, and sent me on my way. However, she chose to take absolutely no responsibility or action, even though she was my assigned doctor.
I thought long and hard about writing this review, because I have obviously not been treated by Dr. DeMott. But I do think her treatment of me speaks volumes about how she thinks about patients in general. Even though she was my assigned primary care physician, knew I had a broken hand, and knew I needed to see an orthopedist she didn’t return my phone calls.
Unfortunately, in this time of HMOs, complicated insurance policies, etc. the way a doctor and her office interfaces with these services matters almost as much as the treatment they give you in the exam room. Dr. DeMott prevented me from receiving timely care and took absolutely no responsibility for her actions. I honestly don’t understand why she didn’t call me back, because it would have been a very simple and professionally appropriate thing for her to do.
Her receptionist did give me the name of another doctor in another office who might be seeing knew patients. His office was incredibly helpful and professional, and got me the referral immediately (without needing to have me come in). I guess that’s how Dr. Demott’s office earned their star.

I was sorry to read the other reviews about Dr. Demott. I have been her patient for the past two years and have received nothing but the best care and support from her. She always has time for me and answers all of my questions and reassures me during my hypochondriac moments. I have seen several specialist and have never been refused a referral. I feel fortunate to have found such a tolerant and gracious doctor, especially when I can’t even get my GYN to show up to my appointments or return my calls.
The women at the front desk are always pleasant and up for friendly banter. I have never had any insurance issues arise from her office. In her absence, I have seen her partner Dr. Andrew Ross and he was fine too.

I agree with Chloe B. that the effeciency and responsiveness of Dr. DeMott’s office could use a «bit» of improvement. Frustrating yes, but I wouldn’t call them incompetent or dishonest however. I have had no problems with billing through at least 3 insurance coverages since I have been with Dr. DeMott.
I enjoy my time with Dr. Demott when I come in for my annual check-​up. And her referrals have worked out very well for me.
So…4 Stars for the Deborah and 2 stars for the Office.

First Impression:
The first time I met Dr. DeMott at Internal Medicine of Berkeley, I was thrilled. She took her time getting to know me, and communicated clearly. I have no problem with how she treated me. Perhaps this bad review should be more for this doctor’s office than the doctor herself.
Scoring:
To be fair, I would have given Dr. Demott 4 stars based upon my initial visit. The office only deserves 1 if any. Overall, I give 2 stars. A great initial visit does not make up for the horrible follow-​up care, and bad billing practices that I’ll now explain.
Inadequate Medical Attention:
Since my first visit I’ve had several problems with this doctor’s office. I came back from Mexico very sick in July. My mother was diagnosed with giardia after eating the same food as me. Not wanting to jump the gun on diagnosis, the doctor had me take several diagnostic tests. After taking the tests, I never heard back from her office. I called repeatedly, almost daily, for several weeks and no one returned my calls ever.
After about a month, and continued stomach problems, I switched doctors. My new doctor did not run more tests, but he did treat me for giardia, just to be safe.
Billing Practices:
Now I would like never to deal with this doctors office again, but I am being erroneously billed by Internal Medicine of Berkeley. I contacted my insurance company, and they told me they already paid for the items I am being billed for. They sent me a copy of a letter they sent my doctor in November informing them that they should not be billing me. Nevertheless, they sent me another bill in December.
Conclusion:
I now think this doctors office is severely incompetent, or dishonest — I’m not sure which. Maybe both. Based on my experience, I highly recommend staying away from this clinic.