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A MAN was hit with a $450 dental bill years after paying for his appointment in full – then he realized he wasn’t alone in the issue.
Patient Randy Luedtke was shocked when he received the invoice after he paid in cash for his appointment in 2018 when his doctor offered him a deal.
However, Dr. Loc Nguyen died in 2020, and Luedtke said he stopped going to Dr. Molar’s Office for treatment.
Now, Luedtke and thousands of other patients are tangled in a class action lawsuit in the fallout of the dentist’s office’s accounting mess.
“[Dr. Molar] were really good, back in the day, about offering services to people that needed it and then working with them,” Attorney Nathan DeLadurantey said, according to Fox affiliate WITI.
“The problem is, the back-end on their books were atrocious.”
Luedtke said he never had an issue with the care he got from Nguyen, who even helped him cut costs.
“He said, ‘Well, if you want to pay cash, I can give you a better deal. You don’t have to go through the insurance company.’ “He truly was a good guy,” Luedtke said.
A year after Nguyen died, Luedtke received a collection notice claiming he owed $450.
“It was confusing. How can they come [after me] after I paid in full?” he said.
Bank records confirmed Luedtke’s account, showing a cashed check for $450.72 dated in 2018, WITI reported.
However, Dr. Molar’s offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin were already empty by the time they sent out the notices.
A different dental business had moved into one of the old locations.
The company’s registered agent, Nancy Wilson, initially defended the collections, saying they were part of routine efforts to settle unpaid balances.
But some former patients said they were being chased for money they didn’t owe.
DeLadurantey filed a class action lawsuit to stop the collection efforts.
[Dr. Molar] were really good, back in the day, about offering services to people that needed it and then working with them. The problem is, the back-end on their books were atrocious.”
Attorney Nathan DeLadurantey
He said the dental group was trying to collect on bills that were already paid, written off, or too old to pursue.
“It came home to light that their books were so messed up that none of it was any good,” he said.
Dr. Molar eventually entered receivership, a legal process to settle debts without declaring bankruptcy.
Its court-appointed receiver began selling off company assets and even asked to transfer the billing accounts to a new collector.
DeLadurantey got the court to step in, requiring that anyone being targeted for payment be notified.
Roughly 3,700 people got those notices.
DISPUTED BILLS
One of them was Stacy Rhoads, from Waukesha, who said she always made sure every visit was covered before treatment.
“I was really careful to make sure that everything was covered by insurance before we did anything,” she said.
She and others sent letters to the court disputing the bills.
In March, a Milwaukee County judge issued a permanent injunction blocking further collection efforts.
By then, the receivership was closed, and Dr. Molar had no legal team in place.
DeLadurantey said he didn’t earn anything from the lawsuit but called it one of his most rewarding cases.
