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| - I am giving two stars versus one for the fact that the staff was friendly, even when they were hoping to play off the ignorance of a patient that they didn't realize has more than 20 years of insurance experience.
I found them through a look-up through my husband's insurance company's Web site. They were close. I called them up, and I spoke with Efren, who was very nice and professional. He took my information, although he struggled with my e-mail address. We set up an appointment the following day. It was a great first impression. I do want to add that Efren was supposed to e-mail or fax me the new-patient forms. I never received those through either media.
Driving up to the office gave me some reservations initially. The area is fine, but the office is in an old shopping plaza, the type you found back in the 80s if you were old enough to remember them. The building just looked old, dusty, and not well-kept. There were other shops there, so I guess it couldn't have been too bad.
When I went in, you can tell the inside is just as old, but you can also tell that the office really made strides to modernize everything. They have several flat-screen televisions, and the front-desk area was neat and modern-looking.
The check-in process was pretty straightforward, except I had to complete the paperwork onsite, which was unnecessary had I been sent the information beforehand. There was nothing odd on the pages, just standard HIPAA forms and patient demographics.
After the paperwork, I was called back in fewer than five minutes later. The dental assistant was nice enough, but she didn't strike me as the most professional person. When I was seated, she didn't tell me what to expect. The next thing I remember was her handing me mouth appliances so she could start the X-rays. Five minutes later, we were done, and she quickly told me that the doctor would be in--and then she disappeared.
The dentist was nice and very professional. You could tell he loves what he does, because he spent a good amount of time explaining to me some of the issues I had and how they could be resolved. I never felt rushed.
This was where everything went downhill. Efren drew up a treatment plan, which entailed a four-quadrant cleaning and one filling. My husband's benefits are fantastic. There should have been no cost, but Efren quoted me a 75.00 cost for the filling. I didn't think about it at the time; I just assented and scheduled an appointment for two days later.
When I got home, I looked at the paperwork and noticed that they were, in fact, charging me for the filling. My fee schedule indicates that fillings are at no cost. I called and spoke with Efren who said that he was working with the information he was given from Aetna. I sent him an SPD (plan description). He said he would follow up the next day to confirm any pricing changes.
Fast forward to the following day, I receive a call from him. He confirmed that filing was at no cost. He then stated that my only out-of-pocket cost would be for irrigation, which would be billed at 160.00. This was problematic and caused me to cancel my appointment with them on the spot. The reason was that they were clearly trying to take advantage of a patient because they thought I was ignorant about insurance. (Most don't, admittedly.) The treatment plan the prior day, without adjustments, would have cost me a TOTAL of 75.00, which was for the FILING. Today, when they realize they couldn't bill me for the filling, suddenly, a new fee was going to be applied--out of the blue. And suddenly, it's a mandatory fee--that they apparently forgot to discuss yesterday.
This is a prime example of why I tell people to know your benefits, especially when dealing with dentist offices. There aren't as many pricing controls for dentists as there are for medical doctors under contract. Dentist offices are notorious for padding treatment plans with services that they claim are mandatory but are the farthest from it. (Companies like Western Dental and Smile Care come to mind.)
This was unethical behavior, so obviously, I was not going to trust them sticking their money-grubbing fingers in my mouth. They can run their game on someone else with zero insurance experience, though I hope as many people as possible read this and other reviews to make an informed decision about their service.
They might want to take down their sign at the front desk asking for feedback on Yelp. As long as they're dishonest about their billing, they're going to continue to be excoriated on here.
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