Incompetent and careless front desk - wasted three weeks of my time. I came in for an emergency visit, was seen by a nice doctor and they sent a pre-authorization for a root canal. For some reason, they sent it by mail (unlike electronically, like everyone else) and insisted it would take 3 weeks to hear back. After a week and a half, my insurance told me that if they just sent it electronically and labeled it as "emergency", I'd hear back after 48 hours. I communicated this to the front desk, but they sounded annoyed, and wouldn't lift a finger to help, and insisted I had to keep waiting. They refused to submit the pre-auth electronically or call insurance to speed up the process (even though insurance recommended this, and earlier, the receptionist herself said she would call.)
So, I went to a new dentist, who immediately filed an electronic pre-authorization, and heard back within a few days. The new dentist requested the full set of xrays, which Avant Garde Dental promised to send, twice -- but didn't actually send! This delayed the process by another week, until I called myself.
It's now been a month of phone calls to insurance and multiple offices -- while dealing with a tooth in bad shape! Had I gone to another dentist, I would've had an approval within a week. I think the front desk needs to remember that people who call them are having a very bad time, and telling someone with tooth pain to "just wait 3 weeks" is brutal, especially when they can help. The office is modern and nice, and the dentist who saw me was fine. But they wasted a month of my time with tooth pain. Beware. read more
