Forest Family Dentistry — Attraction in Austin

UPDATE: I have a feeling this establishment tells everybody that their insurance is approved because they know they will get paid either way/one way or another. Whether it be through insurance or collections and credit score. Also, I already have to get Dr. Bethel's filling repaired. He does not have enough experience as he did not even correctly label which number teeth was each when he sent me evidence. In my opinion he cares about quantity and expanding his 2nd location/business, not quality of his work.

UPDATE: I could’ve went to another dentist who’d accept my insurance and only copay $98 but because the front desk associate Vanessa at Forest Family Dentistry misinformed me about my insurance benefits I ultimately ended up paying $972 after Dr. Bethell refunded me the insurance difference. If your job is to check insurance and you tell us (normal clients) that our insurance went through when we specifically handed you our insurance card, we’re going to believe it and take your word for it. I hope this practice is not just telling everybody they are approved because they know payment will be made either way, whether it be through collections, cash, or insurance. Nonetheless, I do appreciate Dr. Bethell for fixing my credit score after it went to collections. He could’ve done nothing but he did something which I can thank him for.

(98+228 payment) + 1305 collection - 659 refund = $972

Original review: I went to this dentist and handed my UT Austin Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance card to the front desk representative and asked her to check if my insurance is covering services provided today. She did some verification before assuring me my insurance went through then took the co-payment. Then Dr. Bethell did multiple fillings and mentioned there is 2 fillings he cannot get because my braces were in the way and to come back once my braces were off so he can get the other cavities.

A couple months down the line I get a notice saying my insurance was not approved and I owe money for the fillings. Since I am expected to pay out of pocket now instead of with insurance I wanted to make sure I was paying for the right number of fillings and that it did not include the 2 fillings that he was going to do once my braces were off, so I ask if I can see the images of the fillings since I recall Dr. Bethell took images after he did the procedure to show me. Instead of sending me evidence they sent me straight to collections. Ive paid $1305 out of pocket to collection, but I do feel that if Vanessa is unsure if my insurance went through she should tell me that and take some responsibility for giving me misleading information that affected my decision to get services that day. This all could have been avoided had she accurately checked my insurance which is her main job as the front desk associate.

Furthermore, Dr. Bethell's fillings are not the best in terms of mimicking the natural structure of the tooth and are more of an inverted dome shaped. 4 years down the line and I have to already get one of his fillings redone. He also said I had extra cavities that I do not have since I've been to 2 other dentists after removing my braces and both said that they couldn't find any cavities. On the day of the fillings, Dr. Bethell communicated that all the fillings he recommended were cavities, he mentioned nothing about “preventative decay” until 4 years down the line I bring up how other dentists don’t see the cavities, only then he mentions they were preventive decay and not actual...

TL;DR I’m out a little over $1,000 and have to start all over at a different dental office. Pros: Easy to make and get initial appointment, inviting office environment, and a staff that acts like they genuinely care Cons: Will suggest and start a treatment plan they are unable to follow through with and will upsell their internal (Kleer) dental plan prior to letting you know they are unable to follow through with said treatment plan which leads to the Kleer plan being a waste of money.

Inquired via online submission for a new patient appointment on June 12 and had an appointment booked by lunchtime on June 13 for June 22: they had sooner available but this one worked best for my schedule.

My appointment was for 12 and I was called to the back around 12:10. The RDA that took me back and did my x-rays was fantastic and her friendly demeanor definitely helped ease some of my anxieties. I saw Dr. Hegwood for my appointment and after her initial exam she recommended doing gum therapy on the lower along with the dental cleaning and also about $2,500 of additional dental work that needed to be scheduled for another day. She let me know that with the gum therapy I would need to do 3 additional periodontal maintenance follow-ups (once a quarter) and we would reassess in a year. All of her recommendations made sense and I agreed to do the gum therapy that day and originally planned to schedule the additional work once I had a chance to look over my schedule for the next couple of weeks. By the time it was finished I was feeling pretty silly about my irrational fear that had kept me away from the dentist for so long. Things started to go south when I went back to the front to check-out and schedule the follow-ups. When the front desk assistant went to check me out she mentioned the Kleer plan their office offers and I agreed to it because it made sense since I don’t have dental insurance and after doing some quick math it seemed beneficial. I pay for the plan, the exam, and the work that was completed that day and we proceed to schedule the follow-ups for the gum therapy and she informs me that the first available appointment for my periodontal maintenance is February 4, 227 days from the day of my initial appointment. I mentioned that I was told I needed to come in every 3 months (90 days) for these follow-ups and she apologized and reiterated that February 4th was the first available for periodontal maintenance but felt the need to add they were available to do the additional $2,500 worth of work within weeks. I don’t understand how they are unable to schedule the needed follow-ups months out for a treatment plan they started but are able to offer appointments for un-related additional work sooner. Also, since they are unable to complete the 3 additional follow-ups on the schedule they told me I needed to stick with it kind of defeats the point of me purchasing a plan that included said treatments. I was pretty irked by the time I left and ended up reaching out to a few other dental practices to see if someone else could pick-up where Forest Family dropped the ball but essentially I would have to re-start with new x-rays, exam, and potentially re-do the gum therapy I just had done at Forest Family. I left spending $429 on what was done that day and $600 on the Perio plan they offer...

Today will be my last visit to this office. I had received several communications prior to my visit that my insurance would be considered out of network as of 1/1/19, but I ignored them and went ahead with my appointment because my plan doesn’t not even have a network and I knew it would not make a difference cost wise to me.

I know a bit more than the average patient about benefits as I just so happen to be the CIO of Boon-Chapman, a third party administrator which does work on behalf of self funded plans and insurance carriers, and my dental plan is administered by my company. My dental plan pays one level of benefits and pays up to the 85th percentile of usual and customary (average) charges for the region. In fact, looking at my claims history the plan has always paid 100% of billed charges, and even if they billed a higher amount over U&C, any difference would have been reflected as patient responsibility. It makes complete sense for a provider to not accept an insurance plan if they are not able to negotiate a reasonable reimbursement rate for their services in their network agreement - but that would not be the case with a plan like mine.

The first email I received back in October seemed like a thinly veiled attempt to get people to sign up for their new membership plans while casting their insurance company as the bad guy (“corporate behavior and past experience with Boon-Chapman we feel that we are not able to deliver the standard of care we strive for. We want to continue to be your dental care provider and have decided to offer our own Forest Family Dental Membership plan”) , which was certainly off putting and in fact something I shared with my colleagues as something of a joke. I decided to look past it though because I liked the clinic and service I had received. Then, the onslaught of voicemails and texts began the week leading up to my appointment which all continued to reference this out of network provider language which didn’t even make sense with my plan. It again seemed like a ploy to talk someone uninformed into a membership plan. I decided to go to this appointment, explain my insurance has no network, and see what happens.

However, when I came in for my visit today I was told that they would not even file my claim anymore because they would only file claims for the list of plans that they were remaining in network for. It didn’t make any sense to me why they would file a claim to a plan that they are going to receive a lower reimbursement on (due to a discount negotiated in their network agreements), but wouldn’t file a claim for my plan that would have paid them 100% of charges. I wasn’t given any explanation when I asked and it seemed clear that there was no concern over whether I remained a patient or not so I didn’t push it. It’s not a big deal for me to pay out of pocket and file my own claim which is what I did today, but it is for a lot of people out there who don’t know how to navigate their benefits as well or have the float to be able to pay up front.

I can’t in good conscience continue to visit this provider while they try to mislead their patients and not provide common courtesy services that nearly every provider does like file claims.

So...