David S. Paplow, MD

I have been a longtime patient at Virginia Mason Medical Center. While I find the medical care acceptable, the billing practices are designed to make VMMC money. I am a healthy person, no medical conditions that need followup, except that I need to take medications for hypertension. VMMC is a preferred contract provider. Every year I go in for the annual preventative health exam, and prescriptions are renewed. Then I return the next year. This year VMMC turned my annual preventative visit into a "medical" visit, with a charge for this, because they wrote me prescriptions for BP meds. It appears to me that VMMC is on a financial quest, money above all else, and have abandoned their ethics. If I had complications due to hypertension I could understand the medical charge. But normal BP reading and a healthy individual ? I take BP meds to remain healthy, like many others. I tried to challenge the billing but VMMC won't budge. Appears they value money above all else. For this reason, I recommended you avoid VMMM.