1 /5 Bruce Ferguson: Dentist visit
I am giving this dentist and his office staff one star but would give it zero stars if that were an option. First, Dr. Krikorian had no bed side manner. He blew in, did his inspection of my teeth, and left. I had to pull him aside after his “consultation” to simply ask if I had any cavities, or other dental issues. His response was terse, and he seemed exasperated that I was even bothering him.
For my wife, Dr.Krikorian came in said hello and started checking her gum line, repeating numbers to the assistant. My wife had to ask what all of that meant. He answered and then left. When he came back, he worked on a computer behind her, she assumed he was filling in her documents, so she stayed quiet. When he finished, he left and never came back, she didn’t know what he had been working on; it could have been for someone else. She didn’t even know if he looked at her x-rays. He never did a consultation with her about her teeth. She left not knowing if she had cavities, or if she should be doing anything differently.
Billing Issues
At the end of my wife and my checkup appointments, the dental assistant said I had to pay $174 for our two visits. I reminded her that two checkups per year are free as part of our dental insurance program. She was relentless, so I paid the $174, assuming I would get it back when the claim was processed, and it would clearly show we didn’t owe anything.
Two months later my claim was processed, and I didn’t owe anything. I called Dr. Krikorian’s office for my refund and was told that this bill was for adding some type of protective cream to our teeth while they were cleaned and that this treatment wasn’t covered by insurance. I asked why the dental hygienist hadn’t given us the option before the cleaning started, as this is a normal and ethical practice? The office manager didn’t reply, but also said that my wife’s visit had not been billed yet (even though we saw the same dentist on the same day), so I should wait until that occurred to settle the bill.
Two weeks later my wife’s claim was submitted, and it was for another dentist in the practice and because the other dentist wasn’t a member of our insurance network, we now owed $900!
I called the dental office immediately and the assistant said that the billing dept. had submitted another dentist, not bothering to check if this other dentist was in our network. She said that “it is a simple mistake” and they would resolve it such that we didn’t owe anything.
I then asked about my refund and she said that the office could give me a credit for future work, but I couldn’t get my money back. After several calls to the higher ups in the office I was finally sent a refund form to fill out. I did so and they continue to refuse to give me back my refund, now saying that it violates my health insurance company’s policy to issue a refund.
To verify this information, I contacted my health insurance company and spoke with a representative. On my behalf while I was on hold, she called the dentist’s office and spoke with the office assistant. The insurance rep later came back on the line and told me that the office assistant repeatedly changed her story as to why I couldn’t get reimbursed. The insurance rep also was told the account code for this protective cream that was supposedly not covered by insurance, and the rep explained to the office assistant that this cream is covered by my insurance; the approved amount being approximately $19 and thus I should not have been charged $87 per person in the first place. However, the office assistant was unrelenting and refused to reimburse the money, only offering a credit for future work.
At this point I am livid with the constant misinformation and lack of professional care from this office. Based on my experience, I suggest anyone thinking of using this office seriously reconsider that decision.
