Around 1999 took me and two of my children to Dr. Anna Willison's office. Not prone to cavities I didn't expect much. They recommended I have wisdom teeth pulled, quite a few cavities. My daughters has many, many cavities. Should have gotten a second opinion in hindsight. Have already had to replace in the past years several of their fillings. Falling out.
Main gripe though was wisdom teeth. They recommended pulling. I had already confirmed they were on my insurance. Their office person confirmed the benefits, etc... And showed me an estimate of what ins. Would pay. I paid my portion. Unknowning, they weren't authorized to do wisdom teeth. I'll never know how they produced an estimate from insurance.
The wisdom teeth just needed pulled/extracted. No cutting, stitches or surgery.
They then filed oral surgery (which costs more) and insurance of course declined because they weren't oral surgeons. I called, they told me to pay up. I called my ins. And explained they had simply pulled the teeth, ins. Said to have them refile correctly. Anna's office refused, stating it was oral surgery and I had to pay it out of my own pocket.
More confused, I'll never understand how they gave me an estimate, why they filed oral surgery, nor why they wouldn't simply refile as wisdom teeth extraction. I told them I felt like I was paying for their mistake! They demanded payment.
They filed a judgement against me, I didn't go to court because my Mom was having open heart surgery the same day. They won judgement of course because of my no show.
I paid judgement and court fees. They made sure to put on my credit history! I just checked credit history end of 2005 and they never even showed it paid! It was effecting my credit! Shame on me for not checking before, I did get it fixed.
If you do have Anna Willison's office to work, you should not only verify your insurance covers her, but verify exactly what work is covered. I understand an estimate is an estimate, I don't understand an estimate for work you've supposedly verified that you aren't even allowed to do.
I now fully understand that dentist and oral surgeons are not always covered the same by insurance, you need to be educated too prior to having work done.
I don't know what is up with needing to have the fillings redone and them falling out just so few years after having the work done. I'll never know if the excessive amount of work was necessary on my daughters.
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