dental bill mess

[dar756]

What is the name of your state?Illinois

Dental issue. my husband went to the dentist a filling came out and tooth was infected. they gave him antibotics said he needed a root canal come back in 2 weeks. went back still infected.... the dentist drilled it out some put medicine in there and filled it back up said come back in 2 weeks, in the meantime we got the insurance eob they paid 85% of an 800.00 bill for a root canal. i called the insurance company told them he didnt have the root canal done yet. Insurance company said they will send them a letter requesting the money be paid back. in the mix of all this my husband decided to not do the root canal and had the tooth extracted by someone else. the original dentist is now billing it as a code d3332 which i looked up and its a incomplete endodontic therapy which is still a root canal. for 700.00 instead of the 800.00. is this fraud????... i called several dentist in the area and the procedure of them drilling it out and putting the medicine in the tooth and filling it back up before a root canal is done is called a pulpotomy (may not be spelled right) which helps get rid of infectioin before you actually do a root canal and a pulpotomy only cost average 100-200. where can i complain about this or is there even a complaint to be made. we called the denist and they just keep telling us thats what he charges for the first part even though he didnt finish it. doesnt sound right.

[aswearin]

I would request copies of all your records and charges from the dentists office and advise (once you have the copies, not before) that you are going to seek out a patient advocate within the Department of Insurance or to the Department of Professional Regulation for the state of IL to seek assistance. There may also be a upper management or appeals department at the insurance company that can assist you. I believe you need to follow this through though.