COAST DENTAL COAST DENTAL Merritt Island PRACTICE SUPPORT OFFICE 5706 Benjamin Center Drive Suite 103 Tampa, FL 33634(813) 288-1999 Phone(813) 289-4500 Fax COAST DENTAL CHEATS CUSTOMERS BY OVER BILLING AND REFUSING TO PROVIDE REFUND Merritt Island Florida

To Whom it may concern about Coast Dental,

I received dental services from COAST DENTAL on January 30, 2017 ( 8 months and counting).  I thought the price charged ($647) was excessive since my dental plan with Cigna was much lower for these services.

I met with a Cigna representative and filed a complaint since this charges were well above the written agreement. The representative agreed and investigated the mattewr with Coast Dental. 

The office manager of Coast Dental ( Pat) told me verbally that I had a refund coming that was over $400.00 and it would take 6 to 8 weeks to get this to me.  I know that mistakes can be made by anyone. I was glad to see that they were planning to refund the money, although two months seemed to be an excessive amount of time to refund my HSA account.

The Coast Dental Office manager (Pat) said "I had the wrong billing numers in my computer" resulting in the mistake. Of course, I knew they were cheating me but I decided to let her save face. It is likely that they have done this to many customers and they did not elect to protest, investigate, and hold them accountable for this overbilling practice.

Several months passed by and I never received a refund on my HSA (Mastercard) account or by any other means. I statrted to openly express my discontent in their refusal to provide me with the stated refund. This should have been done instantly.

I had to call Cigna several times before they opened a formal investigation. After 30 days of hasseling Coast Dental they sent me a letter dated , July 21, 2017, stating that Coast Dental (Gretchen) agreed to only an overpayment of only $$313.00. No one justified the difference of the original amount that was over $400 (The office manager - Pat) and what Gretchen told Cigna. Grethen told Cigna that they would give a "Credit" to my account. 

No one agreed to any credit. The understanding was that they overbilled me and a refund was to be provided to me within 6 to 8 weeks. They basically cheated me and had no intention of refunding anything from the very beginning.

Cigna called Coast Dental on July 31 and spoke again to the office manager (Pat). She told Cigna that they would "put in for a refund, but it might take an additional three months".

I was pretty upset at this this point, so I drove to Coast Dental (July 31, 2017) and confronted Pat directly and demanded my money be paid immediately. I complained about this incompetency of their office. I told Pat at Coast Dental that she had a week to address the situation before I hired an attorney and tacked on court and attorney fees to this bill. I demanded all my records and X-rays and left.

I received zero response from their organization. On August 17, 2017, a formal demand letter was sent from my attorney , by certified mail, demanding for this refund. They were given two weeks to respond. My attorney and I received no response as of October 30, 2017. This was 3 months since the last time Pat told Cigna, I would get a refund.

It was very clear at this point that they had no intention of returning any money ever. 

I filed a small claims action in the Brevard County Court - Case # 05-2017-SC-48515 asking for the refund, court cost, attorney fees. The local Sherriff's  office suggested that they would be severed this legal suit on or about Oct 25, 2017. 

They have already admitted to me and Cigna that the refund is due, so this will be an easy judgement against their office for all the attorney fees and court cost on top of the original bill.