1 /5 Adam Kane: Wow, I don’t know where to begin.
I have been seeing Dr. Wilson for several years. I have always loved him, and thought I would never work with another dentist. I was even traveling an hour and a half to see him after I moved.
However, a recent event revealed aside of the practice that I was unaware of. Putting money over a patient’s health and well-being.
Dr. Wilson missed a tooth that was cracking. Even when I brought his attention to the tooth because food was getting stuck in a place that it never had before. After six months at my next visit, he looked at it again and said that I had a big hole there that needed a filling. I went in to get it filled, and he realized it was cracked and I needed a root canal. He gave me a referral and said when the root canal was done, I would come back and have a crown put on.
I have the root canal done, a temporary filling put in, and then I proceeded to wait two months while they tried to get pre-authorization for the crown from my insurance company. The insurance company was asking for a particular set of x-rays and a description from the dentist on why the crown was needed. The person that handles their insurance in the office, Laurie, kept debating with the insurance company, instead of just providing what they were asking for which caused significant delays.
When I was finally brought in to have my crown put on, I was informed by Laurie that my insurance company was “not paying them enough“ and that I needed to pay the difference. I called my insurance company to see if I could get reimbursed for this payment and I was informed by my insurance company that they were not allowed to ask me for money and that it was a breach of their contract. That they knew exactly how much they were getting paid when they signed their contract with the insurance company and that they were trying to pressure me into paying money that they were not allowed to ask for.
The situation escalated quickly between the dentist and the insurance company and Wilson’s office refused to provide me service. I was left with a temporary filling that was now several weeks passed it’s replacement time and was now starting to fail. I was left feeling scared that I would lose my tooth and now I needed to start over with a whole new dentist.
I found this entire process on ethical, and was really surprised to find out that Dr. Wilson would prioritize money over my health. I really expected better from him.
Thankfully, the agent from my insurance company was on the phone with me the whole time and witnessed the experience. Insurance has filed a grievance and is now handling the situation on their own with the dentist.