Riffee Companies Inc.

Thank you for calling yesterday, we had not received this information originally, or would have responded sooner. Ok, we have read Mr*** complaint and would very much like to respond. So I will give you our side of the story to the best of my
knowledge, and my front office staff who directly corresponded with him. On 3/17/Mr*** came in our office as a new patient for a dental exam. He and the doctor discussed the need for a couple of extractions and getting a new partial upper and lower dentureHad the patient told the doctor that he was in dire pain and requested pain medication, the doctor would have prescribed him medication at that time. We scheduled the patient an appointment at a later time for the extractionThe next day, Friday (the office is only open for administration, no doctor) the patient called and spoke with the front office girl working that day and told her how much pain he was in, she called the doctor. He recommend the patient go see an oral surgeon if he was in that much pain. She then called different Oral Surgery Centers to try and help him get in somewhere right away, and all places offered times that were not going to work with Mr***. He told our receptionist he was just going to have his wife take him to the ER. Dr*** offered the patient some pain medication at this time to help him out until he could get to a doctor. When we called him back to ask what pharmacy he used, he said forget it, he found a dentist locally that worked on Friday’s. That was the last time anyone in our office spoke with the patient We tried calling the following week to check on him and see if there was anything we could do, and make sure he was seen, but he did not respond to our voice mails. We were truly concerned for him. We did bill the patient’s insurance company for an exam and some x-rays for his new patient visit the day before, for a total of $224.00. This patients insurance company sends the checks to the subscriber, as we are not a contracted providerAll of our patients with this same insurance company know to sign the back of the check and send it on in to our office so we can post the payment to their accountSometimes the patient will cash the check and just send us a personal check for the payment. We prefer the actual insurance check though so we can keep track of the patients benefits and maximum they have left, etc. We have a resource tool Online to check with the insurance company to see if and when the patient received the check. Mr***, the Enrolee, received a check from *** Dental, and it was cleared with ***’s bank. We never received this check. We sent him a statement every month for months, called and left messages, and wrote him letters. Had the patient communicated with us, or just sent in the check he received, we would have been more than happy to work with him. We tried in vain to contact him. We also sent him the EOB from ***, or “estimate of benefits” to show and explain to him that a check was indeed issued to the Enrolee, him, and that it was cleared with their bank. We may be a “Non-Participating” doctor with ***, we are considered out of network, but they definitely “work” with us, as we send claims to them every dayThey would never tell someone that they have “nothing to do with” us. We are deeply sorry that Mr*** did not like his experience here. This office has been here for over years, we are located in a fairly small town, and word of mouth recommendations are very special and important to us. He works for the school district where we see a huge percentage of their employees. So we certainly don’t want anyone “bad mouthing” us. We’ve always prided our success on the way we treat people and care about them and their families. We are an office where over half of our staff has been employeed here for over 15-years and it is not uncommon to run into one of our patients at the grocery store or post office. So we truly care about our patients and want them to have a good experience at our office. Again, had he communicated with us, we would have been more than happy to work with him. But the fact remains, he cashed a check in the amount of $118.80. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen my doctor where I got paid for it! He ultimately came in and got paid by his insurance company for his visit I have attached the proof, the same information we sent Mr***, indicating the check number, date it was issued, that it was paid to the Enrolee and the date it was sent I saw the bottom of the patients letter saying he begrudgingly will resolve this matter by only having to pay the amount of $105.20, however, he already got paid $by the insurance company! Because we were very sorry about the pain and suffering this patient endured, had he simply brought in the *** check, communicated with us, something, we would have gladly written off the balance for him at that time. We truly are in the business of helping people and we don’t want to see anyone sufferBut he continued to ignore us month after month after month. The bottom line is this, the $was our check, and his balance would have been the $105.20. We are frankly appalled that he feels he was a victim of consumer fraud, as we are a very reputable dental office in this townWe would really like to resolve this issue Please see the attached information and call with any questions you may have, we are happy to speak with you. Very Sincerely, *** ***Office manager
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