Apolinar F Gacote MD

"If you have a chance and have a different office doctor do it, the lady that works there is so rude; I can't believe they have people like her working in the medical field; I just cried my eyes out. She made me feel so bad the only thing I asked her was if they doctor could give me the reference for my ob-gyn. I called the day before, and they told me to go the next day. I end up changing doctors."

"The doctor is a nice man that means well, but there is a overwhelming sense of lack of real care for the patients, he is knowledgeable in his work. The real issue is the staff that works along side him, most are learning interns which is okay, its just the true front desk staff that is a pain. The wife of the doctor that usually is in the front IS EXTREMELY rude, the way she has spoken to me and my mother is TRULY unprofessional, demeaning and unfit for any establishment, more-so a medical one. I would choose someone else if I were you."

"My mom's been sering dr gacote for soooo many years, his a nice doctor; but his wife who runs the front office is sooo unprofessional even hang up the phone while im still having conversation with her. My mom is almost out of her meds. Normally when you go for an office visit with your primary doctor, automatically your choice of drugstore will automatically recieve refills for your on going meds. But not in this office. The wife will give you the hardest time to get any refills, even if it is for maintenace, that could eventually not be good for the patient. Starting next year will be looking for a different practice. They should closed this practice."

"My Mom’s been seeing Dr. Gacote since 2017/2018. Dr. Gacote is not far the best but we considered him because my sister is friends with his sister. Dr. Gacote is nice but not his rude and unprofessional wife who manage his clinic. Every time I take my Mom for her appointment, we see new staff and always in training and not sure what they are doing. We had a lot of bad experiences especially their negligence of refilling my mom’s medications from Rite Aide. Even the pharmacy informed us how the clinic does not respond to their request accordingly. Marissa always wanted my mom to see Dr. Gacote in order to approve the refill so that they could bill insurance for that visit. Yesterday, I took my mom to see Dr. Gacote just to read the blood results they requested and after seeing the Focuor, the front desk asked my mom to pay for $198 deductible that wasn’t collected last 2020. So my Mom called me to go inside the clinic to clarify why she’s being asked to pay when she never pay any copays or deductible since she have seen the Doctor. So I asked Marissa and she’s aware I’m recording her so I have proof of the conversation. She’s been speaking to me in tagalog so her staff won’t understand and another patient waiting at the lobby. She admitted that her previous staff’s fault from not disclosing and collecting copay/deductible last year 2020. And so I told her, we will not pay until I verify with the insurance and not our fault again that Dr. Gacote saw my mom again without explaining disclosure. They told my mom after she saw the doctor. Seems like they are used to scam elderly by asking to pay after the visit and without explanation of benefits. Marissa got mad at me when I told her it was not our fault if her staff didn’t do her job to explain and collect copay/deductible last year. And it is not right to collect now for the previous year, and I specified it was the clinic’s negligence. And soon as she heard that, she yelled at me and asked me I was rude and that she should have not spoken to me about it because I’m not the patient. But my mom was next to me and all her 3 staff was there along with a patient waiting at the lobby. She continued to yell at me and asked me to leave the clinic and she will just talk to my mom instead. But I had my mom come with me. We went out and she still kept yelling at us outside that we are rude and she stated that my mom should’ve not been seen at their office because she only have medical and Medicare. I feel bad for all the elderly patients that have to go through with the rudeness of Marissa and the unprofessional to yell at patients when their being caught by their dirty practice. I am looking into finding my mom a better and decent clinic that will really take Care of patients and not their pockets."

"He's a really nice man and he means well and tries his best. He is sweet and earnest even if his wife is difficult to deal with but he does try his best. Only problem is that he has many unintentional gender based biases which ended up being detrimental to the care I was able to get from him. His earnest nature caused me to stay with him much longer than I should have. When I was expressing the symptoms of a rare heart disorder he insisted it was anxiety, until I stoped bringing it up because I was seeing a cardiologist, when I was loosing weight unintentionally despite eating more (I dropped down from 94 lbs to 89 lbs and was skin and bones) he told me not to worry unless I dropped into the 70's. I'm pretty sure if I were to get down to 79lbs I'd be dead or close to it. When some unknown thing was causing me to throw up frequently and I asked for a referral to gastro or the guy doctor he said "so you're bulimic" and told me to follow up with psych. I don't want to hurt his feelings as he's a kind person but I also think it is important to be truthful and let others know what they may be getting with him. If you're reading this Dr. Gacote I'm sorry you are a nice man and could have been a fantastic doctor for me but you've got gender biases that impede your ability to be a good doctor to women. If you do read this I hope rather than be hurt you try to think about what biases you have so you can better see patients and truly listen to what they have to say. Thank you for being my doctor for two years I wish you the best."