I went to this office today for a consultation. My experience with Doctor Chan was really great. He did not rush, was very thorough, and explained everything really clearly. He laid out his evaluation, treatment options, and his recommendation well. I felt really comfortable and had already decided to proceed with treatment in my mind until I experienced the front office staff...
I am writing this review to help others and also as feedback to the business because the way they handled their misunderstanding of my insurance was unhelpful, pushy, and condescending. I gave two stars due to the doctor only.
What happened:
I have MetLife dental insurance that can be verified with the insured person's name, date of birth, and employee ID. I have used this information without trouble at other dentists. I provided this information on the registration forms when I arrived.
In the middle of the consultation a woman from the front office came and told me a social security number was necessary to verify who the insurance belonged to. I told her that the employee id I had provided on the paperwork was sufficient to identify an individual, it was the only information I needed at my other dentist, and that we were not comfortable sharing a social security number. She assured me my social security number would be secure in the office, said she would go check though, and did not return again during the consult.
When I went to the front desk after the consult I was asked again for a social security number. When I repeated that I was uncomfortable sharing a social security number and I had not been required to share it with other dentists using this insurance I was told "they have special software that we do not have". One of the office staff then stated that if I did not give them a social I would be treated as a cash patient.
After a few minutes I was called back to a desk, presented with an estimate for services. I was handed a bill for $250 and the lady thrust a credit card machine toward me and asked me to pay when I was ready. I repeated to her that I had insurance and did not intend to pay out of pocket. I was then assured that once I later provided the information they needed to verify my insurance (again, a social security number) that I would be reimbursed by my insurance. I repeated, yet again, that I was not comfortable sharing it and I knew that it was not necessary so they would just have to bill me.
At this point the office person declared we were "in a pickle" and, to her credit, finally went into problem solving mode. Unfortunately, this is the part where most of the condescension occurred.
I shared with her the dental insurance card, which only had a group # on it, hoping it would help, but she was still focused on the social.
She told me that I probably hadn't changed dentists in over 10 years and that was why I had not needed to provide my social security number recently. Nope, I told her I have changed dentists twice in the last 5 years.
She assured me that, despite my belief otherwise, my other dentist had my social security number and asked if she could call and get it. Great, I said, please do.
With my authorization, she called and my dentist proceeded to provide her with the exact information I had already provided on the registration form - the employee id.
She then pulled up an interface on the computer, which I could see, that had an entry field for Social Security # or ID. She entered the employee ID and it worked. Great, PEBKAC solved! Insurance located!
However, the office person then proceeded to explain to me that 98% of people are fine with sharing their social security number and that a handful of security-conscious people are like me (WTF?). She surmised that I went through a special process to get a unique ID number to obfuscate the SS# and it had added a layer of complexity and caused confusion. I corrected her immediately and let her know that I had done no such thing, the ID is an employee ID given to every person in the company and it was just the standard way the insurance identifies the insured person.
Despite being happy the problem had been solved, I am not happy with the lack of humility or apology for the way I was treated when clearly there was an administrative unfamiliarity with the insurance, a miscommunication, and a lot of assumptions. I apologized on the way out, because I have a hard time with conflict, but I wish I hadn't.
I left there reeling from the false statements about "special software" and pretend statistics about individuals' comfort sharing their social security numbers. The characterization of my hesitance to share a social as rare and practically paranoid was also ridiculous. I am glad I pushed back against the aggressive "pay right now" tactics. Otherwise, I likely would have been out of pocket for a consultation my insurance covers.
Unfortunately, I won't have the pleasure of working with the wonderful doctor after this experience. read more