Beware - horrible experience
I paid $75 for a virtual consultation with Urgent Care Colombia after a week of stomach illness. After the visit, the provider ordered a stool sample, and suggested an at home $180 IV add-on, which I declined. I was contacted by a representative via WhatsApp and quoted an extra $50 to use their internal lab for a stool sample. I said I would use their lab and was told to get a stool collection cup. When local pharmacies lacked sample cups, I informed them that I had found a lab nearby (Laboratorio Médico Echavarría) and would use them instead, thinking I only needed a stool sample for the doctor to decide the next step. They stopped responding to my messages. After I paid out-of-pocket at Echavarría, the representative informed me that there would be an additional $50 "review fee" to read outside results—a charge never previously disclosed. I have never had a doctor charge an additional fee to interpret lab results that they ordered. When I questioned the surprise fee, the representative dropped all professional standards, became hostile, called me names, and said he would fully refund my $75. But then, minutes later, I guess because I was not grateful enough, he stopped putting everything in writing and send me a nasty audio voice note explicitly reneging on that promise, saying, “You know what, I’m going to keep your money now” specifically because of my "attitude" for pushing back on hidden fees, adding: "We don't need attitudes from our patients... so, yeah, I wish you the best of luck." He told me I could dispute with my credit card. I have never experienced such an unprofessional and nasty attitude from a medical “professional”. I was sick, exhausted, and in a foreign country trying to navigate an unfamiliar medical system. Instead of helping me, I was berated, called names, treated unprofessionally and told they didn’t need people like me, simply because I questioned their policies. Travelers and expats should be forewarned. Worst experience ever.
By RK