I was a patient of Dr Olson's for nothing more than a new patient intake, and a subsequent cleaning. While the cleaning was acceptable, ultimately I found his proposed treatment plan to be prohibitively expensive with some extraneous elements, and chose to utilize the services of a different dentist who more closely matched my needs.
My review concerns the incompetence of his office staff.
Not long after my November 2004 visit, and subsequent choice to not seek dental care from Dr Olson, I moved out of state. At the time, I had no billing responsibility to his office, as the visit was fully covered by my dental insurance.
Flash forward to 2009. I'm in the process of buying a house, have my credit reports pulled, and learn that Dr Olson's office sent me to collections in late 2005, for non-payment of a bill. At no time between November 2004 and today was I contacted by Dr Olson's office. Never received any billing statement, never received one phone call at the same cell number I've had since 2003. Never mind that fact that my mother, sister, and niece were all patients of Dr Olson throughout this time period, and a simple 'hey, have your son/brother give us a call' would have nipped this in the bud if they were experiencing difficulty reaching me.
Upon contacting Dr Olson's office to see exactly what had happened in 2004 that would result in being sent to collections, I was told by the office manager that they had attempted to contact me by phone and mail for several months after I moved out of state, regarding their failure to properly bill my visit. I was told that they had had a problem billing Delta Dental, and the charge to the insurance was refused, so it became my responsibility. She also told me that "they get all sorts of people who give any old dental insurance number" - implying that I had given them incorrect or otherwise suspect dental insurance information at the time of my visit.
I asked her to confirm what dental insurance info they had on me at that time, as I had Delta Dental of Washington. She replied that my 'file' reflected that I had Delta Dental of Minnesota, with a group # I had never seen/heard before. I advised her that I never had Delta Dental of Minnesota - only Delta Dental of WA, and that surely an error had been made - resulting in this cascade of events. I asked that their office contact the collection agency to have the debt removed, in light of this. She refused, and then advised me to pay off the collection agency, as there was nothing she could do, and she was "pretty sure that would get it off my credit report.".
Next, I called Delta Dental, who confirmed for me that I indeed had Delta Dental of Washington insurance in November 2004, and no, they had not received any billing or charges at any point during that time period. The Delta Dental rep advised me that they likely attempted to bill the wrong insurance, for an entirely different person, or my insurance information had been entered incorrectly into their billing system.
I then called Dr Olson's office back, advised their office manager of what I had confirmed with Delta Dental. I illustrated that in light of the fact that Dr Olson's office had improperly and incorrectly billed the wrong insurance number, through no fault of my own, it was only logical that she contact the collection agency in question (to whom they sold the debt in 2005 to 'get it off their books'), and have them remove or clear the debt as invalid.
The office manager would not agree to this, but said she would contact Delta Dental personally to verify my report, as clearly, my version of events still didn't hold water with her.
I called the collection agency in question, had a surprisingly caring and understanding representative listen to the story, and she agreed to get in touch with the dentist's office, despite their policy to not do so.
Flash forward to the following week, and the office manager left a me a voicemail, letting me know that she had 'talked things over with the dentist, and that they were going to go ahead and take care of this for me." End of story. No apology.
I follow-up call to the collection agency confirmed that the debt had been invalidated, and that they would be removing the dent on my credit report within 30 days.
While the end result was positive, and the ding on my credit report was removed, the entire experience with Dr Olson's office management personnel was exceptionally poor.
Implying that I defrauded their office by providing a bogus insurance number? Check.
Inflexible and adamant that I still pay the collection amount, despite concrete proof that they had screwed up? Check.
No apology offered when her employer agreed that a mistake had been made, and a former patient's credit report had been adversely affected? Check.
While Dr Olson, according to my family members, is a capable dentist, his support team is not. read more
