I would give less than a 1 if that were possible. The office staff had a computer issue that affected their billing for 2 weeks in May. It accidentally had payments sent to patients instead of to them. It was an honest computer error on the part of the practice. However, it wasn't until yesterday (6months later) that they made a phone call to explain the error and ask me to reach out to my insurance company to get the checks (that we didn't cash) reissued, so we could pay the dental practice. During the phone call yesterday I asked if this billing error would effect my children's upcoming appointment the next day. They assured me it would not.
Fast forward 24 hours - my husband takes the children to their dental appointment and is accused of stealing the dental practice's money by Evelyn at the front desk. She told him it was their money and we shouldn't have "cashed the checks". This was all done very loudly and openly at the front desk. My husband explained that this matter was already being addressed by his wife and he knew it was going to be resolved eventhough we were only made aware of it the day prior. She then rudely dismissed him from her presence, telling him to fill out a form. He is very sweet and did not want to be viewed as the "angry black man" so he decided to just leave it alone and get the kids through their appointment. I was beside myself when I found out how he was treated and that my children (13, 11, and 9)witness the whole thing. What kind of practice hires people that act like that?
To resolve the problem that was caused 6 months ago and not communicated to me until yesterday, I took my lunch break to call the insurance company, found out the correct balance that was owed to the dental practice (yes, Chesapeake Pediatric Dental White Marsh quoted me the wrong amount the day before), had the checks reissued, called the dental practice back to clarify the amount, requested an email of the exact amount they had on record, and was required to give them a reference number so they could verify that I called the insurance company. Then Tammy - who was initailly rude to me on the phone - said in the nicest voice that she would be happy to forward me to the front office to schedule my children's next dental visit. I had to stiffle a sarcastic laugh. No, no you may not!!! I ended the conversation with the dental practice at that point - there was no point in going further. Their was no ownership of their role in being transparent and timely with communicating their billing issues.
Under no circumstances should anyone have treated my husband the way he was treated. As a customer that was involved in an office error that was the fault of the practice - I was also treated rudely today but that pales in comparison to what my husband experienced.
As of this evening my children have appointments for the summer - scheduled with White Marsh Pediatric Dentistry (14437254185). The woman on the phone at the front desk was very nice and respectful. read more