How Doctors Are Pushing Medical Credit Cards on Patients
Time covers another story about crooked dentists putting a "grab bag of crap you don't need" on Synchrony "CareCredit" cards.
I wonder if this dental chain is related to Aspen. The whole "throw a $300 toothbrush in the bag and put it on their new credit card" trick is one that Aspen uses after bill cramming you for thousands of dollars in unnecessary procedures.
Aspen tried to get my spouse's insurance benefits maxed out and said their "care plan" would have been more than $8,000 out of pocket. I ran it by two dentists I trust and they both said that half of what Aspen was trying to bill us was unnecessary and improper.
Promising patients that they don't owe money today and interest is a "problem for next year" is a way to help sell questionable and expensive products and "services" that they may not actually need. It also makes them less likely to question if they can do what they need for much less money elsewhere.
My favorite part was the one where at least one patient got fraudulently billed by a dental office in California for a procedure she did not even have and then turned over to "Cavalry", a collection agency, with interest, for over $4000.
"Sonia Romero, a nursing-home worker from Los Angeles, went to House Dental in South Gate, Calif., in September 2021 to see about replacing some of her missing teeth. She says her dental provider told her to sign some forms to determine her eligibility for a payment plan that would help cover the procedure’s costs, but never mentioned Synchrony or CareCredit. Romero says she signed the forms but ultimately elected not to have the procedure done. So she was surprised when, a few months later, she received a bill from CareCredit for $3,437.
The provider had signed her up for CareCredit and charged her for a procedure she didn’t have—and she says that the provider would not remedy the mistake.
House Dental could not be reached by phone for comment for this story; multiple emailed requests for comment went unreturned.
Romero did not pay the bill, because she never even had the procedure. She thought the ordeal was over until September 2024, when she learned she was being sued by Cavalry SPV I LLC, a debt buyer, for unpaid debt. Cavalry says Romero now owes $4,231.82. She plans to contest the debt in Los Angeles court in July 2025. 'I was vulnerable because I’m embarrassed about my teeth,' Romero says, 'and they took advantage of it.'"
My personal opinion is that it probably wasn't a mistake, it was probably just flat out fraud. A lot of these dental chains are not honest businesses. If they start asking you to give them your Social Security number and sign forms to screen you for loan products, I would go on high alert.
Ideally, you won't go to a dentist unless you're insured, they're in network, and you have the money for the co-pay. And if it's not an emergency you might consider running their treatment plan by other dentists first.
If it's something you can't afford, consider dental hygeine schools or dental colleges where you can get the work done much cheaper, and they're not in there trying to defraud you or put a $300 toothbrush in a bag on the way out and slap everything on a 40% interest credit card.
This Synchrony card appears to be sucking another $4 billion or so, annually, in interest payments, out of healthcare consumers in America, which already face exorbitant prices, which is why doctors, dentists, and vets are waving the stupid card in your face. This product is clearly not an answer for people struggling to afford healthcare.
