Memorial Dentists Bad dental car, deceptive policies, rude employees, BEWARE! Houston Texas
I'm posting my recent experience with this office, which tried to violate the agreement they have with my insurance company by charging me to have my records from Memorial Dentists sent to my new dentist's office.
I was changing dentists since my dentist at this office was not satisfactory. This place is like assembly line dentistry! Good luck actually seeing the dentist. But that's for another complaint.....
Memorial Dentists tried to tell me their office policy (although they could not demonstrate the policy was given to me when I became a patient at the office or posted anywhere in the office) was to charge patients a large fee for me to obtain a copy of my records, or have my records sent to a new office. I let the office manager know that I felt this was very unfair. She told me feel free to contact my insurance company or file a complaint with the BBB - she didn't care. So I did contact my insurance company. They told me that charging these fees to transfer my records was in violation of Memorial Dentist's contract with the insurance company.
I called Memorial Dentists back and spoke again to the office manager. She told me she didn't care what the insurance company said. Charging the fees was their policy and I would have to pay the fees if I wanted to see my records.
Utterly frustrated, I called back the insurance company. They were very helpful and offered to conference call Memorial Dentists right then. The insurance representative and I got the office manager on the phone and she had the same story about the fees until the insurance rep quoted the exact language of the contract - once the office manager heard that, she put us on hold, then finally came back and said I could come pick up the records.
I was very disappointed, and am glad I am no longer a patient at this office. What poor policy and rude service! Would not recommend this office at all. Stay away!
KW
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Memorial Dentists
Houston,Texas,
United States of America
Disgruntal patient
#2UPDATE Employee
Mon, February 15, 2010
In the state of Texas, it is law that a healthcare provider (dentist, physicial, etc...) must maintain custodianship of all records for a period of no less that seven years. These records are the property of the healthcare provider, not the patient. For example, a patient which has an xray taken and pays for that is not just paying for the film, they are paying for the service of the doctor reading that film as a diagnostic tool and the xray is the pocession of the doctor. Therefore, transferring records requires duplication of records. According to the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners this is a chargable service. There is expense incurred in making dulicate xrays, they cannot just be copied on a standard copier. It requires a special film and procedure, not to mention the time involved. It is standard practice in all states to charge for this service unless that healthcare provider as referred you to a specialist for care they cannot provide. As far as the insurance company is concerned, they have no say in the state laws, nor will they pay for duplication of records, nor is it a violation of contract agreements.
In addition to this complaint, every patient who walks through our doors sees a dentist. This is also law, we cannot treat any patient unless they have seen a doctor in our facility within the previous twelve months.
Here at Memorial Dentists we provide excellent quality of care, services and materials. We take pride in the fact that we see thousands of patients and only recieve a very small amount of complaints. Thank you to all of our patients, we respect you greatly.