Dr. Cynthia Cheng, MD

Responding to Mr. Blass's review-- While your opinion is 100% your own sir, please be accurate with your information. Dear all--If Mr. Blass was being honest, he would have mentioned that I DID grant his request to get a 30 day extension on his medication, giving him time to make his annual appointment--not "flat out refused" as in his review. He also forgot to mention that he described my asking him to come in for his annual physical and labwork to make sure that he can safely continue to take his medication as "extortion." So dear everyone, please take his review with a grain of salt. Thanks for the opportunity to respond to this--see review from very satisfied patient, below his. That patient has been and still is my patient, for years. So yes, dear readers, there are two sides to every story. Good luck with your new doctor, Mr. Blass.
Feb 4th, 2021

I see and have seen a lot of doctors, thanks to a chronic condition. While she bristles at being characterized as a prescription refill service, that's exactly what I need my general practitioner to do - ensure that I have access to the handful of meds which will likely be lifelong crutches for me, and whose absence serves as a habitual reminder that I can absolutely not have any coverage gaps. Yet with Dr. Cheng, those gaps are as predictable as they are annoying. You see, Dr. Cheng will issue you a year's worth of refills for the long-term medication you're on, but at the end of that year, will flat out refuse to provide more scripts without a an in-office appointment. The patient is never notified by her office that refills have been suspended; they need to figure it out for themselves by way of yet another phone call. It would be sensational to call this extortion, but it does certainly feel like being exploited to ensure compliance. It would be absolutely no skin off the doctor's nose to provide a friendly reminder that refills would soon require an appointment. Yet that's never been a possibility in my 4 years there; instead, the pharmacy's multiple refill requests go unaddressed, forcing you to call the office in a panic and take their earliest possible appointment. Sometime you'll get lucky and receive a script with no prompting at all, but more often than not, they know you're out of a med but wait for your call. I expect more from my doctors, even the once-a-year-ones, So if you're familiar with any good practices in Center City Philly, I'm all ears. Even if it's only once a year, it's not fair to make me wait days to fill a mission-critical medication. I deserve better, and I am going to find better. I suggest you do the same.
Sep 2nd, 2020

Responding to Mr. Blass's poor review: I do not know of any medical practitioner who cares about patient health and safety that does not require an in-person physical and lab work yearly before refilling prescriptions, even long-standing ones. Yes, it's somewhat of a hassle and inconvenience, but I make that next yearly appointment every time when I leave my prior year's appointment because I know that every prescription med has the capability to cause organ damage over time, especially those being used for extended periods. NOT requiring a yearly physical and labs to check the function of those organs before renewing meds for another entire year is akin to malpractice. I also don't know of any physician's office that will track your prescriptions and notify you when they are about to run out. This is practically impossible with patients seeing multiple specialists, insurance changes, and pharmacy changes; not to mention that as an adult, I am quite capable of being responsible for tracking my own prescriptions and making sure they don't run out by not waiting until the last minute and expecting my doctor to scramble to cover for my own irresponsibility (see above comment about making next year's physical appointment when leaving the office from the current year's visit). My health is important enough to me that I will plan ahead and schedule appointments in advance to make sure there is no interruption in my healthcare and medication regime, as this is MY responsibility. If yours is not important enough to you to do those simple planning/scheduling tasks, your poor planning is not the fault of your doctor and laying the blame on her is rather pathetic. I wish you luck finding a doctor who will find your complaints valid, refill prescriptions immediately without checking labs and a physical, and let you (unsafely) direct your own care- which you seem to not understand fully. May your wish be your doctor's command, as well as any negative health consequences that may come of such an unsafe physician-patient relationship.
Aug 19th, 2020

I have been around the block ~ medically speaking ~ especially with general practitioners [who I refer to as "docs of all specialties, but masters of none!"]. Anyway... Needless to say, I had lost faith in ever finding the right doc for what I consider, the simple things, flu shots, basic aches, fevers, etc. Plus, with my HMO plan, a PCP was a MUST, since I couldn't see my BDF's -- my specialists -- without referrals. So, I gave Jefferson Family Medicine another try. Since ALL of my docs are JEFFERSON docs, it would only make sense to keep it all in the family. Then came Dr. Cynthia Cheng ~ my PCP luvesaver. She is THE BEST for many reasons, which, to me, are the most valuable of all. She knows when to send you to a specialist and gets tests ordered without the "wait and see" attitude of sadist docs around town. She is sympathetic and knows that I know my body and my crazy medical history better than anyone, so she respects my opinion on what I think is going on inside Mt. Sharon! I hope she NEVER leaves. I adore her. She's a sweet lady, too. The ONLY flaw is she is a bit tough to get in touch with for my Rx refills ~ which is, sometimes, a BIG iffy flaw ~ but, I will hold off taking a away for another week!!! JFMA is a great group ~ including the entire medical and administrative staff. SO GOOD!
Nov 22nd, 2016