Caduceus Medical Group

I have been a patient there for many years, love Dr. Denicola, however, things have changed dramatically. Anna in billing discriminated against my son, she tried to deny allowing him to see the doctor because his insurance went from BCBS to cal optima when his father lost his job and our insurance changed… she kept saying «we aren’t accepting new patients» and I told her over and over that we are not new patients that only our insurance has changed. My son was there for high fever and diarrhea. unbelievable how inept and incompetent she is for a person supposedly in billing or insurance. I’m not really sure what her position is there but she should never have a job where she is in contact with patients or customer service. Discrimination is against the law Anna… shame on you. I’ll bet if we still had BCBS she would have no issues at all… unbelievable.

The issue isn’t as much with the doctors knowledge or capability. Honestly, this may be the worst business I’ve ever dealt with when simply trying to reach them. They NEVER pick up. And I mean never. It is leave a message only and that doesn’t work when you have medical needs. They are my primary physician too… but I’ll be making a change.

The two offices I have been in are decorated so fun and happy.
My first experience with the PA in Laguna was great she was hip, sweet, amazing bedside manner and very helpful!
Dr. Reyes in the Irvine office on other hand had zero bedside manor, I found him to be extremely condescending. I am pretty sure he didn’t listen to a word I said. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to ever trust him with any medical concerns.
Also they need some sort of a better appointment service I have called a caduceus office several times in the past month and have had a really hard time getting ahold of anyone.

Caduceus Medical Group is and will hopefully always be my favorite place to go for medical care and treatment. The first time I went here to the Laguna Beach office was in 2008. I normally see Jessica Vollebregt or Xandi Craig. Although not always promt, due to the high volume of patients they see, the office staff is always kind and very efficient at taking care of my needs within the same business day. On a regular basis I take several different medications a few of which are schedule 2 and 3 medications. (pain medication and anti-​anxiety medicines) I have had poor experiences with other health care providers who have made me feel judged or scrutinized for requesting such medications, but never at Caduceus. Jessica V. has always been very kind, a great listener, and good at getting to the root of my medical issues. Sometimes that has been through personally helping me and if it has been something out of her power she has always promptly given me referrals to different doctors who specialize in that particular thing. I would never go to a different medical center by choice. I feel like I am part of a great family when I go into the offices of Caduceus as I am always treated well. A few of the staff names who have been very helpful to me other than Jessica V, and Xandi C. have been Kevin at the Laguna Beach office and Megan at Irvine as well as Michelle who helps me over the phone alot. Thanks Caduceus you’re the best! Keep up the great work!

This review relates to the Irvine Office of Caduceus Medical Group
The Yorba LInda office which I had been visiting is now repurposed as an Urgent Care facility. I was advised that my physical, Dr. Penkoff, is seeing patients in Irvine and Laguna Beach.
* I tried to make an appointment on the website for the Irvine office with Dr. Penkoff but he is not listed in the pulldown menu. .. so I could not make an appointment.
* I tried to make an appointment on the website for Laguna Beach, but it is «not available». .. so I could not make an appointment.
* I tried to make an appointment yesterday (Friday 2÷12÷16) via telephone at the Irvine office but could never get through. I wanted to keep holding, but it was not an option with the system and I was directed to leave a message. The message said that I would receive a return call the same business day. As of the time of this writing, I have received no call and, as such, have no appointment.

Dr DeNicola is an amazing physician and it’s a privilege to see him as a patient. He’s very good at skin procedures and he’s a pleasure to talk to. The support staff is also very knowledgable and care a lot about their patients. I’m always happy to see Cari and Katie.

