Sparta Dental Center

Review: Scheduled appointment at the clinic. At appointment unauthorized services were rendered but did not receive written invoice. Repair work was refused on that day due to checking for insurance coverage. My lost wage total:112.50. Plus mileage (20 miles). Scheduled another appointment. Treatment refused due to I forgot my checkbook. They were on the phone with my wife, who was offering every other option for payment. Once again, they refused to treat me. Another $112.50 in lost wages plus mileage. Now I receive a bill in the amount of $110.00 for services rendered at the first appointment. I feel I do not owe them and have been discriminated against. I feel they owe me $285.00 for lost wages and travelling expense. This amount includes loss for two appointments, but I believe I had three that they refused treatment. That would add an additional $142.50 to my losses.Desired Settlement: I would like to get credited for the $110.00 plus be paid compensation for my loss of wage and travelling expenses. I would also ask they be reprimanded for the discrimination issue.

Business

Response:

I am responding to the letter addressed to [redacted] in regards to the above case because I am actually the owner of Sparta Dental Center and I myself am the doctor that saw [redacted], who has filed a complaint against us.I also want to disclose that I received this letter on a Friday night, so I am sitting in my house typing this to you (I really don't want this hanging over my head all weekend), and don't have my work schedule from the 4th week in March in front of me, so my dates may be off. But I believe that [redacted] appointed in our office on March 24th and 25th, and I certainly can verify this when I return to work on Monday. I would also be happy to send you a copy of the chart notes, as long as it is not a HIPPA violation to do so. I am assuming since the Mr. [redacted] has openly disclosed that he appointed in my office, and that I have been requested to respond to his complaint, that this allows me the right to discuss the events of his appointments. So here is what I remember very clearly.One of the [redacted]s called for an appointment for a broken tooth for Mr. [redacted], and we were able to appoint him quickly. I am assuming that part of the reason he chose to come to our office is because we were able to get him in so quickly, otherwise he certainly has several dentists much closer to where he lives and works that he could have seen (which would not have required him to travel 20 miles or suffer the lost wages). I would need to ask my receptionist if it was Mr. or Mrs. that called. Neither of the [redacted]s had been to our office prior to this.It is our policy to inform all patients that call with a broken, cracked, or hurting tooth that there is a $78 charge for a LIMITED evaluation of the area, and a xray will likely be needed which is $32. This is a diagnostic visit, and my staff informs patients of this before the patient is even scheduled. Patients are also informed that depending on time constraints and what I am able to diagnose and plan for the patient, additional treatment MAY or MAY NOT be received on that same day. We simply have no way of knowing what will be needed until the patient is seen, and we also have to review the patient's medical history before any treatment is performed. The patient has every right to accept these terms when they call, and they can choose to appoint to be seen, or they can choose to not appoint and go somewhere else.Mr. [redacted] appointed early the first day and arrived on time. He was pleasant, but there was some confusion over whether or not he had valid insurance. He filled out his medical history, and my office gals worked on trying to help him with getting to the bottem of his insurance. We are not required to do this for patients, but we do this as a courtesy. This benefits us of course too, as we want to be able to give accurate estimates, and patients are much happier if they understand their bill before they receive treatment. After 30 minutes of chasing the inaccurate information we were provided, we hit a dead end and were unable to verify his insurance.While the office gals were working on this (and since money is part of the complaint, I would like to point out that I was paying 2 gals to work on this courtesy), my dental assistant (also being paid) was reviewing Mr. [redacted]'s chief concern and obtaining the xray which he appointed for. She relayed his concern to me, and I met with the patient. I found him to be cooperative and pleasant. I informed him of his treatment options and had my assistant provide him with a verbal estimate of the fee to do the repair to his tooth that he wanted. It just so happened that I DID have time to complete the filling that morning, so this was offered to the patient. He wanted to proceed, so the next step was for financial arrangements to be made.Unfortunately, through all of this, my staff had not been able to get an insurance estimate as I already mentioned, so our policy is that the patient needs to pay in full and will be reimbursed if and when correct insurance information is provided to us. However, Mr. [redacted] did not have his checkbook with him. He was very agreeable, stated he would follow up on the insurance with his wife, and bring his co-pay at his next visit. We appointed him for the very next day, reviewed the expectation that he would be responsible for payment in full if he could not provide other insurance information, and he seemed very content with and understanding of this when he left.The next morning he was back in my office. He immediately was apologetic because he had forgot his checkbook on his counter at home, and didn't' realize this until he was almost to our office. He again was very pleasant, stating it was his own fault. Contrary to the complaint against us, no other "options for payment" were offered to us. When the patient left our office, he did not seem upset, and actually seemed very understanding. I was left with 40 minutes of unproductive time in my schedule.Then awhile later Mrs. [redacted] called. She has not ever been to our office, but had plenty to say to my staff about the way we conduct business. She informed us at that point that she wasn't paying for the diagnostic appointment because we "didn't do anything". Absolutely nothing productive came out of that conversation. She then posted a bad review about the office on our Face book page, stating "This is the most rude office I have ever encountered." I opted to not respond to her as I did not feel it would be beneficial to do so.Then of course, because there was a balance on their account for the appointment, they received an automatic billing statement that went out on April 15th. I received a check for payment in full along with a note that states, " I am paying in full for this false billing but please be aware I have filed a complaint with WI Revdex.com and will take whatever action recommended to recoup losses due to your discrimination. Also, note - word of mouth is best advertisement. Through our business I can assure your loss of two clients!" There was a smiley face drawn after that.So there is my recollection of the events. My position is that Mr. [redacted] was treated fairly, and did in fact consent to and receive services that I can rightfully bill for. My office has time invested in appointing him, new patient paperwork, phone time for insurance follow up courtesy, dental assistant time, doctor time, reappointing him, and then managing the phone call from his wife. My fees are not unreasonable, and he was not billed any additional charges for the wasted appointment time the second day. I think that the accusation that I "discriminated against" Mr. [redacted] is ridiculous and uncalled for. I certainly can understand that being denied services due to lack of payment would be frustrating for him and maybe even a bit embarrassing, but frankly, his wife's review on facebook and the comments attached to his bill are slanderous, untrue, and unnecessary.I would be happy to answer any other questions that arise from the above response and I thank you for taking the time to obtain and read my version of the events.