We filed a complaint against Dr. Ruth A. Rassel with the California Board of Medical Examiners for performing an unnecessary surgery and for unscrupulous billing practices. On 02/12/2013, our adult son went into the emergency room at Northbay Medical Center in Fairfield, California, complaining of abdominal pain. He specifically asked Dr. Rassel if the problem might be gluten intolerance. She discounted this and performed an appendectomy. It turned out that the appendix was fine, and a simple blood test later revealed that he was, in fact, gluten intolerant. For the unscrupulous billing practices we received several bills which we paid, and for each bill she showed an amount written off of $1,821.43. The bills came from Acute Care Surgery Medical Group, Inc. of San Diego. Then, 13 months after the surgery, we received a bill which reinstated this amount of $1,821.43 and demanded payment in full. We went to Northbay because they were a PPO under our plan, but Dr. Rassel was not and has charged us full price for her services. We thought the amount written off might have been her adjustment, at least that is what she led us to believe for several bills. We eventually paid this amount under protest, and then 16 months after the surgery, we received another bill for $395.99 for which she had never before demanded payment. Who knows what is coming next. Then we recently received a collection notice from Trinity Hope Associates requesting payment of the $1,821.43 even though we paid it three months ago. Unfortunately, the Board of Medical Examiners is only looking into the unnecessary surgery but not the unscrupulous billing practices.