Shopping around for orthodontists: takeover case help?

[CranberryJuice]

Hi Everyone,

I'm wondering if I can get some insight as to what questions to ask while shopping around for a new orthodontist (take over treatment) so I won't fall into this predicament again. Any other insight is also helpful.

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I am currently undergoing orthodontic treatment for 10 months at $3k on the east coast. Started in the late summer of last year. In the last few days, I've considered no longer stubbornly staying with my current orthodontist and to finally consult orthodontic offices elsewhere.

The office I'm currently getting treatment from seemed good on the outside. They have good reviews online, I had met up with the owner of the practice and thought she was the person who would work closely with me. Their office was the most reasonable price-wise and also duration-wise as I only have one or two misaligned teeth. The office changed faces since I've signed the contract. I have been disrespected on the phone countless times (cut off constantly- 'are we done here now?', defensiveness, borderline yelling, office changing stories and blaming me). This happens when it comes to asking questions and questions regarding the finance aspect of the treatment and sometimes regarding my treatment (where the staff gets a little irritated and still somewhat vague)– which I am in the dark about what they're doing and how they're doing it.

More to the story:
They had failed to submit the paperwork to my insurance until a couple of months after the start of my treatment. They had put in a nance in my mouth that caused my tongue to bleed so I had to get an emergency treatment out of state, but the out of state office needed paperwork in order to commence its removal. The office I'm currently at failed to send the paperwork until I had to call them once I arrived to my emergency appointment (they had over 24 hours to do it) which led me to wait hours at the out of state office until the paperwork came in. I had to go through multiple 'holds' and people and got hung up on. In between all of that, the office I'm currently at said that the office out of state 'has everything they need'. They also used the excuse that due to a conversation regarding insurance the day before, they assumed I no longer wanted to be at the office which is why the paperwork was not sent. Ok... great.

My last treatment, I found out the nance was not mandatory and they haven't put it on since. I was never informed about the nance appliance in my consultation or before placement. When I had asked about it that day, the staff member who was putting it on did not even tell me the correct name of the appliance and was very irritated that I asked and wanted to know why I needed the appliance in the first place.

I recent grads/practitioners are the ones dealing with my orthodontic treatment. Their mistakes stall my treatment as I currently travel between states to get treatment and can't come back due to every glitch. Additionally, in some cases, my experience has been terrible as they struggle to put things in (like a spacer) and cause my mouth to bleed. Then once things are placed in, they're obviously sitting incorrectly in my mouth, I notify the staff of this, they say it's fine then there has been a time where things fell out soon after leaving the office.

I am currently on a 10 month billing plan from the office. I found out over a week ago that my insurance is billed for double that time and the insurance code is under adolescent/teen orthodontic treatment even though I am neither.

Every time I address my concerns about billing, even briefly, things go awry. This time around, when I found out that my insurance will cover $2k for the treatment, I tried to ask how the process works if I'm ultimately paying out of pocket at a faster rate and at a larger amount than the amount that the insurance comes in at. I also didn't know the insurance process, especially in this case. I called because the office has been bad at paperwork and that is making concerned overall. The office explained to me how it worked, which was great at first, but when I called back this week the story on their end changed.

They ultimately said that since I asked and was concerned, they've 'redone everything' (didn't want to explain what that meant) and sent it to the insurance because I told them so, all the while in the prior conversation, I was told that the insurance was fine and that the insurance company would not have approved the claim if anything was wrong. In fact, that the 20-month claim duration is for my benefit, despite no longer being on that plan within that time (and I've been transparent about that). They said it wouldn't matter because I would fulfill my maximum by 18 months and that they were going to ask the orthodontist about my treatment plan and get back to me in order to provide me with more answers. Now I'm called a liar for reminding them of what they've said in a previous conversation and that they've already explained everything to me and that they've never said anything about talking to the orthodontist... they didn't understand why I made a follow-up call. Being in this predicament with a medical/dental office is new to me as I'm not the cantankerous, pushy, or rude sort.

Anyway... I'm also now living on the west coast which makes it even harder for me to wake up early to make calls and constantly during my work time just to suffer on the phone or to be brushed aside. I've been taking a 6-hour flight to get to the office– just for my appliance to fall apart as soon as I leave the office and not able to go back at my leisure due to plane tickets and also working at a new job. So I guess it's now time to look into another ortho. With this current ortho, I would be done by September the latest, ideally, they've said. Prior to that, it was May.

[CranberryJuice]

Sorry for the typos. I also wanted to know: An orthodontist I've called up said they need a document release form from my current ortho in order to even schedule me for a consultation. Another charge $85 for a consultation. Is that normal? Should I be worried in the second case?

[djspeece]

You should (ideally) be able to request your records from your current dentist to be sent directly to you, and then you could bring them to your consulting orthos. That eliminates the need for the release form. I imagine the current ortho would demand a fee for this service, but in my opinion the records are yours, not theirs, and you have essentially already paid for them. But if there is a form you can fill out and have the consulting office deal with your current ortho, that might be the easiest way for you but with their track record who knows how long it will take for them to send your records. To avoid triggering a defensive reaction, you may want to suggest that since you are not on the west coast you would like your records available for emergencies. I don't think paying for a consult is unusual -- I am a bit wary of "free" consultations because they often are not comprehensive and involve simply looking at your mouth. In any event, best of luck to you!

[CranberryJuice]

[quote="djspeece"]You should (ideally) be able to request your records from your current dentist to be sent directly to you, and then you could bring them to your consulting orthos. That eliminates the need for the release form. I imagine the current ortho would demand a fee for this service, but in my opinion the records are yours, not theirs, and you have essentially already paid for them. But if there is a form you can fill out and have the consulting office deal with your current ortho, that might be the easiest way for you but with their track record who knows how long it will take for them to send your records. To avoid triggering a defensive reaction, you may want to suggest that since you are not on the west coast you would like your records available for emergencies. I don't think paying for a consult is unusual -- I am a bit wary of "free" consultations because they often are not comprehensive and involve simply looking at your mouth. In any event, best of luck to you![/quote]

Hi Dan,

Thank you for replying. Are there any questions that I should make sure to ask while seeing other orthodontists for a consultation so that I am not going from the fire pan and into the fire, so to speak?

You mention that I've essentially already paid for my records. How would I be able to convey that aspect if the situation arises where I would be told to pay a fee for the records? When I had the emergency treatment, records were sent to the out of state office and I did not have to pay a fee. I assume it's different based on the situation?

I've paid for a consultation before (didn't know it was not complimentary) and they did absolutely nothing different from what the other free consultations did: a brief inspection. In your own experience, when you say comprehensive, what is typically done at these paid consultations?

One more thing, regarding getting the ortho records, how are those usually sent to a patient? I'm wondering if I could get it emailed for speed purposes... or faxed to a family member where I could then get it in an email.

[CranberryJuice]

I tried to get my records for emergencies and the office staff got upset and started to curse me out because they spent a lot of time and paperwork on me in the last few days on the premise of transferring out. They said I don't need my records for emergencies, so I didn't get my records at all.