Aspen Dental

My daughter went in to have her teeth cleaned. She informed them she had insurance and asked if they used them. They only told her that insurance only pays roughly half of her expenses and she would have a $500 deductible. The first day they did X-rays and had a consultation. They probed her teeth and called out numbers while another person noted these numbers on a computer. After they were done she asked what the numbers were for. They informed her they were to tell how deep the pockets surrounding her teeth were. They told her that normal teeth were only 3 deep and hers were deeper than 4. That she had gingivitis and would need to have that cleaned.
At this point NO CLEANING had been done yet. This was all done by the hygienist. The doctor then came in and told her that her teeth looked FINE and that she just needed to get her teeth cleaned.and take care of them. The doctor took up to the front desk to make the appointment to have her teeth cleaned. At this time the front desk administrator sat her down and to set up another appointment to have her teeth cleaned. AT THIS TIME the administrator starting talking to her about payment options for gingivitis cleaning. She told her this procedure was called peritonitis cleaning, or root scaling/scraping. Then they proceeded talked about price. She informed her it would run around $1500.00. My daughter told her she couldn't afford that. The administrator told her that insurance would pay for half of it and she would be responsible for the other half. The administrator told her that they could provide in-house financing for her. They filled out a credit application and ran her credit. My daughter was approved for well beyond the 50% she was to pay. They had her sign the form saying she was approved. They immediately charged her $1052. This is WEL MORE THAN HALF of the original quote of $1500.00.
Then Aspen Dental files an insurance claim for $789.00. This rounds the cost to $1841.00. The insurance claim was DEINED due to
1. Services Not Covered 2. Humana DOES NOT CARRY THIS PROVIDER (seems Aspen Dental would KNOW THAT) 3. (And this is very interesting as well) "The information submitted does not document the presence of exposed root surfaces as required by CDT definition of this procedure".
We called Aspen Dental for a itemized statement of treatment and they will not give/release it to her without her signing a HIPPA Consent Form.
I will be passing all of this along to the insurance commissioner of the state of Georgia