Delta Dental of Minnesota
Reviews and Complaints

Delta Dental is sayin' that the dentist I went to ain't in their network. But their website clearly says that this dentist is in my insurance network. I've been goin' to this dental office for over 5 years now.

So me and my partner called up Delta Dental of Minnesota and I got given the wrong info, but I went ahead with a service anyway, thinking it was covered. Then I had to make another call and this really rude person told me that spouses can't access the account and I should make my own. But turns out, in Minnesota, spouses can't make their own accounts and have to use their husband's. I had permission to use my husband's account for our child too. I had mentioned Smiled Direct Club multiple times, but nobody said anything until they denied my claim. Another rep told me it was denied because Smiled Direct doesn't give TIN numbers. After I got the right info from Smiled Direct, Delta Dental of Minnesota won't accept it and says I never mentioned any of this. The supervisor basically just wanted me to be quiet so they could keep telling me I was wrong. I really need some help.

I had Delta Dental for a couple of years and besides my dentist always having problems getting payment from Delta Dental, or Delta making errors, things were okay. I went to my dentist for a routine cleaning on January 1st, as we waited until that date when I was eligible for the cleaning. Fast forward to May and my dentist tells me they were refused payment and Delta told them I don't have an insurance plan through them. I call to find out they canceled my insurance on January 1st with no notification or explanation BUT they continued to keep all of my premium payments. Disgusting. So I got a bill from my dentist and I still haven't received a refund of almost $400 in premium payments they kept despite canceling my plan. I called and spoke with various people who had no explanation for anything and they confirmed "you have a credit on your account". Excuse me? The account they canceled!? The rep told me she would have a refund check sent out to me. It's been weeks now and they are located less than 2 miles from me. No refund.

I was expecting a refund of $3190 from Delta Dental of Minnesota for the payment I made to my dentist. They only gave me $957, leaving a balance of $2233. Delta Dental informed me that they would refund this amount in 18 installments of $124.06 each. This means it will take them 1.5+ years to complete the refund. However, they also mentioned that the $124.06 check will not be issued monthly but paid quarterly. So, every three months, I will receive a check of $372.18 (= $124.06 x 3), leaving me without any money for three months between each installment. Shouldn't they include interest on the total refund balance if they are keeping my money for so long? (Although this is not the main issue in my claim).

Furthermore, I originally paid my dentist using my HSA account. According to my HSA provider, I must deposit the money back into my HSA account by the 2021 tax due date (April/2022) to avoid a 20% penalty imposed by the IRS. This means I cannot simply wait for quarterly checks from Delta Dental for the next 1.5 years to deposit the money back into my HSA account. Instead, I will have to pay out of my own pocket in advance to my HSA account to avoid the IRS penalty for an expense that I have already paid to my dentist. (So, my expense will be almost doubled until Delta Dental completes the refund).

In my opinion, Delta Dental should refund the remaining balance of $2233 in one check immediately. It doesn't make sense for them to take 1.5+ years to refund my money.

I had a really frustrating experience with Delta Dental of Minnesota. I have state medical assistance insurance, but every time I called them, I would get transferred to care coordination and then the call would just end without anyone picking up. This happened every single time I called, even though I told customer service about the issue. Today, I called four times to try and find a provider, but each time I was never connected to care coordination. I also tried looking for a provider on their website, but every place I called said they don't accept my insurance.

On the fourth call, I was transferred to a different customer service department, I think, and the person tried to help me by giving me phone numbers of providers. But when I called those clinics, they also said they don't take my insurance. It shouldn't be this hard to find care. I've had this problem before, and it took me a long time to find a dental provider. Unfortunately, the service was really bad and I had to go back multiple times to fix the issue, but it was never resolved in 2020.

I've had to find workarounds by buying Groupons and not getting any dental care until I got dental insurance through one of my jobs. I had to save up money to cover my dental care. Only then did I finally receive proper care and they fixed the poor job from my 2020 dental experience. I ended up leaving that job, and they didn't offer me the option to continue paying for dental care for the rest of the year. Now I'm stuck without dental insurance and I'm having a hard time finding a new provider with Delta Dental.

In early 2022, after a few emails and phone calls with Delta Dental peeps, I applied online to be a provider for their dental insurance thingy. On Feb 11, 2022, they sent me an email saying they accepted my docs. On March 9, Kaitie from Delta Dental hit me up asking if I wanna be a provider for more of their plans. I emailed back on March 29 saying I wanna be a provider for all the same plans as ***. Kaitie told me which plans he was involved with and I signed up for 'em. I made a couple of phone calls and sent an email (no one replied to the email) to check if Delta had everything they needed from me and to ask how much longer till I'm officially in. In mid-April, they told me I'm in and can start doing my thing. On 6/13/22, I found out that one of the plans we talked about earlier wasn't paying me as a provider. We exchanged a few emails over the past couple of days to figure it out. Turns out, Delta Dental didn't get the paperwork I sent to become a provider. Instead of telling me or answering my questions about what else they needed, someone at Delta just used my info from another account and made me a provider. I had no clue about this. It's messing me up financially and causing extra work and stress for me, my team, and our patients. I tried to sort it out with Kaitie at Delta Dental, but no luck. I want them to reimburse me for the money I lost because I wasn't fully credentialed for the plans I asked for, even though I gave 'em all the info they wanted.

My employer offers 2 Delta Dental insurance plans - a basic plan with no out of network coverage (mistakenly called a PPO) and a premier plan. I found a dental office with the Delta logo and they called Delta on my behalf. Delta created a billing and claims account for me, implying that I had coverage. However, this dentist is only in the Delta premier plan, not the basic "PPO" plan I bought. I didn't know this, otherwise I would have chosen a different dentist. The dental office was never informed that I had no coverage for services, yet they had no problems setting up a claims account for me. Both the dental office and I believe that having a billing and claims account means I have some financial coverage. Otherwise, why would Delta create such an account, which incurs labor and bookkeeping expenses? This is Delta's mistake of not disclosing information and a careless mixing of 2 employer plans. Delta denies this, saying that the office should have specifically asked if I had insurance. Delta shouldn't be able to create a claims and bills account for me with a non-plan provider, since this plan is not a PPO and offers no out of network coverage. As a result, I have paid for both insurance and dental services in full. Additionally, Delta failed to send me any EOB forms until over 4 months after my services. I only found out about the issue from the dentist, who had claim denials and a denied appeal. This dentist has been in business for over 20 years, and their senior administrator has never been able to set up a claims account with an insurance company for an uninsured client before. Delta has no right to mix employer plans and create billing accounts when they don't require a copay. They insist that the office and I should have specifically asked about plan eligibility. This is a misleading argument to avoid admitting a business mistake.