ComplaintsforHeritage Dental

• Initial Complaint

  12/15/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have been using Heritage Dental as my provider since 2020. I found them as part of my covered insurance and I asked them to double check that my insurance would cover all treatments, which at the time they confirmed. I went to them on several occasions. On 2021 I was informed that I needed to have cavities filled and I sat with the financial person for the dentist who went over my insurance coverage, and what would have been my co-pay given what was covered by the insurance. she informed me that the insurance will cover a percentage, and my co-pay would be of around $160. I made that payment on that day and schedule the appointment for my treatment on November 2021. On Dec 2022 I received a bill for $624.40 with no explanation. I called the company asking for further information given that I had not gone to their office in over a year. After looking into my case, the woman in charge of finance informed me that the payment was due to the fact that my insurance paid very little because it wasn't supposed to be covered and I was responsible for the rest and that she was willing to give it to me for half the price. She was unable to explain why they informed me over a year later, why this was not shared with me prior to getting the treatment even though I had been to their office on multiple occasions, and the reasoning behind the costs. She just said that it wasn't her and that if I refused to pay that she would make a note and is all she could do because I had the treatment and she would move it forward. I believe I am not responsible for this additional charge as 1) I was not properly informed of this and was mislead to believe the insurance would cover for the procedure. 2) I was contacted over 1 year later with no explanation. 3) they have no explanation as to why they didn't do their due diligence prior to the procedure. 4) They were negligent in informing the customer of all their information in a timely manner.

  Business response

  01/22/2023

  1/2/2023
  

  To The BBB,
  

  Good morning, this is the doctor and owner of the practice responding. Let me begin by saying I am deeply upset by this complaint from this patient. I have been practicing dentistry for 27 years and owned this solo practice for 19 years. I have never had a complaint to the BBB from anyone. If there ever has been a concern or complaint from a patient, or any dissatisfaction, I have offered to refund the money and/or redo the work. I never leave an interaction with a negative feeling. This is important to me and my customers. This entire business model for my practice has thrived on this model.
  
  I had reached out to this mentioned patient (I will keep her name out for privacy as I then expect my personal name will be as well) even before receiving this complaint. I had offered to remove her balance and in return I would deactivate her chart and send her records to a dentist of her choice. So, in fact this could have been easily resolved if she had given me a chance and written me a letter personally. I understand her frustration with dental insurance; The entire insurance industry is very overwhelming and confusing. There are hundreds and hundreds of dental insurance plans out there. We do our very best to help patients with their insurance and estimates of benefits. It is never a guarantee that the insurance company will pay what is expected. In my financial policy which all new patients sign, it explains this and that the patient is responsible for any monies for services rendered that are not paid by insurance. It is partially the patient responsibility to even know what type of insurance they have. At the beginning of the relationship with this patient, the chart reflects all the difficulties identifying this patient plan. You can see there were problems on her end, she had to go to her companies HR department as well. The dental work was done and done well. She claims my office was rude and I am sorry if she felt that way, but we told her that she had the services done and done correctly and payment was required. Now I am being asked to write off part of my already discounted fees (under insurance fee schedule she was given these reduced fees) and do not get paid this money for the services rendered. I am going to do this for this patient because it was my plan anyway before she jumped straight to the BBB.
  
  Thank You Kindly,
  
  Heritage Dental Owner

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