Brian S. Alexander, DDS, P.C.

Review: Been going for years to this dentist. About a year ago, I had a dental appointment and the office called to tell me that they would need to change my upcoming appointment because of the balance on my account. I had not received a bill or an EOB from my insurance company, and there was a balance. The office told me they had not sent out a bill yet. WHAT?? I should have changed dentists then but did not. My family goes to this dentist and my 14 yes at old daughter had just gotten braces. I let it slide and went on and paid the bill over the phone. As the year went on things were fine. The dental office changed their "reminder calls", and for some reason I was not getting my reminder calls. I missed an appointment and though they were ok with rescheduling, I verified the contact numbers with the office and thought I would start getting my reminder calls. Well I had an appointment on Tuesday and did not get a reminder call. I did get a call from the office after the fact.....after my appointment time. I stated that I had yet again NOT gotten any calls, emails or texts. The office.....specifically [redacted]....told me that I was the only patient that was not getting the calls. I assured her I had not and would even bring my phone in to show her. She said maybe it was something with the phone carrier I used. I asked her the phone number of the "reminder calls", and she stated she would need to call me back with the info. She also informed me if a $50.00 "no show" fee. I was shocked because I had not gotten any reminder calls and it was not fair to charge me, and I guess they would need to take me to court. Needless to say she never called me back and I called back 2 days later only to be advised that they were not charging me the late fee, BUT, was dismissing me and my entire family....WHAT? Is this the dentist that my mom thought so highly of, and would literally argue with people that Dr. [redacted] was the best dentist ever!! I was shocked and still am. This is the only dentist my daughter knows. Well Dr *, and the other dentist that we were assigned to after Dr *, got a new partner. I just want people and upcoming new patients to make sure you keep your appointments and I guess you have to be somebody in [redacted] to matter to this facility. I am in search now for x new dentist formats elf and my family. I'm sure Dr * will not really care of my complaint, because I'm not a public figure in [redacted] I just want to let patients/new patients to be aware!! They do not practice fairness nor understanding!Desired Settlement: Not really sure there is a desired outcome. I just want to warn patients!

Business

Response:

Response to Complaint ID# [redacted] - [redacted]In response to the complaint that was made against our office on 6/24/2016, first let me explain our office policies so you may better understand out situation. Our office policy states that if you do not show for your scheduled appointment, without notifying us, the first time a letter is sent out to you explaining that your appointment was scheduled specifically for you and that is valuable time that could have been given to another patient, had they given us notice. The second no show without warning, a letter gets sent with a $50 no show fee and another warning that should it happen again they could be dismissed from our practice. This includes calling the day of the appointment without a good reason to cancel on short notice - good reason includes but not limited to, sickness, death in family, car trouble and work related schedule issues. The third time the family is dismissed from the practice and is notified via a letter if our phone call is not returned. We enforce these policies so we can maintain a busy schedule to help get our patients in quickly in an emergency type appointment, should they need one. These appointments that are missed without proper notification are documented in the patients chart so we may keep track of their "missed appts," and they start from the very first time you are seen in our office. In this case, the patient had missed several appointments without proper notification and this particular time was the patients fourth missed appointment. Because of the amount of time we had been seeing this patient and her parents we gave them an extra chance and had not yet charged them a missed appointment fee. When the receptionist explained that we typically charge a $50 missed appt fee the patient began telling the receptionist that she wasn't going to pay this fee that she knew Dr. [redacted] didn't like her and pushed her off on the associate dentist here in our practice. Yet, Dr. [redacted] had chosen to waive the $50 fee all the other times this patient had missed appointments and we still did not choose to charge them the fee at that time. The patient had seen our associate dentist when they came in for a problem focused appointment and Dr. [redacted] did not have an opening on his schedule and the patient was ok with seeing the associate dentist that day. After check out when we went to schedule the treatment the patient was asked which dentist they preferred to be scheduled with since they had seen both. The patient stated that it didn't matter they liked the new dentist and that it would be ok to schedule with her (Dr. [redacted].) This is how the patient ended up on Dr. [redacted]'s schedule for treatment. We leave it up to the patient as to who they want to be scheduled with for treatment. In regards to our new "reminder calls" we have started a new system called RevenueWell here at the office. Our patients love this new system; they have the ability to choose if they want to be reminded of their appts via text, calls or emails. It reminds you of the appointment an hour after its scheduled with us and then two weeks before, two days before and then two hours before the appointment. It's a great system; however, if we don't have the correct numbers in the system then it doesn't work so well. So when a patient states that they didn't receive their reminders we automatically check the numbers for accuracy to see if that's the problem. When the patient was asked if we had the correct numbers the patient stated we did. At that point, we can go into the system and see how the reminder alerts were sent. In this particular case the patient received text messages on the reminder alerts until the day of the appointment and then they were sent an email on the two hour reminder due to it being in the morning. If it's a morning appointment we send an email for the two hour reminder so the patient isn't getting a text in the early morning hours. The patient was told that the system had been working and that if the numbers were correct and we can see they were sent, we couldn't explain why they weren't received. Patients are also given an appointment card when they make the appt in the office to keep on hand for their convenience. On the card it reminds the patient of the required 48 hour notice of changing or cancelling appointments.In regards to the overdue balance, once insurance has paid their portion on an open claim the patient will be sent a statement for the left over balance, if any from what insurance didn't cover. Again, our system keeps track of when they were sent out and to what address. When the patient was notified of their overdue balance and stated they didn't receive a statement for the balance, we double checked the mailing address and the address we had on file was correct. The patient paid the bill and was left on the schedule to be seen. However, the patient advised us to cancel the appointment they were upset because of the billing issue. The next time the patient called, they scheduled the appointment that was cancelled per the patient, and then the patient didn't show for that scheduled appointment - which was the third time of no showing to their appointments. When our patients show up to fill out paperwork to be seen in our office there is several forms that are filled out. One of them being an authorization to treat form, in that form that the patient signs and agrees to, it states that if they do not show up to an appt they will be charged a $50 no show fee. It also states that any leftover balance not paid by insurance is the patients responsibility and must be paid upon receipt. If not paid within a timely manner the amount owed will be sent to collections and the patient is then responsible for all court/ attorney fees that get applied. So our new patients are notified of all of our office policies before being seen in our office and they must sign and agree to the policies. The patient was dismissed from our practice because of the multiple no show appointments. We gave this particular family extra chances because we had such a good relationship with their parents.Dr. [redacted] sees all patients in Rocky Mount, Franklin County, Roanoke and surrounding areas and looks forward to seeing them on a regular basis. He also has volunteered his free time by serving our local Free Clinic here in Rocky Mount, VA.I hope that we have explained and addressed all the complaints that were presented regarding our office. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns. I can be reached at [redacted] Mon -Thurs 8-5pm.Sincerely,[redacted]Business Manager

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,