If you want to be scammed, visit this place.
Our first visit was fine, just a consult with a follow up appointment scheduled for 6 months later. At the follow up, we were given a plan of care and an estimate because the work would not be covered by our insurance. We returned a month later and the plan of care changed completely, but we were assured the cost would not change and again were told insurance would not cover the work being done. I asked at least 3 times during this appointment about the cost and each time was told the cost would not be affected by the change in the plan of care. We paid a down-payment at this appointment and requested the contract with the quoted estimate. They could not produce the contract for us at that time. So now our 8 year old son had braces on his teeth, most of which are still his baby teeth and no contract. Three weeks later, one of his brackets came off his tooth. We scheduled an appointment to repair the unattached bracket. My husband took our son to this appointment. They removed the bracket and did no other work. But they did give us the contract we requested with a quote nearly $4,000 more than the original quote for the work! They did not give or offer my husband a copy of the contract. The following week was our scheduled follow up appointment. We showed up and the door was locked. I was livid. I called the following Monday to reschedule and the office manager was defensive about their error. She claimed that all the work had been done the previous week when we went in for the bracket removal and that is why they canceled the appointment. When I told her it had not been done, she became more defensive. When I finally convinced her that no other work had been done, we were able to reschedule the missed appointment. I also requested a copy of the contract from the previous week and she stated she offered my husband a copy and he declined it. I then called our insurance company about the large disparity in the estimated costs and the poor customer service from this provider. I filed a complaint with them. Our next visit, the orthodontist himself was confrontational with me because of the call to the insurance company. He adjusted the estimate on the paperwork and we signed the new contract. The next week, I received a call from the office manager that they were refunding us the money we had paid, but with no explanation. So I called the insurance company to ask what this could be about. I was told that braces are covered one time and that the orthodontist had failed to file a claim and had been advised to do so. I was surprised then when I received a denial letter from the insurance two weeks later. I called to inquire about it and was told that they had been trying to reach the orthodontist via telephone so their doctor could have a peer-to-peer conversation with him regarding the medical necessity of the work being done. The insurance company asked me to call the orthodontist to request he call them back. So I did. And I was told I needed to bring my son in for an appointment. So we did, with the denial letter. The orthodontist told me I would have "to file the appeal with the insurance and have it denied again" so that he could begin to bill me privately. This didn't sound right to me and I was back on the phone with our insurance company. I told them all that had transpired. The insurance rep told me that the orthodontist should be the one filing the appeal and she said multiple times "I don't know why he isn't following procedures". I asked if it was because he could make more money billing us privately than filing an insurance claim. She could not answer that but she did recommend that we seek a consultation with another orthodontist and file an official complaint against Smile Arc. We had our consultation with the new orthodontist who was surprised to see braces on a child so young and stated he did not understand what was trying to be accomplished with them. I do not recommend Smile Arc even a little bit. The techs who work with the patients are great but the office manager and the doctor are confrontational and, from our experience, unethical. read more
