Dr. Beverly Broadwell, DDS

If you disagree with an item billed to your insurance company.... you are told to seek services elsewhere

I had been a patient of Dr. Broadwell's practice partner (and husband) Dr. Hartung for a couple of years and was very happy with his work. Both dentists are good dentists and medically they both do a great job. That said, Dr. Hartung is a better communicator and easier to work with. My final visit to Broadwell Family Dentistry's practice involved Dr. Broadwell (after doing a crown) asking "Since we're already here, why don't we see if there's anything else we might need to do?" after we'd already completed the ~30+ minute morning procedure. No mention of additonal fees was made or alluded to. We found a cavity to be filled and I returned that afternoon for the filling (easily scheduled). As a cash patient, I was shown what our total for the day was (including the morning crown procedure and xrays and pending filling) that afternoon after my cleaning and before my filling. Dr. Broadwell had charged me that morning for what I felt was a $60 "bill padding" exam fee on top of my… procedure fee for the morning (that already had her looking at and working on my teeth for quite a long time - remember the "why don't we look..." question at the end?). This was a surprise, especially as I was already prepared to pay the additional $300+ fee for the filling procedure. At no point was there ever mention of this additional exam fee until after the fact and the projected total was presented. The previously-undisclosed xrays and exam fees were approaching $400. My problem was with the $60 portion of this that I felt was an "extra add-on" exam charge. Given that I was willing to proceed with the additional treatments (filling) that would have made it a $1000+ day of procedures, and felt that the surprise additional $60 exam fee (on top of the morning crown procedure, xrays, cleaning, and pending filling) was an inappropriate add-on charge, I asked for the $60 fee to be removed. Dr. Broadwell refused to remove it and would not discuss it with me, acting only through her (very nice and pleasant) front desk staff. When I pressed the issue further, never yelling or causing a scene, but standing firm on the issue (personally convinced this was an unfair fee assignment that would not stand under any reasonable scrutiny for normal written NC standards of dental practice), she finally came out front with a check for $60 and a curtly written request for me to find another dentist - never discussing the add-on fee with me or why she had added it on to the running bill. Very disappointing to say the least. Simple, direct communication and disclosure (or a good faith explanation/justification of the fee), combined with a less defensive posture regarding billing/fees, could have easily prevented this. Again, Drs. Hartung and Broadwell are both good practitioners of dental medicine and you will be happy with this practice and I still recommend the practice, especially if you have dental insurance. If you are a cash customer, make sure you know up front about every potential fee so as to avoid unecessary surprises.