Piyush Kumar, MD

I needed to see a doctor urgent and he was available — that’s how I picked him. When I booked the appointment — I specifically asked if I could be seen by the doctor. However, the day of the appointment, (3 hours prior) I got a call from his office saying that he was busy and my appointment was re-​scheduled with his Nurse Practitioner. They stated that Dr. Kumar was busy with surgery that day and assured me that I would be well taken care of. When I went in, I filled out the standard questionnaires & provided my insurance information. When I saw the Nurse, she did not bother to even look at my responses to the questionnaires and I had to tell her what the likely cause of my GI issue could be. She then (upon my request) asked for blood to be drawn. She then gave me samples to a medication and suggested I try using it. When I went home and read the side effects it stated that effects are unsure on pregnant women/​women trying to have a baby. I am a 28 year old otherwise healthy female looking to start a family soon. When I brought this to attention to the other Nurse on staff (because the doctor was unavailable again) and said that I do not want to be addicted to a medication for the rest of my life. He stated that oh I have people take medication and there have been no real issues. Really?!? Also — he suggested I get a colonoscopy. WOW! I am a HEALTHY 28 year old with no symptoms of cancer/​anything major. I felt that was a very incompetent response.
Finally For the blood test that was requested — I went to my regular hospital where I get my blood drawn and awaited the results. 2 months later I get a hefty bill from the pathology lab. My insurance is very good and I had never been billed from the pathology previously. I called the lab and they stated that the doctors office had requested it to be sent to that specific pathology, without even checking weather it was in-​network for me or not. Like I said, my insurance is very good and there are very few out of network labs — but this office again neglected to check anything and sent requested my hospital to send it there. When I called them they obviously did not take responsibility for this and stated it was the hospital that sent it to that lab and it wasn’t up to them. I called the hospital AND my insurance to double check and both confirmed that it was the referring doctors request for being sent to that pathology.
Well what can I say? You live and learn I guess — never again will I go to this place.

When will Unilocal allow you to give 0 out of 5 stars? Previous reviews clearly speak volumes. They could careless if you’re in pain and will cancel a scheduled appointment you have with them at 430pm the day before. This is horrible business and they could careless about your situation. Very unprofessional. There are many other Dr’s in their network I would try to schedule with prior to this outfit.

I just had to cancel my appointment for Tomorrow’s colonoscopy after learning that my request to be completely sedated would not be granted because they couldn’t get the anesthesiologist to come in on his day off and they hadn’t received the preauthorization from my insurance company for the anesthesia. They did not return my phone calls until finally at 5 o’clock the nurse practitioner called to explain why I should just be lightly sedated with pain medication.

I hope that others find this review helpful. I had a long term GERD condition due to a genetic hernia. Normal endoscopy screening returned a result of «indefinite” – the pathologists simply could not make up their mind. Dr. Kumar was not satisfied with the easy answer of waiting a year or two to rescreen, and he ordered a rescreen after only three months. He was able to biopsy a suspicious thickening and found early cancer. He then took the trouble to arrange for a treatment by the leading physician in San diego to remove the cancer. I am now cancer free and under normal screening again. Unfortunately, not every doctor today takes the care to ensure that their patients receive the best treatment. Thanks to Dr. Kumar, I don’t have to worry about cancer or serious surgery.

I was assigned to Dr. Kumar for my liver condition last year after another MD I had been seeing at Coastal GI in Encinitas left. He did an endoscopy on me in January and I had office visits with him over several months. I am a retired research scientist and have spent most of my carrear doing research in medical schools. Both as a patient and someone who has worked with MD’s I have found Kumar to be one of the worst I have encountered. I do not believe he is competent in his medical opinions and he is very unpleasant in his manner of dealing with patients, rude and arrogant. I would certainly not recommend him to anyone.

Dr. Kumar is very good at what he does. He actually found my friends cancer and we are forever grateful. My only complaint is his office staff. They are very unorganized. WE have had to ask for everything. Go pick up films and reports ourselves because they did not send to the proper people. Frustrating. The nurse staff is fantastic and very kind and caring. Dr. Kumar has a sense of humor and is straight foward and easy to talk to. Very educated and knows his stuff. Just keep on the front staff to keep on top of your own records.

