Northwestern Medicine Primary Care Lincoln Square

I had excellent care here. Since my provider was booked out a few months and I needed to have something urgent looked at, the nurse scheduled me at this location. The doctor looked very young but he really knew his stuff. He looked into possible underlying issues rather than simply refer me for a scan. His PA or nurse was also very kind and helpful. Wonderful bedside manner overall by the primary care providers.

Had to get stitches out 2 weeks post op and Northwestern main campus said to go to a walk-in clinic close to home. This was a block away. We had gone down to Irving Park Road location the day before and there was an hour wait with a lot of sick people in waiting room. Here there was no wait they took me right back and an Advanced Practice Nurse removed my stitches. It was quick and easy. The location was spotless and staff were super nice.

As I am in the middle of talking about the reasons for my visit, I am interrupted by the nurse to have the billing practice explained. Apparently, Northwestern insists I have an individual appointment per issue. I would like to emphasis that the Northwestern standard of care is to interrupt their patients to talk about money first. I have been a patient at Northwestern for over a decade, you already have my credit card. Why am I being interrupted? They apparently are no longer in the business of caring for their patients.

Northwestern is usually very on top of things, but it's been very disappointing how long it has taken this location to staff this location with providers. After my primary doctor moved to the suburbs, I was informed that the only remaining provider at this location would soon be going on maternity leave. This was last fall. They advised me to call back after the first of the year, and once I did, they informed me that there were still no available appointments for this location. After checking around the other NW locations, many other doctors were fully booked out through 2026. I now have to delay my care up to 5-6 months after when I was originally planning to be seen.

While I received excellent care at this location, after one appointment, I will never be going back based on Northwestern's predatory billing practices. For that one appointment, I was charged a copay, a lab fee, AND charged again for my doctor to look at the lab results and tell me everything looked normal. That means that my $35 copay ended up being more than $80 with all fees included, with no ability for me to say, "Actually, I don't need my doctor to tell me my labs looked normal, I can just read them myself." This is why the American public doesn't trust the medical field, and Northwestern is definitely a part of that. I'll be looking for a new primary care provider, which is a shame, but just because you need to get as much as possible from my insurance should lead to me being charged so much for an appointment that lasted 20 minutes. It would be unheard of in any other industry.