Bay Area Clinical Associates - BACA San Jose

If I could give 0 stars I would. I first came here with my son who had very severe ADHD, prior he was being seen for 2 years at Stanford Children's Psychiatry but the drive from San Jose to Palo Alto sometimes 2 times a week was getting to be a lot. Then I discovered BACA and they were literally walking distance to our house, I was so excited. I got him signed up and on the BACA wait list which was about 6 months. He started seening Hari Nare (can't remember spelling). This guy was a joke. The worst Dr we have ever encountered. After 3 or 4 sessions the Dr decided my son was too bad off and that he needed to go to a residential live in home. After that he immediately dropped my son as a client and refused to see him. No referrals for residential or nothing. Left my son high and dry with nothing. Luckily the special Ed director for my son's school district knows more than Dr Hari. She got my son into Esther B Clark and my son is now 17, graduated from high school and doing great. So a big middle finger to that Dr. who didnt care enough to help him. That is just the first complaint. My second complaint is that while I was being seen there myself I was taken advantage of and I wouldn't doubt if they do this to most/all of their clients. They like to use extra billing codes when they charge you. Dr. Smita Thakkar was billing me for 2 years with 2 codes. I didn't realize it until the last few months. The maximum any Psych appointment should be is $200-250. I literally have been seeing Dr's for the last 15 years with my son, daughter, and myself. Stanford charged $200. Smita charged me $396.90 + $226.01.....over $600 for a 10-15 minute phone appointment. When I asked her and challenged her about it she denied she was over charging me so I let her know I wouldn't be seeing her anymore. So what does she do? Charges me more! For my last appointment she charged me $498.21 + 259.16!!!!! I've tried contacting the founder and no response. I just called the billing department and let them know I won't be paying the almost $1000 bill. It can go to collections for all I care. This place is awful.

WARNING BUSINESS ‼️ I contacted them over two years ago on their website for interest in in-person sessions at their San Jose office. Someone wanted to talk to me on the phone. We spoke, and I quickly realised that the person who called me was in San Diego, and she said sessions would be telehealth. I said it would not work for my son. We ended the conversation - I believe it was less than 10 minutes. I don't quite remember, but it was apparent that the person quickly got my information during our short conversation - address, my husband's name, etc. Over two years later, we had a bill for nearly $600. Please be very careful when you make an initial conversation on the phone. You may be charged a high bill without realising it at that time. I am very shocked!!!

If I can give no star I would like to choose that. First, the psychiatrist was late for the call, and my child did not like the psychiatrist and can’t even continue talking with her on the video call. My child was called “patient” in the beginning of the call. Second, They did not have any fee information in the appointment schedule and you can’t find it in their website either. If you called, you will be directed to some registration because you are not a patient yet, but they will ask for over $500 payments after the first visit which is only a video call. So you can’t know how much the bill will be because you were not a patient, after you see them once then you are expected to pay $500 although you had no idea before. My insurance was listed in network with them in the BACA website but BACA tell me later that another party take care of mental health so they are out of network. So do I expect to pay over $500 for a 45 minutes phone call that my child would not talk to them and will not talk to them again? Third, they billed 2 CPT codes for the first call when other therapist only billed one. So yes, I think they deserve no star at all!

The bureaucratic part of the intake process is so frustrating; it nearly made me give up on them all together. However, I'm really glad that I didn't, because the clinicians I met are *very* good at what they do. BACA definitely deserves 5 stars. Also, they take insurance, which is not nearly as common as it should be in the area of youth mental health. Thank you, BACA!

One should be vary careful while registering with BACA. After collecting our personal information through their online registration, the provided link didn’t offer any available appointments, even till next year. After numerous attempts,when complained about it over the phone, their simple answer was that our website is having some technical issues and we don’t have any clinician available at present and you are most welcomed to check with other places.

Terrible customer service. The psychiatrist there don't know what they are doing so totally avoid going to BACA.

Everyone is friendly & professional. It's difficult to find mental health services for children, BACA does it all and does it well.

I miss here so much. Things got worst when I left IOP. I feel sad in my life now.😞💔