Dr. Wallace Huff DDS

Review: While this complaint is not (yet) meant to be construed as anything but a billing problem, the backstory does involve some dental missteps that are required for the whole story about my billing complaint. Dr. Wallace Huff performed unnecessary dental work at least twice on the same tooth, following a misdiagnosis, before sending me to a specialist to fix the problem. I ultimately had Dr. Huff install a crown on that tooth, and was thus billed three times for his service to this tooth (twice for the initial work, and then a third time for follow-on work; not including the cost of the specialist to fix the problem). I had a verbal agreement with Huff's staff to allow me to pay the invoice slowly because of their misdiagnosis and because my insurance had lapsed during this time and I had to pay out of pocket. Over the past year I made several payments, including half down at the time of service. I communicated with the staff (specifically with [redacted]) about my situation, on several occasions when she seemingly forgot about our arrangement and threatened to report my invoice to collections. I sent two letters to Huff's office a few months ago documenting my dissatisfaction with their increasing pressure to collect on the invoice, and asking for additional time. I was baffled by their ability to forget about our arrangement and the underlying circumstances therein (misdiagnosis and charges, and my lack of insurance coverage). Nevertheless, Dr. Huff's office went ahead and reported my invoice to collections AND they added 30% upfee to my bill without first notifying me of this addition or the nature of this additional charge. In fact the bills that had been coming to my house prior to being reported to collections never included this additional fee (one of which arrived on the very day that I received notice from the collections agency). I called Huff's office to find out about the large discrepancy between their billing amount and the amount they reported to collections, only to be rudely dismissed by [redacted], who finally hung up on me. That was several weeks ago. Today I paid off the total amount to the collection agency that Huff reported to collections (including the 30% upfee) to keep it from hitting my report.Desired Settlement: I want Dr. Huff's office to reimburse me the extra fee that they added on to my base bill. This amount is $195.00. I only paid this additional amount in order to keep the invoice from moving forward in collections. If they wish to ignore my request I will consider moving ahead with a full demand of my entire payment back in lieu of the other underlying circumstances in which the bill was incurred in the first place. I may consider other options as well.

Business

Response:

We are sorry that you received a complaint about this practice. Due to the HIPPA laws I cannot disclose the personal information pertaining to this patient's dental record. I can tell you if the record was to be evaluated and reviewed by the American Dental Association, it would be found that all proper protocol was followed and documented for this patient's treatment here in this office.Mrs. [redacted] chief complaint was that she was required to pay for services rendered after she found out her that her insurance did not cover any of her treatment. Mrs. [redacted] received services 5/15/2014 and at that time she made her initial expected payment. We were informed 9/12/2014 by her insurance company that she was not eligible for coverage for the treatment she received 5/15/2014. Mrs. [redacted] was then informed and they remaining balance was expected to be paid.The first payment Mrs. [redacted] made on this remaining balance was 6/19/2015, over one year after initial treatment. No payment was received 8/2015, Mrs. [redacted] was called and asked when we would expect her next payment and Mrs. [redacted] hung up abruptly. It was decided that an outside collection agency was needed to help collect the balance on the account in light of Mrs. [redacted] payment history and attitude towards her responsibility in paying her very overdue balance. These actions taken were well within our rights as a business.Dr. Wallace Huff has been in practice since 1971 and has never had any complaints to the Revdex.com. Mrs. [redacted] received the utmost professional treatment from out office and was given more than a reasonable amount of time and patience to pay her bill.Regards,Wallace L. Huff, DDS

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to

complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not

resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed

appear below.

Without addressing the ill-informed responses that comprise Dr. Huff's letter

(e.g., that I hung up abruptly or that I had merely decided to not pay my bill

because insurance didn't pay), I will instead try to steer the focus to my

primary point and reason for submitting this complaint. I will not delve into aspects of claimed professionalism as this complaint is not primarily concerned with that matter.Contrary to Dr. Huff's assertion in his response letter, my chief complaint and dispute is not with

having to pay my bill, which I have never disputed, but rather my complaint is

with having been forced to pay an additional 195$ fee that

Dr. Huff's office arbitrarily tacked onto my balance when he and his office submitted it to a collections agency, and without disclosing to me the purpose of the fee, how they arrived at the amount of the fee nor their plan to ever include it. Huff and his office staff did not ever include any explanation of an extra fee

at any time before or after we agreed upon our payment terms and no fee was ever

reflected in any of the statements that the Huff office sent to me directly (see attached the last statement I received from the Huff office in September 2015, which was sent to my house after Huff sent the different amount to collections). They still have not provided any explanation of why this fee was added, and why they felt they were entitled to the arbitrary sum which represents a significant percentage of my bill. All of the billing statements that I received from Huff reflected a total

amount due of $585.00. The amount that Huff reported to the collection agency was$780.00. When I saw the discrepancy, I tried to reconcile it by attempting a civil discussion with Dr. Huff's office staff which was totally rebuffed. I spoke with