I first went to Caduceus to start my immunizations for a trip and to get refills for prescriptions that I had from another doctor when I lived in another
has been nothing but an almost comedy of errors since day one. First time I went, I was told the Hep A shot was going to be either $ 30 or $ 4o. I come out to pay and the girl behind the counter, the one that told me the price before I went in says «oops, that price was for a child’s shot. Yours is $ 130, (or $ 140, which ever one). Ok now that’s a $ 100 mistake on her part but I pay it and carry on.
I’m not sure how many months went by but I needed a refill of pain medication (this was not the only medication that I take) They have me come pick up the rx, which was to be ready no later than 2:00 at 5:45. I ended up waiting 45 minutes because they never had the doctor write it.
I take the rx to the pharmacy and apparently the doctor didn’t write it correctly. It was 11 days, about 10 phone calls and talking to at least 5 different people and a ton of emails with my «advocate» before they got it figured out. I still don’t know what really happened but that was beyond stupid of them.
The next time I needed a refill, instead of saying, hey, the original person that prescribed the pain meds to you is gone you need to come back in, I just kept getting this crazy run around. I kid you not, I had TWO appointments in a row that I showed up for only to have the same girl sitting behind the counter with that dumb blank stare in her eyes, looking at her computer screen, back and me… she says «I don’t have you down as an appointment and I don’t have anyone here to give you a shot but if I could give it to you I would (this was to be part 2 of that Hep A shot). FINALLY, I get an appointment at the Laguna office for my pain meds and I was supposed to see someone named Kevin and I ended up seeing someone else. She was nice and all (forget her name) but seriously, at every single turn with this place was a complete disaster. And when you go to the website there’s a video that plays and it’s a blonde girl saying something about how great this place is run by doctors! Oh my gosh, get someone to manage that place is HORRIBLE.
I will be looking for a new doctor’s office and, as I should have done in the first place, look at Unilocal review. My bad for not doing that in the first place.
By the way, I have NO idea what the doctors are like at the Irvine office because I never actually seen one.
GO ELSE WHERE. DO NOT GO
was a complete HASSLE all around.

Ok, I do not want business owners to private message me for fear of harassment from other businesses which is why I had blocked that; that I will acknowledge. But however, I did not receive any calls recently from you guys. In the past before I started getting denied of pain meds, there was no trouble of Caduceus calling me before but now there «seems to be» to which I find doubtful which is why I had vented that frustration in my initial interview (my number’s still the same).
They keep claiming that they’ve tried to contact me but they have not. I’ve certainly tried to contact them by calling their receptionists 20+ times during the whole ordeal only to have them take my messages and haven’t spoken any of the central staff ever since that one Office Manager called me but didn’t really say much as said before in my initial review; they certainly had a chance to pick up the phone then. Once again, they had no trouble calling me before the ordeal (my phone definitely had no problem picking up their calls then) but ever since they denied me the meds as they claimed to have tried to contact me, my phone never picked any of their calls (looking at my phone log now). But then again, I’d rather not continue to communicate further as I’m done with Caduceus as I’ve moved on with my treatment.
Really? All I was told was that «there are these laws» (just a few sentences barely touching the surface) that prevented my Caduceus PCP from giving me the refill; that would certainly be a very light, lenient example if that should be adequate enough of «informing me of the DEA guidelines» as said by their response). I was not shown any sort of documentation of guidelines by the DEA or even explained to by great detail of these exact guidelines as the responding message from Caduceus claims or implies to have. BTW, I did not encounter any of this difficulty from other medical groups. And yes, like I was honest with Caduceus, I too was honest with the other medical groups which is why they felt comfortable prescribing me with pain medication when I had left Caduceus, even during the time I had been wrongfully denied of a refill and was still with them (not including the time they wouldn’t even give me one more refill when I had actually agreed to see their PM that the appointment was more than a month away when I was completely out of my meds — I highly doubt that would be prohibited by the DEA guidelines and more so that they do not want to give me the medication even if it’s to last me till then; very unethical once again as the other choice, if I didn’t put my foot down to leave the group and stopped caring about their ridiculous pain contract I’ve certainly went out of my way to adhere to before, would have been to suffer for more than a month with withdrawal and chronic pain).
But back to the point: I was not adequately explained during my time at Caduceus why PM would have been a better option instead of the PCP providing me the medication; just a mere suggestion and at most, vocal «nudges». If I were better explained to why PM would have been a better option towards treating my pain, as better told by the doctors of the other medical groups, then there would have been a greater probability of me agreeing to see your guys’ PM doctor on better circumstances, but of course those are now hypotheticals.

