Insurance understanding is super complicated and it usually takes a while to figure out how much I’m going to pay and yet I often get it wrong.

However, my dentist’s story is a lot more complicated.

When I was filling out the forms for being a new patient, I ran into this section:

PLEASE NOTE: Any and all charges incurred for dental services provided are the responsibility of the patient or guarantor of the patient, regardless of any type of third party (i.e. dental insurance).

Any account balance still owing after 60 days from date of service will be assessed a finance charge of 1.5% monthly (18% annual) regardless of delayed, denied, or partial insurance coverage.

We will be happy to bill your dental insurance for you, as a courtesy provided that you bring your insurance card with you to your visit. You may also submit insurance claims yourself.

We must emphasize that as dental care providers, our relationship is with you, not your insurance company, with whom we have no legal relationship.

While the filing of insurance claims is a courtesy that we extend to our patients, all charges are your responsibility from the date the services are rendered.

Maybe a standard form that all doctors make people sign to protect themselves legally, I said to myself.

Let’s take a look at some EOBs (Explanation of benefit) and actual payments

Operation	Amount Insurance paid	My share as in the EOB	Actual Amount I paid
Root Plan 4+th (x2)	291.6$	32.4$	212$
Resin 1srf Post (x5)	720$	130$	155$
Extraction	107.1$	11.9$	136.4$

They also billed my insurance for oral evaluation for every visit that concerns cleaning or any other service, causing a charge of 55$ for the visit of the cleaning that was supposed to be fully covered by my insurance.

This is the first dentist I had in the US since I moved.

I’m about to try seeing other dentist(s) and will get to experience how different things can/should be.

But I’m wondering if I was getting ripped off, and wondering if it is a normal practice in health care.