Endodontics Of Worcester

On 4/28/14, I made an emer. appt. with my gen. dentist because I had severe pain in one of my back teeth. I was examined and told that I would probably need a root canal procedure and that he would see if he could arrange an emer. visit with an area endodontist.An emer. appt. was set up with Worc. Endodontics that same day a few hours later. I arrived at the Worc. Endo office at the arranged time. I was seen by Dr. [redacted] and a dental tech. The ex-ray that I provided from my gen. dentist was not accepted and they took a new one. The endodontist informed me that I could either wait for the pain to get better (or worse), or we could proceed with the root canal procedure. I informed her that the pain was bad and that I would need to move forward immediately. The endodont informed me at that time that she would have a person from the staff visit with me to discuss insurance and payments. I was told that I had approximately $538 left on my dent. ins. for the year and that the rest would amount to approximately $1,300.00 which could be paid in one or two installments, starting today. I told her that I did not bring that kind of money with and was not told to do so. I informed her that if they mailed me a [redacted], that I would be happy to pay as I have done with my gen. dentist for the past 30 years. I do not carry my checkbook, large sums of money nor charge cards with that amount of charging balances. She checked with the owner of the practice, and I was told that payment was needed as described before we could proceed. I told her that given that choice, I would need to leave and seek my endodontal proc. elsewhere (which I did). I told the endodontist that I did not want my ins. to be billed because I needed to use those remaining funds at the endodontist's office that performs my procedure. I was informed that there would be no [redacted]. I then received a notice from my ins. that they were billed $195 and paid $100.34 of that charge. I now have to pay that amt. out of pocket to my new endodontistDesired SettlementBecause I was not informed to bring funds to be able to pay the entire balance of procedure costs, I needed to leave and go elsewhere. The new endodontist informed me in advance what I would need to bring and I did so.I do not believe that I should have to pay again for services that I was forced to go elsewhere to receive due to not informing me in advance. Also the original endodontist told me that there would be no [redacted]. When I called the office, I was told no refund.Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted]Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXXContact Email: [redacted]@gmail.comWe are sorry to hear that Mr. [redacted] was dis-satisfied with the care we were hoping to provide. It's clear that there was some miscommunication between him and our office that we'd like to explain and resolve amicably. It is our "Standard of Care" to perform an examination and x-ray before performing any root canal treatment. As in common practice in various medical practitioners, we also ask for payment upon delivery of these and any other services. After this was explained to Mr. [redacted] and he raised his conerns to Dr. [redacted], she left the exam room to consult with the front office, where a discussion by all affirmed that charging for these services would re main the procedure in Mr. [redacted]'s case. When Dr. [redacted] returned to the exam room and told Mr. [redacted], "you are all set, you can go, "she meant that he was all set to go to the front office, pay for what services were rendered, and leave. Clearly, this was taken by Mr. [redacted] to mean that he would not be charged, hence the failure to communication that we feel is at the heart of the issue. Since we always strive to put patients satisfaction first, as a gesture of goodwill and not an admission of any negligence, we are going to refund the money charged for the exam and x-ray (to his dental insurance carrier), and hope that Mr. [redacted] was or is able to find the help he needed for this tooth.