Dental hygienist notices her patient was advised to get a ‘panel’ again. She asks the front desk, they say it’s because of ‘new insurance’
The healthcare system seems to be more complicated than we know of
Some people argue that the medical system is unfair to many. Rising healthcare costs and a lack of transparency leave many feeling crushed. Valeria (@itsvalrdh), a dental hygienist, is taking to TikTok to highlight how dental practices are taking advantage of patients, sharing an incident she experienced herself.
“I understand why people don’t trust the dentist. I am literally so upset that I am shaking,” Valeria said in the opening of her video, before mentioning that she is a dental hygienist who does temporary jobs in different offices. Speaking about one of the offices where she works, Valeria admitted she doesn’t align with their work ethic and gave an example.
She said that she had a patient who wanted her to take a “panel,” which needs to be taken every two to three years. Valeria said she reviewed the patient’s past X-rays and noticed he had had a panel in April of the same year, so she informed the clinic’s staff.
“So I go up to the front desk, and I’m like, hey, um, there’s a panel treatment plan for him, but he had one in April. Why do we need another panel?” Valeria said, recounting what she said to the person. Valeria then repeated the person’s response and said, “And she goes, oh, well, he has new insurance, so his insurance covers it. And I was just like, what?”
Valeria then said she went back to her room and removed the insurance code because she didn’t want to put it on her license, as it wasn’t ethical. However, she mentioned that after the patient left, the clinic put the code back again and charged it to their insurance.
“We don’t trust the medical field at all”
Valeria called what the clinic did insurance fraud and urged dental hygienists to take action if they notice something similar to what she did. She explained why this matters, emphasizing that patients are usually unaware of what is happening. “If we just say, like, well, this is not my problem, I’m not gonna get involved, it’s never going to change. It’s just still gonna keep happening. And patients are literally being taken advantage of, and they don’t even know,” she said.
Valeria’s video received over 2 thousand comments, and some of them showed a lack of trust in the medical system. One user wrote, “The dentist. Honey, we don’t trust the medical field at all.” Another said, “lol not just dental. All of healthcare is fraud lol.”
A few others spoke of their own experiences with the healthcare system. One user described noticing a surgeon using unfair means to bill a person’s insurance and said they took matters into their own hands. They said, “I used to work front desk and I had a surgeon who would always bill out a pano, and he would keep adding it back even though the insurnace wouldn’t pay. So when he left for the night, I would go through and delete them all.”
Another individual said, “this is happening more than we realize!!! An office I temped at made me do this too, and I was so confused!” Several others shared similar accounts.
If you go by what people in the comments section are saying, it seems medical malpractice, some more serious than the others, is happening more often than not. So in situations like this, where everything happens in a hush-hush manner, people like Valeria restore faith in the medical system. Unfortunately, it might not be enough.
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