I’ve already gotten into contact with my insurance and I should hear back next week but ugh I keep thinking about this and getting angry.
I have Cigna DPPO advantage, and this is my regular dentist that I’ve been going to for years. I’ve gotten quite a bit of work done with them so I usually end up owing something at the end but this last visit finally made me realize what was going on.
I’m supposed to be able to get 2 routine cleanings fully covered by my insurance each year. Today I was only supposed to get that but then they found a few small cavities and asked if I wanted to stay a bit longer and get them taken care of. I say sure - my insurance states I should only have to pay 20% of whatever fillings cost.
To my surprise I am asked to cough up $800 for my visit today. Even the receptionist was surprised - she said oh your plan doesn’t like to pay that much - and then said something about changing the group or something, I wasn’t really sure what she meant. I asked are you guys not in network? And she said you’re in network, your plan is just stingy basically.
So I paid it… but man am I kicking myself. I wish I asked to be billed later. I could have really used that money.
I waited for the EOB to show up in my account and it said OUT OF NETWORK. That can’t be right - so I called my insurance and even the customer service guy was confused by where they got these numbers. He puts me on hold for a few and says basically if dentists are out of network they can charge more to recoup what isn’t covered by insurance. So they charged me like 2x what a service would normally cost.
It’s getting investigated but I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do if it comes back that the bill is correct and I just have to eat this insane bill. I wrote a strongly worded email to my dental office stating that I’m very confused why I was billed this way when i was TOLD that I was in fact in network. I missed the dentists office’s call today while I was working- they left a voicemail saying they wanted to explain my bill to me. Which sound like they aren’t going to budge. I’ll know when I speak to them tomorrow I guess.
Has anyone had something similar happen? Were you able to get refunded?
Submitted March 14, 2024 at 10:53PM by ghostturnip https://ift.tt/32eDykS
