John A. Coleman DDS

My Wife elected to seek a new dentist for herself, daughter and our son. In all of our recent experiences with dental practices and insurance, we have always been given a through estimate prior to service with options for level of service presented with the amount of cost our family would be responsible for, and the amount of coverage insurance would pay. In our experience with our previous family dentist, and still my personal dentist, Dr [redacted] of Vista, I am presented with options that have been confirmed with our insurance company within minutes after the diagnosis is made that are accurate and have never resulted in additional out of pocket cost from our family. In our most recent experience with Dr [redacted], my wife was given an estimate by their office staff for dental procedures to be preformed on my Son, and we were given a clear amount that we would be responsible for which was paid by us prior to the service being provided. After the procedures were submitted to our dental insurance we were given a bill in excess of $500.00 that we were told would be our responsibility and not covered by insurance.

After receiving this additional bill, we met with Dr [redacted]'s billing staff and were told that their office does not as a policy check directly with the insurance company on specific coverage, and that we would have to request this prior to any work being preformed. When meeting with their office staff, we were told this process for prior approval would take 30-45 days to receive an answer.

We feel completely misled and the victims of a Bait & Switch program, as again I noted my current dentist, and previous dentists have been able to provide the specific costs, coverage estimates and options for levels of "out of Pocket" money that I would be responsible for any procedures I will be doing within minutes of diagnosis, and we took on good faith that this was the policy of Dr. [redacted]'s office.

I do not believe their office staff when they tell me the process for a truly accurate estimate of costs would take 30-45 days, and my wife was not told this at the time she agreed to the estimate provided and agreed to the dental service on my son.

I do no believe I have any basis for a case to expect a settlement for this deceptive practice from Dr. [redacted]'s office as they do have a disclaimer on their treatment case estimate form that they offer no guarantee of the insurance coverage to be provided, but feel it is necessary to report this deceptive business practice that has resulted in un anticipated cost to my family in hopes of any other families avoiding the same experience.

Their policy is misleading and should be changed at the very least, and it made clear to prospective patients that they have not actually confirmed the individual coverage types with the insurance provider.