Reply #21: Ain't that the case! [View All]

Years ago, my sister started working as a dental assistant and then moved into the "front office" doing clerical work like handling phone calls, making appointments, insurance billing, etc.

She once told me you can only trust about 10% of the dentists not to overcharge (She had worked for more than one when she made this statement so I'm not sure how she came by her statistic).

Anyway, the dentist would bill based on the patients' financial situation. This is how it broke down:

1) Patient paid out of their own pockets would get a fairer rate (office would charge for what the service/product it provided)
2) Dental insurance might get fair treatment, but:
3) Patients who received state assistance would get ripped off! She explained the dentist would preform a procedure but tell her he did a procedure that costs a lot more (use an alloy for a crown but told my sister he used gold, etc).

I don't know if the dentists knew my sister knew what they were doing since she used to work alongside of them, but they would tell her one thing when billing and she would think "No, I don't think so..."