Private equity, a term for legal rip offs....
$2,540 for 2 fillings? Poor hit by high costs at dental chain
Aspen Dental faces complaints of overcharging, performing unneeded care
By David Heath
The Center for Public Integrity
updated 7/1/2012 2:41:00 PM ET
Surviving on a meager $1,300 a month, 87-year-old Theresa Ferritto fretted about the cost when her dentist told her she needed two teeth pulled.
She figured an oral surgeon would be too expensive. So she decided to try out a dental chain that promoted steep discounts in its advertisements. She went to an Aspen Dental office just outside Cleveland.
Ferritto said Aspen Dental wouldn’t just pull the teeth but insisted on a complete exam. She was bewildered when they finally handed her a treatment planfour pages long. Total price: $7,835.
Ferritto could not afford it, but Aspen Dental signed her up for a special credit card, with monthly payments of $186 for five years. She blames herself for signing the papers.
“I made a big mistake going there,” she says. “I should have known better.”
After a day of cleanings and two fillings, Ferritto asked her son for help. He called Aspen Dental to complain but said he got nowhere. So they turned to the state Attorney General.
Aspen Dental took all charges off her credit card for treatments she hadn’t yet received. But said the $2,540 she was charged for two fillings and cleanings was appropriate.
Aspen Dental charged Ferritto $350 for an antibiotic put next to teeth the dentist was going to pull, a charge other dentists say makes no sense. There were four separate charges for an antibacterial rinse similar to Listerine for $129. There was even a $149 charge for an electric toothbrush that Ferritto didn’t even know she had, until she recently retrieved an Aspen Dental bag from her garage and found it inside.
Imagine how many groceries that would buy, she sighed.
When asked if Ferritto was taken advantage of, Aspen Dental chief executive Robert Fontana said, “I hope that the team was clear about what she needed and that that she completely understood what she was getting into. And hopefully, you know, she made the choices that she thought was right for her.”
Aspen Dental is a chain of nearly 350 offices in 22 states managed by a company
owned by a private-equity firm. It is part of a fast-growing industry of corporate dental practices, many of which specialize in serving people who cannot afford to go to the dentist, a group many dentists ignore.
By marketing to people who haven’t seen a dentist in years, Aspen Dental often gives new patients treatment plans costing thousands of dollars. The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) and FRONTLINE spent months examining Aspen Dental and found that the same business model that makes Aspen Dental accessible to people short on cash can also lock people into debt and has led to complaints of patients being overcharged or given unnecessary treatments.
more:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48033848/ns/health-health_care/
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