[redacted] (office manager?) who was not helpful, treated me very poorly, refused to answer my

questions, directed me to the collections agency and then abruptly hung up on

me. I got no explanation of whether the additional 195$ was a late fee, a

revenge fee or a just-because-I-can fee. Again, no past due fee in any amount

was ever documented in any of my statements from them and this fee thus came as

a complete surprise. I was forced to pay the full amount of 780$ directly to the collection agency. How did Huff/Huff's office even

arrive at this number of $195 as an additional charge? I have tried to puzzle

this out: Firstly, the percentage of my balance that this additional fee

represents is a staggering 33.33%, which is completely arbitrary. Secondly, a

late fee of 33% is an absurd overage to charge and I never would have agreed

to. Finally, I never agreed to pay any late (or other) fee of any amount, nor

did anyone in Huff’s office ever indicate that I would be required to do so.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that I

cannot get Huff’s office to forward my dental records to another dentist even

though I have requested them several times, by letter (June 2, 2015) and by

telephone (multiple times). The last time I called Huff’s office was

approximately two weeks ago to verify that my records had been sent, which they

assured me they had done the day before. However, when I called my new dentist

today, I was informed that they still have not received our records from Huff. Now,

it has been nearly 6 months since I first requested my records.

I do not appreciate the lies, and moreover cannot fathom how a respected

dentist can allow his office staff to hold records when a former patient has requested them over and over again, and to the detriment of his patient’s health. My

understanding is that medial practices (including dentists) are legally bound

to turn over patient records when requested, even if a payment remains due. I

have overpaid my balance due, yet still cannot get Dr. Huff to forward

my records.

My request, and the original intention of this

complaint, is that Dr. Huff refund to me the $195

late fee that he forced me to pay via collections. As I was informed by

that collections agency, had I not paid the full amount of 780$, any

delinquency up to that amount would have been reported to the credit bureau. Thus,

I had no choice but to pay the full 780$. I find this to be highly unethical

and possibly illegal. If Dr. Huff is concerned about having a mark on his

business record with the Revdex.com, perhaps he should consider replacing the staff

that makes interacting with his practice so distasteful.

Regards,

Business

Response:

The fee of $195.00 charged to the patient's account was charged by the collection agency. It is their fee to collect on the account. The patient was made aware of this. The patient's xrays were sent to the requested dental office. Our office and staff treated this patient with exception patience, kindness and respect. Sincerely,Wallace L. Huff, D.D.S.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

The fee of 195$ charged to my account was done so upon instruction by Dr. Huff's office staff. The 195$ was collected by the collections agency, along with the main billing amount of $585, and the total amount ($780) was sent directly to Dr. Huff. So, the $195 is in Dr. Huff's possession and is not a component of any additional fee independently charged by collections. I have verified this with the collections agency, for the third time. I urge Dr. Huff to do the same, AND to remit to me directly the fee of $195 that is now in his possession. Again, the collections agency that he uses does not attach any kind of additional fee of their own to the main payment, and does not charge the patient anything extra, as Dr. Huff would have you believe. For the record, when I learned of the enormous upcharge that appeared on my bill from the collections agency, I contacted collections and was informed that while they did add this extra fee, they did so on the instruction of Dr. Huff's office. The agency told me to call Huff to try to have this up-fee reversed. I then called his office and [redacted]e told me that they did not add the charge, but that the collections agency added it and that she ([redacted]e) knew nothing about it. She told me to contact collections again to straighten it out, and then hung up on me. As it turns out, this was a lie. I contacted the agency and was again told that they added it per Huff's instruction and that it would be sent to Dr. Huff. Since I had no choice but to pay the entire amount or have the $195 remain in collections, I did so, then started this complaint with Revdex.com and continued to investigate. I contacted the collections agency yet again, and was again assured that they themselves did not independently or otherwise add on this $195 fee, and that they did indeed send Dr. Huff the entire $780. Thus, I remain in demand of my $195 fee back. If I do not receive it by November 30, I will explore legal measures to collect.Also, it seems as though only some of the x-rays have been forwarded to my new dentist. I need Huff to verify that all x-rays (full and partials/wings, etc for all of us) to the new dental office now, as I first requested in June 2015. I additionally request that ALL of my records and those of my family members be sent to the new dentist now. The back office of Huff's practice has rarely treated me with "respect and kindness" which has resulted in this complaint.

Regards,