I keep having difficulties dealing with this office.
I have been seeing different DRs in each of my visit and have had a good experience with Drs. I had no major health issue, just a regular checkup and they all seems very professional and helpful.
Although the office experience is pretty disappointing and frustrating. It is hard to talk to anyone in the office. They do not return the phone call for days. I have not been able to call once over the last year and talk to someone with the first call.
They almost never do the follow-​up. They are not returning my pharmacy phone call to make changes to the prescription. They don’t send the paperwork for pre-​authorization on time. Their office is either really under staff or they need to change something and pay more attention to patients.
The last issue: I saw them on Oct 7^th, today is Oct 19^th and I still do not have my prescription and also the pre-​authorization for PT done. The lady finally called form the office three days ago and she said, she will return pharmacy call. Still they have not. She also said, there is no note on my chart to get pre-​authorization for PT! After so many days! I have left couple messages since then again and waiting for someone to call me.

I keep hoping that my experiences with this place get better, right now… At this point after 4 or 5 appointments, I’d honestly feel more comfortable getting health care from a veterinarian…
I went in to have my out of control blood pressure checked, one of the symptoms I was experiencing was a rushing sound in my ears. I did get some BP medication, which helped, then a week later someone left a message on my phone asking if my earache was better yet…
I’ve been trying to get authorization for hand surgery (see picture) for 2 months. The situation now, is that the surgery has been approved and Caduceus has informed me that now it’s up to me to negotiate with the hospital in my own behalf.
I have no clue who to talk to or what to ask them if I was talking to them… Is there a price list for hand surgery or what? At this point I have no idea what to do or how to proceed. I’m left twisting in the wind with a hand that needs medical attention…
It just goes on and on…

No words can describe… when my GP asked me to have «NEW» eyes on my existing migraines, world ending headaches and exhaustion — I complete balked! What a fool I feel now. Dr Ali Elahi and his team at Caduceus Medical couldn’t have been a better place to send me. From start to finish — EXCELLENT ratings from me.
Dr Elahi is so efficient and thorough. Really asked questions and LISTENED to my every concern.
And his nurse LILY! Oh geeze forget about it! She is so warm and welcoming you will want to ask her for her phone number so you can be best friends forever! Seriously a great place to be with such excellent medical care and really loving and concerned team of staff!

I was very pleased that Dr. Denicola took the time to personally reach out to me and address the concerns that I had pointed out in my previous review.
I’ve been a patient of his for 10 years and I feel at ease that he was willing to listen to me and concerns. I look forward to visiting this practice for more years to come.
Thank you!

Needed an EKG done quickly to send to another doc, they got me in and got it done. Seem like very nice people too.

I have only gone there for my annual physical exams, I’ve been fairly healthy, so I’m not sure I’m a good benchmark case, but I’ve been very happy with the service, both Dr. DeNicola and the staff have been great. I love the option of Skype appointments, online detailed Lab results, the fact that I can leave Lab samples there on site, without having to go to some crapy place like quest diagnostics. Personally, i have not had any issues with waiting for too long. The only downside is that they don’t have a female Md. At the Irvine location, so women can feel a little less comfortable coming to the practice.

Be prepared to wait for a loooong time. A 1 hr lunch break during work is not a sufficient amount of time for a simple checkup. The chairs are also horribly uncomfortable (bad combination when you’re going to have to sit in them for an extended period of time). That being said, the staff are helpful when you do get to speak with them

Thank you to Dr Denicola and his staff. I absolutely love being able to use the website for «mouse calls». Dr gets back to me personally with my questions or concerns. His staff is really great too. Every time I go to the office I feel like the really care. Everything is so convenient. I wouldn’t go anywhere else.

