Update: The dentist's office called and apologized for the experience I had. They said they found the check today, Nov 9th, the check was dated Sept. 15th. The insurance originally said it had been cashed. But my insurance called today and told me it actually hadn't been cashed.
I've never had to work so hard to give someone money. The customer service here is abysmal. I had a cleaning on Aug 30th and had a filling done on Sept 7th and they were mediocre at best. The dentist did something that made the filling more expensive but didn't explain what it was or why it was necessary. Before the filling I was told I would probably owe $10. Afterwards, I was told I would owe around $28 and ultimately it cost $42 after insurance.
I never received a bill for the cleaning or filling. I called Ellis Dentistry on Oct 10th (over a month after both services) and asked what I owed, I was told I owed $59 for the cleaning but my insurance told me I owed $30. I was worried about being charged interest but was assured that it wouldn't be an issue. The person I talked to said they would have the insurance coordinator call me that day but I never received a call.
I called my insurance and they confirmed that I only owed $30, they called the dentist with me on the line and the front desk person said they would get the insurance coordinator. The insurance rep and I sat on hold for 20 minutes but the insurance coordinator never answered. I tried again the next day, I called twice the morning of Oct 11th - no answer. I called two more times in the afternoon - no answer. I called one last time that afternoon and the insurance coordinator finally answered. She confirmed that I only owed $30 for the cleaning. She told me they hadn't received payment for the filling yet, and that I would owe around $28 for the filling. She also confirmed that I wouldn't owe interest if I waited and paid for everything together once the insurance payment was received.
Three weeks went by, still no bill. I called on Oct 31st and spoke with the insurance coordinator again and she said they still hadn't received payment from the insurance. She said it could take up to 60 days to receive payment but she didn't bother to double check if the payment had actually been received.
After being told twice that I wouldn't have to pay interest I received a bill on Nov 5th with interest charges and the full amount for the filling ($281).
I called my insurance on Nov 7th and they told me they had sent a check on Sept 15th. Since the dentist's office didn't seem to be able to find record of the payment I took time off work to hand deliver an EOB to them.
At the office, the insurance coordinator told me she couldn't zero out my account and that the office manager would have to do it the next day. I paid my portion and she printed out an account statement and wrote a note on it clarifying that insurance would take care of the balance. After she handed it to me I pointed out that it had the wrong amount on it and she admitted that she had given me someone else's account record, which seemed inappropriate. After she printed the correct statement, I ended up going back to the office twice before leaving the building to resolve other errors.
After I received the zeroed out account statement the next day they thanked me for my patience while they "worked" with my insurance company, but they didn't work with my insurance company, I worked with my insurance company, and got my insurance company to call them, twice.
Even though they removed the interest on the bill, the amount of time and energy wasted on this was ridiculous. Again, I've never had to work so hard to give someone money. read more
