Have you ever been scammed by a doctor/dentist?

[TheBlondBomber]

Has a doctor or dentist or other health care professional ever tried to scam you by telling you that you need an expensive operation or drug when you feel fine? I feel like this would be easy to do and that only thing that is stopping them is their ethics, which can be easily explained away.

I bring this up because I'm pretty sure I got scammed by my dentist. I go in there for my yearly checkup and the dental hygenist keeps on asking if my teeth are in any pain. They aren't in ant pain at all. She does her checkup, does X-rays and the dentist comes in and tells me I have five cavities. I'm really surprised because I haven't had a cavity since I was like 6, I brush 3 times a day, and I generally have nice teeth. He schedules fillings for the next day, fills them and then charges me $2500. Fast forward a week and my teeth are in so much more pain than when I had "cavities". I did some research and found out that looking at x-rays for cavities can be very subjective and that a dentist can say any sort of erosion is merit for drilling, filling and billing.

Has anyone else had an experience like this or am I looking to far into this conspiracy?

 

[John Wang]

Nope. Never go to doctor or dentist crew checking in.

 

[Chesten_Hesten]

I've certainly had doctors pad their bill with superfluous bullshit.

 

[jefferz]

All I know is google experts> people that went to school for it

 

[Primitivo]

You don't need dentists or doctors if you snort Xanax.

 

[LATEXXX COMMANDO]

I'm sure I have.

Had it happen to a family member, Dentist.

 

[Damien Karras]

Doctors in my province are starting to charge their patients for superfluous BS even though we have universal healthcare. Some charge 20 dollars for eye drops, and/or 30 dollars for doctor's notes. Doctors get paid by the state for each patient they see. Clinic administrators used to deduct the overhead costs from provincial transfers, but now doctors are paying their support staff and facilities through charging these extra fees and the docs pocket all the money given to them by the state. Thank god our minister of health is going to put a stop to that.

I've had one dentist tell me I needed braces. I then got a second and third opinion and both dentists were like "hell no, you have perfect teeth minus the tiny overbite". That's when I learned not to fully trust all dentists.

*edit* my friend's brother is a doctor and admitted to me while he was drunk that he purposely deferred clients from seeing a specialist just so he can prolong followups and subsequently get payed for. He said that's how he can afford his Porsche Cayenne Turbo. He said this with a smirk.

 

[Joseph Budden]

My dentist kind of tried scamming me.

I had to go in for an emergency appointment cause my tooth was KILLING me. I was concerned I'd need a root canal. He just put some filling in the tooth, and gave me his friend's card to be looked at further for a root canal. Urged me to call and make an appointment as soon as I left.

Well, I didn't. My tooth is/was fine. Maybe i'm paranoid, but seemed like he was trying to get his buddy some money at my expense.

 

[hbdope]

Doctors in my province are starting to charge their patients for superfluous BS even though we have universal healthcare. Some charge 20 dollars for eye drops, and/or 30 dollars for doctor's notes. Doctors get paid by the state for each patient they see. Clinic administrators used to deduct the overhead costs from provincial transfers, but now doctors are paying their support staff and facilities through charging these extra fees and the docs pocket all the money given to them by the state. Thank god our minister of health is going to put a stop to that.

I've had one dentist tell me I needed braces. I then got a second and third opinion and both dentists were like "hell no, you have perfect teeth minus the tiny overbite". That's when I learned not to fully trust all dentists.

*edit* my friend's brother is a doctor and admitted to me while he was drunk that he purposely deferred clients from seeing a specialist just so he can prolong followups and subsequently get payed for. He said that's how he can afford his Porsche Cayenne Turbo. He said this with a smirk.

If he came to the US to work he'd be able to afford 2 or 3 Porsche Cayenne Turbo's without turning to healthcare fraud.

 

[Damien Karras]

If he came to the US to work he'd be able to afford 2 or 3 Porsche Cayenne Turbo's without turning to healthcare fraud.

I think he could afford his Cayenne Turbo regardless. Maybe not 2 or 3. He was just being smug and nonchalant. The guy has a massive God complex.

There is too much incentive combined with too little oversight for doctors and dentists to scam people.

 

[Prime Ang]

Yea, been getting bills in th email from a surgical group and I haven't had surgery for over 4 years and it's all paid off.

 

[El_Dyablo619]

Dental fraud is huge. More so than healthcare imo. Only good thing is if you have insurance, tell your dentist you want it pre-authorized by your insurance. Then get your price through your insurance provider. My wife almost paid $750 when our share after insurance was $200

 

[TheBlondBomber]

My dentist kind of tried scamming me.

I had to go in for an emergency appointment cause my tooth was KILLING me. I was concerned I'd need a root canal. He just put some filling in the tooth, and gave me his friend's card to be looked at further for a root canal. Urged me to call and make an appointment as soon as I left.

Well, I didn't. My tooth is/was fine. Maybe i'm paranoid, but seemed like he was trying to get his buddy some money at my expense.