I was really unhappy with the practioner who referred me to Dr. Kumar, so honestly, I wasn’t expecting a good doctor. I really believe in ‘birds of a feather flock together’…but I went anyway.
I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of making an online appointment. I was able to grab an appointment two days later.
I was evaluated by Jesse Myers (his PA). I felt like I was listened to, my pain was taken seriously, and a thorough exam was performed. Then, Dr. Kumar came in.
No laptop, his phone did ring twice and twice he silenced it to listen to me. He had two theories as to why I was in so much abdominal pain that I was in the hospital– and I was in total agreement. They both sounded plausible. He ordered more bloodwork since some of my liver enzymes were elevated and took a ‘wait and see’ approach… but also told me to call him if certain things occurred. I made a follow up appointment for about 10 days later.
A few days later, I wasn’t getting any better so I called the office and moved my appointment up. I should’ve kept my original appointment because I saw a new PA. I can’t remember her name but she’s the only female PA there. Realizing I was new to her caseload, I told her my story and boy, she went down every path possible. Honestly, it was a bit annoying because I felt she was grasping at straws. I am not nearly as educated as a physician or a PA, but I’d like to think I understand things about the human body. I wasn’t accepting her answers.
She ordered a bunch of imaging, which I never did because I started feeling better and my bloodwork eventually all came back to normal levels on their own.
If I needed to, I would return to this practice but only see Dr. Kumar or Jesse Myers.

I’ve worked with Dr. Kumar for the past year on my problems with GERD/​reflux. It is my experience that all he wanted to do was prescribe PPI medication and not bother to look further into what might be causing my GI distress. I got some information from Scripps Integrative Medicine from a friend on possible triggers for GERD which included a medication that I take. I spoke to my Primary Care doc and got the med changed and experienced much improvement. When I told Dr. Kumar about this and the list from Scripps, he dismissed it and said all kinds of medications can cause stomach issues. He DID NOT CARE! In my opinion he needs to retire!

I really liked Dr. Kumar! He took everything i said very seriously.

My primary care physician had wonderful things to say about Dr. Kumar. She said he was very thorough so I was hopeful that I would finally find an answer to my intestinal issues. Over the course of a few months, I only saw Dr. Kumar for a couple brief moments. Additionally, I saw him once when he performed the procedure. Every other visit was with Jesse Myers. I believe he is a nurse practitioner? I left my appointments frustrated. Mr. Myers never wanted to listen and instead spent his time telling me how I felt. He just wanted to make a diagnosis and be done with it. He had a «know it all attitude.» I eventually gave up and stopped going. I still do not know what is wrong with me and continue to live with the pain… I do have to say that other staff members were great. The office was conscientious of expensive medications and tried to provide free samples or coupons whenever possible. I really did appreciate that. I am sure Dr. Kumar is a great doctor, I just wish I could have had my visits with him.

Dr. Lumbar has horrible bedside manner BUT his staff is super attractive and you end up seeing them more than him so it all works out.

I had previously seen another gasteroenterologist that I did not like so I asked for a referral from my primary and went to Dr. Kumar. Unlike the first Dr. I saw, Dr. Kumar ran some much needed tests on my rare liver tumor and made sure that it was monitored appropriately. A year later a repeated showed my tumor had grown and Dr. Kumar was quick to order a biopsy and get a real diagnosis that no other Dr. had. He also called me a day after the biopsy to ensure I was ok. I also had him paged a few days later when I was experiencing pain at 10 PM. He called me back within a minute of the page and told me exactly what I needed to do. I worked as an EMT so I’m very picky when it comes to my Dr. s and medical care. Dr. Kumar is the Dr. I trust the most with my rare liver mass.

I was referred to Dr. Kumar by a friend. I called twice and each time got a recording asking me to leave a message and stating that I would be called back within 24 hours. I was never called back, and it has now been 10 days since the second call.
When I was telling my friend about this in front of some other people, another person said that she had gone to Dr. Kumar and that she had found his staff to be very unresponsive. I’m going to get a referral to someone else.

My doctor prescribed a preventative colonoscopy and referred me to Dr. Kumar. I found him and his staff to be very attentive, accessible and helpful throughout all my interactions with them.
On my first visit, a nurse practitioner named Jesse explained the procedure, answered all my questions, and gave me detailed instructions. I used the Movi prep which required drinking half the volume (2 liters instead of 4)
On the day of the procedure I was greeted by a nurse who was so kind, (wish I could remember her name) but everyone there was extremely nice and did there best to make me feel comfortable. Once I was in the room with Dr. Kumar, he asked if I had any questions, and then it was over before you know it. No pain, whatsoever, and much easier than I imagined.

If you don’t mind talking to a laptop, visit Dr. Kumar. His laptop ends up being the «elephant in the room» while sitting in his lap and I never got the feeling he was listening to me, just filling in blanks on a screen. I was referred to his office by my family practitioner and rapidly got the feeling that his interest lay in getting me in for a Colonoscope procedure, rather than making a clinical diagnosis. In fact, I don’t remember him ever even touching me while I wasn’t under anesthesia. Once that came back negative only then did he look at my symptoms. IMHO it delayed getting a badly damaged gall bladder out for over a month and that was a very painful period…