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Report: #573199

Complaint Review: Safeguard Dental (A Met-Life Corp) - Internet

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Marc — N Hollywood California United States of America
  • Author Not Confirmed What's this?
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  • Safeguard Dental (A Met-Life Corp) Internet United States of America

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Here's my situation...

I have been to 4 dentist without receiving service. Safeguard is an HMO insurance and pays the dentist a flat monthly amount to provide my dental care. The plan looks great on paper...no max amounts, 5 pages of procedures covered with little or no co-pay. Sounds great right? Well here's how the rip-off goes...You go into the dentist they look you over and tell you what you need.

The problem is, the dentist wants to use materials not covered by Safeguard. The dentist will claim " those materials do not meet the current professional standards of dentistary" and will not preform the procedure's with materials that ARE covered by the Safeguard insurance plan. When you call Safeguard, they tell you they cannot tell the dentist how to run his practice and that your only option is to try another dentist...Which I have (I'm on the 4th one now!) and it takes a full 2months to get another appt with your new dentist. And, go through the same rigamaroe again???

So, the dentist is collecting a monthly payment from Safeguard and has no incentive to actually work on a patient!!! So, whenever a patient needs services the dentist simply prices the patient out of services with trumped charges and the "professional standards" mumbo-jumbo.

For instance: My deep-cleaning is covered..."irrigation" isn't covered...It's $200 bucks for a cup of Listerine!!! I told the dentist I'd pass on the irrigation..."Oh, we can't do the cleaning without the irrigation, it wouldn't meet professional standards."  The insurance is worthless...and the dentist are no better than " Hustling, Used Car Salesmen...Crooks!!!" Any ideas???

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/22/2010 01:13 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/safeguard-dental-a-met-life-corp/internet/safeguard-dental-a-met-life-corp-impossible-to-get-service-internet-573199. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
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3Consumer
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#3 Consumer Comment

PLEASE LIST ALL DENTISTS WHO DENY YOU SERVICE! MAKE A NEW REPORT FOR THEM!

AUTHOR: Faultbreak - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, September 09, 2014

PLEASE LIST ALL DENTISTS WHO DENY YOU SERVICE UNDER THE SCHEDULE OF BENEFITS, AND CREATE A NEW RIPOFF REPORT AGAINST THEM AS WELL. THEY ARE ALL UNETHICAL BASTARDS WHO DESERVE TO LOSE THEIR LICENSE, AS WELL AS THEIR BUSINESS! PLEASE POST ON YELP AS WELL, AND COMPLAIN TO BBB AND ADA!

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#2 Consumer Comment

I AGREE 100% WITH THE COMPLAINT! Safeguard HMO is a scam, and the dentists that are affiliated are unethical!

AUTHOR: Anthony - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, September 09, 2014

My wife and I have had nearly a dozen dentists through Safeguard Dental HMO, and none of them do the work that is listed in the co-pay schedule of benefits. They try to upsell, or lie and charge you extra for lab fees, or create some extra way to charge you far more than the co-pay. My wife needs two crowns, and they are telling her they can't do the crown work unless they do a deep cleaning first (deep cleaning isn't covered on our plan). They want to charge her $1800 for something that should be less than $300, according to our benefits. And it goes on and on. Every dentist we have chosen from their "list" has given us the exact same runaround. I'm so sick of unethical business practices, and from dentists who swore an oath! They take the same oath doctors do. After she said she wasn't going to do the deep cleaning, they said the price for the crowns alone was $800, which is $500 more than our co-pay said. She called Safeguard, and they said the dentist can charge whatever they want for lab fees, but the reality is that they can't charge HMO patients more for lab fees than they charge cash or PPO patients. It's against the law. I'm going to contact the dentist and pretend I'm a cash patient and ask for a breakdown of all fees for the exact crown she is getting. If they end up charging me less because I"m a cash patient, I'll have the proof I need to make a complaint (not that it matters anyway...this is the best way we can fight back. Post negative reviews on Yelp!, complain to the ADA, and post here on the Ripoff Report! IF YOU ARE READING THIS, AND HAVE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM, PLEASE REPLY HERE AND POST A NEW COMPLAINT ON RIPOFF REPORT!

 

 

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#1 Consumer Comment

I totally agree with this poster, and I am on my secound dentist and the dentists will not do a crown for$245

AUTHOR: Swingdancer - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, February 13, 2012

Safeguard premier choice is a scam.. Example, they offer a variety of crowns at no more than $245, and every dentist so far says they cannot do it for that price, instead they want $1450???

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