LifeStance Health

Brian Howard is a monster that is allowed to continue to ruin lives. I have serious concerns regarding the conduct and professionalism of this provider.

He frequently prescribes medication without a clear understanding of my medical history or current condition, often appearing to make decisions without adequate evaluation. He consistently misremembers important details, is late to nearly every appointment, and tends to end sessions abruptly with little engagement. When I attempt to communicate concerns, particularly when I'm experiencing negative reactions to medication, I often receive no response for over 10 days. When he does respond, his only recommendation is to 'go to the ER.' Additionally, he has made dismissive and inaccurate statements such as accusing me of misusing medication without any context or discussion.

Given this pattern of neglect and unprofessional behavior, I question how this provider is still in practice.

I strongly urge you to review this case and investigate further. Patients deserve competent, responsive, and ethical care; this experience has been the opposite.

For those who care about their mental and behavioral health, I urge you stay away from Lifestance. The providers themselves are capable.

The organization, in my opinion, is mercenary. In my opinion, the well being of the patient is a secondary concern behind making money. In my case, I had completed 5 appointments with a Lifestance provider, when the administrative office decided to pull the rug from out under me and decide that they were either not compensated enough or that they made a mistake (that I should pay for) when they originally decided that I satisfied their reimbursement criteria. Lifestance thereupon dropped me as a patient.

I urged them to accept traditional Medicare reimbursement so that I could continue as a patient. They would have none of that.

After all (in my opinion), there isn't enough money in that! This is a frightening example of the new model of behavioral healthcare where critical decision-making impacting the health and safety of patients is made by MBA's and not health care providers.

I was early for my appointment, paid my co-pay, and waited in the waiting area for over an hour. There was no staff at the front desk, and other patients were wondering where their counselors were.

A staff member informed me my counselor identified me as a no-show. My counselor never checked the waiting area, and I never left the waiting area. No staff followed up about this; it took over a week to get a hold of someone. They said they would put a 'credit' on my account, and I said I wanted my money refunded.

I also told them I had received two messages stating I'd be charged $50 for the no-show. Guess what happened?

I got drafted $50 the following day! So now they owe me $50, and I'll have to wait 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 weeks to get my money back.

Cigna portal to find a dr is how I found lifestance doctors; yet, i have now $5600 unpaid bills. I called lifestance billing and they said 'they see the issue now' - the doctors in question were "contractors" and they will fix the issue.

Note: i have no doubt they will fix the issue, but I also believe with 100pc certainty that they would have happily accepted my $5600.

This has upset me so much, that as of today I have decided to start punishing providers for their billing departments complete and utter incompetence. It should not be my job to get them to work with their partnered in network insurance company.

Three appointments cancelled on me with three separate providers over the course of six weeks. I had to fill out the paperwork three times.

That's three times that I was in the waiting room waiting to hear from them for them to no show or cancel on me typically 10-15 minutes after the scheduled start time. The most recent one was the doctor calling me saying, "I don't know why they let me schedule with you, but I don't see children." So three times I wasn't able to get medication for my child, three times I missed work, three times she missed school. And this doesn't consider the hours I spent filling out the same forms again and again only for their system to lose them. I'm not convinced this is actually a company.

Whatever federal body oversees medical institutions needs to oversee this organization and make it no longer a danger to my children.

Rest assured if any harm comes to my child their grandchildren will need lawyers. I could not be more infuriated with their abject lack of anything resembling professionalism.