Castle Dental Price Gouging - Physician Self Referal - Fraud - Houston, Texas
I have had several reports for this location that I'm surprised have not been reported to the Attoney General of Texas. Perhaps there is an on going investigation for price gouging and manipulation of its customers in order to gain more profit. I wouldn't know, however; if there isn't one, there should be.
On the first occasion in which I noticed price gouging was through a close friend of mine. She went attempting to get some partial implants. She had dental insurance, and after an examination was charged five hundred dollars just for the visit, and told her that it would cost an additional five thousand for the implant (At which point she was refereed to a specialist).
Going with her gut, she felt that something about the estimate just wasn't right...and knew for a fact that she was being over charged for the visit and decided to get a second option. She did get a second option, and was shocked to discover that she was being over charged three thousand dollars for the implaints as well as an additional three to four hundred dollars more than was necessary for an examination.
On the second occasion in which I became aware of price gouging, and quite possibly self-referral fraud. My husband went to this same dental office in order to get a tooth pulled. He went in and got xrays done. He set up an appointment for "one week later" in order to get the feedback from the xrays from the dentist to see what could be done about the tooth. When he returned, they had him redo xrays that did not need to be done. They already had them. Before he even got the chance to see the dentist he was told that he would have to go see a specialist in order to have the tooth removed.
A estimate that would cost six hundred and fifty two dollars. At the end of his visit, he was charged one hundred and thirty dollars for two sets of xrays, a prescription for the pain, and a referral. A referral that would have taken him to the same exact specialist that my friend would have gone to. Acording to the desk clerk, his appointment was placed into the computer as an emergancy appointment. If it had indeed been an emergery appointment then it would not have been scheduled one week later, but was charged for an urgent apointment anyways.