Question:
Okay, so here is my complaint to the California Dental Board. I
suspect nothing at all will come of it at all. And I don't expect to
find a sympathetic ear here. Many or most of you likely preceive me
as the proverbial "patient from hell." But what do you think I should
do? I repetatedly politely asked for the lab certificate and was told
it did not exist. When I called the office manager to calmly,
politely and rationally discuss what is allowable under the policy, I
was hung up on. Whether I'm correct or not on this I have no choice
but to go this route if the office flat out refuses to discuss the
matter. And I'm pretty sure I'm correct on everything I've alleged
thus far.
Answer:
The California Dental Board does not generally address issues of
contract law, unless other laws were broken.
The Board is charged with conducting necessary discipline where the
statutory laws have been broken. No complaint to the board has much of
a chance of prevailing unless the complainant can show a violation of
the statutes, or alternatively, he is dying in a hospital as a result
of treatment.
Our wonderful state government has chosen to rob the Dental Board of
almost all of its reserve and operating funds, in order to cover up
the huge state budget deficit caused by negligent planning on the part
of the governor and legislature. Thus the Board has insufficient funds
to hire the personnel necessary to fully investigate complaints.
I would be fascinated to know what kind of response is received from
the Board.
Any dentist would welcome in his patients a passion for dental health.
You seem to be exhibiting a lot of passion here. BUT -- is there
really a passion for your dental health, or is it all just a passion
for your wallet? I don't know, but both the subject and the tone of
your communications seem to suggest that your wallet is more important
to you than your health.
If this is not the case, I'd like to see some passion for HEALTH in
future messages that matches the passion for monetary analysis.
As I had suggested before, go to the dental association Peer Review
system. It is free and there are no government bureacracies to stiff
you. Wait -- you DID check to confirm that at the very least, this
dentist was a dental association member, before you would trust your
health to him -- right??
After all, some dentists don't join the dental association because
they don't want to be subject to Peer Review.
And I'm pretty sure that I'm correct in observing that going to an
"assigned" dentist from ANY capitation plan is generally a poor idea.
You commented on the fact that a capitation dentist can't make a
decent profit UNLESS he pushes patients into "upgrades." This has been
well known to dentists for decades, but very few patients have figured
it out. You have analyzed the situation FAR better than most patients!
The obvious question becomes, knowing what you do about this sort of
"plan," WHY would you put your own heath in peril by joining it?? I
still don't have that figured out.