It’s hard to think of my Nurse, Brenda and my Doctor, Scott Penkoff as people other than family. I’ve had several other manditory exams, doctors visits, and evaluations with other providers including the Vets Admin LB, SA, and LAG B, I have never felt like anything more than a number, probably just like most of the other veterans I know. I realize that working with veterans of the vietnam war was difficult, and I am certain that working with veterans like myself of both Iraq and Afghanistan that are polytrauma meaning more than 1 or 2 things that are causing issues in our lives, this can’t be easily done, this is definetly a challenge that Dr. Penkoff never showed me hesitancy or pause in doing everything that he could to try to improve my quality of life, and I have always enjoyed coming in to talk with his Nurse, Brenda who takes as much concern and interest in my medical care as any Doctor at previous facilities has mentioned. The bottom line is that today I came to see my Doctor and Nurse, notice that I said mine meaning they are like members of my team, not just medical professionals rather more like family to me because they have taken the kind of interest in helping me that you only get from people that really care about you. I don’t know them outside of my trips to their Irvine and Laguna location but there is just something special and unique about the way everyone from the office manager to the medical staff always takes a serious interest and care in making sure that they are doing absolutely everything in their power to provide sound medical judgement by reviewing the past medical records, which mine are like an encyclopedia and listening to me before writing me off. I feel so special when I come here, that doesn’t happen to often now adays, I almost wish I could come by more often, but I realize that their time is valuable and I want the rest of the locals that need help to have the opportunity to experience Cadeuces.

I saw Dr. DiNicola in March of this year for a general check up as a new patient. He was very nice and seemed to take his time. I have a condition that he is not familiar with, however I cannot fault him for that. If it were not for the issues I have had with this office, I could continue on as a patient, however, I am currently looking for another doctor.
Pros: Scheduling was easy and again, Dr. DiNicola seems like a good doctor, regardless of his limitations in regards to my condition. Also the office was very nice.
Cons: after finally having my blood work done, (it took their phlebotomists 3 tries on 3 different occasions and 3 separate offices…) I had not heard from them after a week. I finally called the Irvine office and the receptionist told me they were available on their website, which I could not access after several attempts on their part. Finally I called again and was told they could not send me a physical copy and that the doctor just wants me to start the Mediterranean Diet and come back in 17 weeks. I was a little taken aback just because if there were any concerns and especially diet ones my family doctor in Arizona would want me to come in and discuss them himself. I also have very strict dietary restrictions and can’t just start any diet program.
I ended up going over to the office that day to pick up my blood work myself. As I was looking over the results I noticed some markers I wanted to discuss with the doctor. The receptionist assured me that she would have him call me back either that day or the next day for sure. I am still waiting for that call 4 weeks later. I also had to cancel one appointment twice because they failed to do so the first time.
Because of all of this headache and zero follow through, I won’t be back.
ETA: This is in response to Dr. DiNicola’s reply. I absolutely did not receive any calls after the receptionist told me I would get one in regards to my lab work. The calls you have on file are from your offices calling me prior to this to remind me about a follow up appointment. The only mail I received from your office was, again, only a reminder to come in for a follow up.
I didn’t come to your office for a diagnosis, just a check up. When I told you I had topical steroid withdrawal, you clearly stated that you had never heard of it before, then tried telling me I had something else. Again, not looking for a diagnosis from you because I already see a specialist about my condition in Beverly Hills. So no, you are not familiar with my condition, and my review stands accurate.

I love the staff at Caduceus Irvine. They are very friendly and knowledgeable. They are also relentless. One time Christina was trying to reach me regarding two specialist referrals. I kept forgetting to call her back but she never stopped calling me. After a dozen or so voicemails. I felt so bad that I finally called her back! She is not only persistent but very kind as well.

It’s hard to be enthusiastic about a doctors visit, especially if you aren’t visiting Jeff Goodall at Caduceus. He is the man. My wife and mom have been on my case about finding a primary care doctor for years, before Jeff Goodall I never found a doctor that I felt like visiting again. I know have a primary care doctor.
Also, the office is clean and really well designed. Honestly, its a really cool office. The staff is super friendly and helpful.