This was a nightmare from the start. It began with endless scheduling issues due to incompetent receptionists (I do the same job, it's not that hard.). At the appt, Dr Farzam began the procedure, forgetting, despite my repeated reminders, that due to a heart condition (one he was made fully aware of), I MUST be given antibiotics before oral surgery or dentistry of any kind, or risk a LIFE THREATENING infection of the heart. ""Ohhh...THAT'S why you came early!"" I had to ARGUE with him before he realized his mistake, and had I been the type to simply defer to my doctor, would have listened to him, literally putting my life at risk. He then injected novacaine into the wrong areas, overnumbing my throat but not numbing my tooth enough, so that I was in pain the entire time. He was unbelievably rough while pulling the tooth, and I wondered if he was simply annoyed that I hadn't been swayed by the chastisement he had given me about being unwilling to go thousands into debt to him to save the tooth he was now pulling. I've had 5 other teeth pulled, and none were a tenth of as painful during or after. He told me my insurance didn't cover x-rays which I then paid for, only to find out later that x-rays are in fact covered. My insurance attempted to get me reimbursed, but when they pointed out that x-rays WERE covered, the office changed their story, claiming that I ""must have misheard him""-that the charge was not for x-rays, but for something else entirely--something I hadn't had done. When I pointed this out to the office manager, she insisted that I HAD had this procedure, that I WAS responsible for the cost (despite the fact that the Dr. had made it clear what the procedure was, and that it was in fact covered at 100%), yet REFUSED to explain the differences between the two procedures, actually yelling, ""I'm not going to explain all this to you!!"" Unfortunately for them, Aetna disagrees, and has now launched an investigation into their network status & billing practices.
more