SmileCare Dental review: illegally billed me $500 ( 1 comment)

This company illegally tried to bill me $500 nearly a year after they took out my wisdom teeth!‎

Here's the story:

I went to this SmileCare on Mira Mesa Blvd for surgery last year to get my wisdom teeth out. Even with my insurance, the cost of the surgery was more than $600 which I paid in cash. I decided to undergo general anesthesia because they let me know that my insurance covered it for free. I had my surgery done, which actually went pretty well and I forgot about it.

Almost a year passes and a week ago I get a bill out of no where for an additional $500 related to my surgery. I call SmileCare to see why and they tell me it's because my insurance denied the claim for the anesthesia. They let me know that my insurance plan actually doesn't cover the cost of general anesthesia and I have to pay them the difference. I called my insurance company and they told me that it's actually ILLEGAL for a company to bill someone after they perform the surgery just because they didn't check with my insurance first. By agreeing to take the insurance when they performed surgery, SmileCare agreed to go by the costs of the insurance plan and they can't bill me afterwards just because they were too lazy to call my insurance company and ask about the basic benefits of my plan.

So now I'm in the process of getting this all cleared up so that SmileCare can't mess up my credit.

I went on Google Reviews to put in a bad review about this place, and I saw that there were several other people with similar complaints about this particular office over the last couple of years. Then I found out that all Smile Cares are run by a corporation, apparently with policies to scam people out of their money. I checked and saw even more bad reviews for other Smile Care Dentals across the state. Almost all the complaints have to do with horrible service, ineptitude, and other issues that somehow end up with people paying more money. If anyone is interested in starting a class-action lawsuit against them, I'd definitely be interested.