Woman hit with defamation lawsuit by doctor over negative Yelp review

Michelle Levine claims she was hit with the $1 million lawsuit after leaving a negative review for her doctor over a July 2017 visit. (Michelle Levine)

Yelp reviewers, beware.

A Manhattan woman who gave one-star reviews on Yelp and ZocDoc to a Kips Bay gynecologist has spent nearly $20,000 defending herself against a defamation suit filed by the physician, according to her and court papers.

And the litigation has only just started.

“I gave an honest review of my experience to warn others, and he is trying to silence me. It’s a nightmare,’’ Michelle Levine told The Post.

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Levine said she found Dr. Joon Song of New York Robotic Gynecology & Women’s Health online and went to him for a checkup in July 2017.

“A week later, he billed my insurance company $1,304.32 for the new-patient visit and ultrasound, and I got a bill for $427 that wasn’t covered,” she said.

“The annual was supposed to be free!”

Levine alleges in court filings that Joon never even gave her a manual pelvic exam, instead simply asking her about menstrual cramps and then performing an ultrasound.

Levine claims that Joon said he gave her pelvic and breast exams, even though he didn’t.

“When I called his office [to gripe], they were immediately aggressive and said I had come in complaining of pelvic pain,” which required the ultrasound, Levine said, denying she ever told them she had pelvic pain.

“I was so disgusted, I wrote a review on several sites, including Yelp, ZocDoc and Health Grades,” she said.

“Very poor and crooked business practice,” Levine wrote in the review. “I suspect that this doctor gives unnecessary procedure [sic] to a lot of people and then charges the insurance sky high prices and no one knows the difference.

“Everything about my one and only visit here has caused me emotional distress and panic, and now they want me to cough up an extra $500 for services I didn’t even need?”

Two weeks later, she got an email from the doctor’s lawyers, telling her she was being sued.

The $1 million suit touts Joon’s Yale University training and accuses Levine of false postings and online harassment.

“No reasonable person would believe that the statements made therein were opinion,’’ court papers say.

Levine said the court battle has so far cost her close to $20,000.

“They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits technology business into it … They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said.

Lawyers for Joon and the clinic did not return messages.

This report first appeared on NYPost.com.