Yeah I can see that happening. Mine was he opposite. I just went in for a checkup with no pain at all and now after he drilled and filled, I wake up every two hours because my tooth hurts. The dentist was the only one to gain any sort of benefit in that situation. I guess we just have to be paranoid when they try to fix something that is not wrong.

 

[Joseph Budden]

Yeah I can see that happening. Mine was he opposite. I just went in for a checkup with no pain at all and now after he drilled and filled, I wake up every two hours because my tooth hurts. The dentist was the only one to gain any sort of benefit in that situation. I guess we just have to be paranoid when they try to fix something that is not wrong.

Glad I never called my dentist's friend or I could be in the same spot as you

 

[hbdope]

I think he could afford his Cayenne Turbo regardless. Maybe not 2 or 3. He was just being smug and nonchalant. The guy has a massive God complex.

There is too much incentive combined with too little oversight for doctors and dentists to scam people.

I know in London's NHS system, Orthopedic surgeons were incentivized (payed more per surgery) for geriatrics and for pediatrics. Family practitioners were also paid well relative to a specialist considering hours worked and complexity of patients.

But fraud does happen here too even though the avg pay is much higher than Canada or London. There is a doctors office in NY that wanted to take the PSA of my 27 year old friend even though he has no family history of prostate cancer and HE'S 27 YEARS OLD. The USPSTF has even stopped their recommendation of a PSA screen for prostate cancer.

 

[bufetadanacara]

Doctors in my province are starting to charge their patients for superfluous BS even though we have universal healthcare. Some charge 20 dollars for eye drops, and/or 30 dollars for doctor's notes. Doctors get paid by the state for each patient they see. Clinic administrators used to deduct the overhead costs from provincial transfers, but now doctors are paying their support staff and facilities through charging these extra fees and the docs pocket all the money given to them by the state. Thank god our minister of health is going to put a stop to that.

I've had one dentist tell me I needed braces. I then got a second and third opinion and both dentists were like "hell no, you have perfect teeth minus the tiny overbite". That's when I learned not to fully trust all dentists.

*edit* my friend's brother is a doctor and admitted to me while he was drunk that he purposely deferred clients from seeing a specialist just so he can prolong followups and subsequently get payed for. He said that's how he can afford his Porsche Cayenne Turbo. He said this with a smirk.

That doctor should be in jail and never practice medicine again, if you ask me.

 

[mjmj]

My dentist kind of tried scamming me.

I had to go in for an emergency appointment cause my tooth was KILLING me. I was concerned I'd need a root canal. He just put some filling in the tooth, and gave me his friend's card to be looked at further for a root canal. Urged me to call and make an appointment as soon as I left.

Well, I didn't. My tooth is/was fine. Maybe i'm paranoid, but seemed like he was trying to get his buddy some money at my expense.

Umm, you told him your tooth was “KILLING” you, and now you’re claiming he was trying to scam you by urging you to see someone about a root canal? YOU told him it hurt, what did you expect him to say?



At least in America, it’s pretty difficult for them to “scam” you, but not impossible. The insurance companies won’t approve anything without seeing proof that it’s necessary. If they look at an x-ray and determine they don’t think it warrants a procedure, they won’t approve it. I’ve been lucky, nearly all of the Drs I’ve seen have been very honest and tried to prevent any unnecessary procedures. And at 40 with 3 surgeries so far, I’ve seen a number of Drs. I did have one neurosurgeon that I won’t go back to. I had a lot of foot/leg pain because of some pinched nerves/ruptured disc in my back. When I went for the first visit, literally the first thing out of his mouth was “When do you want to schedule the surgery”. He also said “The only risk is no more pain”. That was all a line of shit. Fast forward a year, after the surgery and later rupturing my disc again, I visit another surgeon that explained a number of other options the original surgeon never mentioned. There was even a drug he prescribed to help with the exact issue I was having.

Usually, you can get a read by talking to them if you think they’re honest or not. Some come off as particularly arrogant or not interested in anything but getting to the next patient. I try to avoid them. About the best thing you can do is use Drs other people recommend.

Almost forgot, try to avoid “pain management” clinics as much as possible. I had to go to one for a while for my back, it was the only way to get meds for it. It was a pill factory, most of the people sitting in there were clearly there just for the pills. That placed tried to milk you for anything they could. They would try to convince me to get an MRI once or twice a year, for no reason.

 

[Oeshon]

Hard not to be scammed by a doctor if you live in Asia. All the hospitals in Thailand will charge foreigners more than locals. They will add random shit to your hospital bill or simply double the price of stuff. You then have to negotiate the bill afterwards.

I had a bill for 25,000 baht (around 800 USD) that I negotiated down to 11,800 baht after arguing some of the things listed on there.

 

[Vil7]

As far as medical scams I know a lot of dentists will try to pressure people to get fillings that aren't necessary yet. Also hospitals will pressure you to get surgery even if recovery through physical therapy is possible.

 

[RoryFan]

lol @ paying for healthcare.