Without telling me beforehand he charged $1680 for a 4-quad scaling, my insurance company paid 80% of standard charge of $500 leaving me with a bill of $1255, when my friend had the same procedure for $75 (her dentist charged the standard rate of $500). Then he refused to work with payments. His receptionist called at work, told me the minimum payment of $30/mo on the $700 left that I had set up wasn't enough to keep out of collections. When I asked what minimum she would accept she put me on hold. I waited for 15 minutes (at work, with work to do, may I add) until I finally hung up.
I am filing a complaint with the NYS dentistry board. It is one thing to be expensive and say so up front, but they knew how *much* more it would be and didn't say so. At the end of the 4th procedure the receptionist said, "oh, the insurance won't cover everything, why don't you pay $500 now and I'll send a bill for the rest." Stunned and caught of guard, I paid that $500 on credit then. I was completely floored when I got the remaining $700+ bill. I had asked her before hand if the insurance coverd it and she had something along the lines of, "yes, but of course you'll have to pay a little more." I(That might not be verbatim, but it was the feel of her comment.) She actually knew I'd owe a *lot* more than the insurance would cover before I had the procedure, but didn't tell me until after. I'm certain they know I would choose $75 over $1280, regardless of how good a dentist they thought I would find him.
In short, I feel really cheated. I feel frustrated, sick of being in a culture where I have to be constantly on guard even when dealing with seemingly sweet people, and really really cheated. I've tried to discus the bill with them. They just act dumb when I mention other people paying much (much!) less and when I mention that the ethical thing would have been to tell me before hand. Then they tell me, very politely, they are sending mine to collections.
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