Went in for a bi-annual exam and cleaning and good dental insurance. Left with $485 in charges.
My dental insurance is a bit better than most - while most plans make you wait at least six months between exams and cleanings, my plan covers both exams and cleanings twice a year at any time during the year. Before making an appointment with Wakefield Custom Dental, I did the normal due diligence on my end: I called ahead and made sure they took my insurance and doubled checked on my insurance's "find a dentist" portal and saw that they were listed as in-network.
After checking that they accept my insurance, I went in for a standard six-month cleaning and dental exam. There was nothing wrong with my teeth and no advanced procedures needed to be done. The people at the desk led me to believe that the procedures would be covered by insurance, as most bi-annual exams and cleanings are. But then they turned around and coded the procedures as really advanced / "comprehensive" procedures that insurance only covers once every five years. My insurance denied the payment and Wakefield Custom Dental sent me a huge bill: as shown in the picture, they charged $155 for an annual dental exam, $150 for a standard cleaning, and $180 for x-rays. Most importantly, no hint of these prices were communicated upfront (i.e. they did not give me an estimate that turned out to be too low, they led me to believe that the cost would be zero).
So I did the natural thing and called my dental insurance, asking what I should do next. My insurance company told me to get a copy of my dental records so that I can review them and see if they match up to the services that were billed. I called Wakefield Custom Dental to ask for a copy of my records and here's where the spiteful and dishonest side of these people came out:
(1) Regarding records, they said "no problem" and that they would get them to me by the "end of the week." More than a month after my request, they still did not send the records I had requested so I called back and the person on the phone completely changed their tune and said that they were not going to send me anything until I had paid my huge and ridiculously inflated bill. (Sounds reasonable in a vacuum but it is actually illegal under HIPAA to withhold medical or dental records because of an unpaid bill.)
(2) Regarding insurance, I told them that my insurance was pretty good and that they covered two cleanings and two exams per year, and that it was just this "comprehensive" thing that was only covered every five years so could they please just re-bill it as the thing that my insurance company covers twice a year? They said no because that would be "insurance fraud." Yeah right, medical practices and insurance companies down-code to lesser included services all the time. When you do a "comprehensive" exam, you still perform all the actions that are taken during a "routine" exam, you just do more stuff on top of that. How is it fraud to bill for a lesser included service?
(3) Regarding transparency in billing practices, their website used to advertise, "We will discuss the cost of your treatment and your payment options with you before any treatment begins." When I called asking about the bill, I pointed out that no one ever discussed the cost of treatment before starting the procedure, which was contrary to what was stated on their website. The person on the phone angrily replied that "medical estimates are never 100% accurate." I pointed out calmly that my problem was not that I was given an "inaccurate estimate" but that they told me there would be no cost for me at all, but the person on the phone just got more angry and defensive. The hilarious thing is, the same afternoon that this conversation took place, they changed their website to say, "We will help in giving you an estimate of cost at the time treatment is propsed as well as your payment options." (I am guessing that was meant to say "proposed" but the person was in such a hurry to take down the language about providing an estimate "before any treatment begins" that they didn't bother to proofread.) I think the mere fact that they so hastily changed their website the same afternoon that I pointed out their contradictory practices is another data point about the kind of dishonest attitude these people have.
Don't just take my word for it. Joe D. who reviewed this place in 2018 had a good take on these people. They are as "money hungry" and dishonest as he described. There are at least three other dentists within a block of this practice and I highly recommend taking your business elsewhere. read more