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18 month old dental bill that was supposed to be covered by insurance

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proone

Junior Member
I received a dental implant over multiple visits between 9/2016 -> 3/2017 and half was supposed to be covered by insurance (I paid my half at each visit and verbally confirmed the other half was covered). Now I get a call from the dental office saying the last employee didn't know how to do her job. I owe the other half. The new employee called my insurance and was told they are out of network and none of it will be covered.

Thoughts? Am I responsible for this bill?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Colorado
 


PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
Yes you are responsible for the bill. If I were you I would still submit it to your carrier. You may also have out of network benefits but they may be lower.
 

xylene

Senior Member
At first I'd tell them they need to eat their employee's incompetence. Make em feel really bad.

"So you put something in my body and the deal is screwed up because of incompetence? How can I trust you? I have peice of incompetence wedged in my mouth, so now I believe nothing you say. Nothing."

Then after a few days I'd offer to settle for a reasonable portion of the uncovered amount.

No way would I pay full freight over someone's mistake that took 18 months to uncover.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
At first I'd tell them they need to eat their employee's incompetence. Make em feel really bad.

"So you put something in my body and the deal is screwed up because of incompetence? How can I trust you? I have peice of incompetence wedged in my mouth, so now I believe nothing you say. Nothing."

Then after a few days I'd offer to settle for a reasonable portion of the uncovered amount.

No way would I pay full freight over someone's mistake that took 18 months to uncover.
You know that what you're doing is asking the OP to roll the dice.
 

xylene

Senior Member
You know that what you're doing is asking the OP to roll the dice.
Not really much of a dice roll. What are they gonna do, worst case say "no, sorry. we like treating our patients shabbily over our own internal incompetence. Here's your full bill." Which op then could pay.

In a dispute, effective negotiating and reaching a mutual settlement is good for everybody. And this is a pricey proceedure with room for negoatiatng too. No one is going to go hungry if the OP gets something conceded in the bill over a huge incompetence based mistake.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Not really much of a dice roll. What are they gonna do, worst case say "no, sorry. we like treating our patients shabbily over our own internal incompetence. Here's your full bill." Which op then could pay.

In a dispute, effective negotiating and reaching a mutual settlement is good for everybody. And this is a pricey proceedure with room for negoatiatng too. No one is going to go hungry if the OP gets something conceded in the bill over a huge incompetence based mistake.
Or, another possibility is that the dental office simply submits the bill to collections, thus damaging the OP's credit over something that s/he knows (by now) that s/he owes.
 

Sheriff100

Junior Member
Oh no collections.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

:rolleyes::rolleyes:
I don't post much, but read all of these. I do have to admit that this is a puzzling statement by someone with your longevity here. Are you implying that being turned over to collections is no big deal?
 

xylene

Senior Member
I don't post much, but read all of these. I do have to admit that this is a puzzling statement by someone with your longevity here. Are you implying that being turned over to collections is no big deal?
I'm implying that the very low risk of some monumental credit damage or even the risk of being put 'in collections' at all for admonishing a dental practice about a monumental screw up caused by gross incompetence in order to get some percent off the money owed may be worth it.

All my advice is peer-centric and I stated exactly what I'd do. Complain, and then in a followup call ask for a discount. I cetrainly wouldn't agree to pain in full without at least FIRST lodging my displeasure and asking for a reduction. Implants are expensive. This bill could be 3000, 5000, 10,000 or more. 15% off could be 4 figures.
 

Sheriff100

Junior Member
I'm implying that the very low risk of some monumental credit damage or even the risk of being put 'in collections' at all for admonishing a dental practice about a monumental screw up caused by gross incompetence in order to get some percent off the money owed may be worth it.

All my advice is peer-centric and I stated exactly what I'd do. Complain, and then in a followup call ask for a discount. I cetrainly wouldn't agree to pain in full without at least FIRST lodging my displeasure and asking for a reduction. Implants are expensive. This bill could be 3000, 5000, 10,000 or more. 15% off could be 4 figures.
OK. It's a risk vs benefit argument. I get it. Depending on the amount of the bill, I might agree with your thinking. However if you are not good at poker, I would seek resolution before I hang up the phone.
 

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