ARIZONA — An Arizona dental patient used artificial intelligence tools, including ChatGPT and Otter.ai, to dispute a $1,201.80 dental bill after her insurance company informed her that her actual responsibility for services rendered was far less than what she had been charged. She never paid the disputed balance.

The patient received a bill totaling $3,320.49 after her first appointment at a new dental office. The charges covered a cleaning, an at-home treatment for gum disease, a teeth-grinding retainer, and a full mouth irrigation. She paid $2,111.29 out of pocket for items not covered by insurance, including tax and a credit card fee. Her dental insurance later informed her that her responsibility for the services was $1,201.80, less than the amount she had already paid.

She had provided her insurance information by phone and via an electronic form prior to her appointment but was paired with a dentist who did not accept her insurance. A review of the bill revealed several irregularities: it included a charge for an oral cancer screening test she did not consent to, a $35 charge for oral hygiene instruction, and facial photographic images billed at seven times her insurance's allowed rate. The bill also included both a periodontal evaluation and a comprehensive oral evaluation on the same day, which her insurance did not allow to be billed together.

To challenge the charges, the patient used ChatGPT to analyze her dental bill and identify billing issues. She used Otter.ai to transcribe her calls with her insurance company. She then uploaded the call transcripts, her appointment receipt, explanation of benefits, and appeal instructions into ChatGPT, which generated an appeal letter in under a minute. She revised the appeal letter five times before submitting it.

Her first insurance appeal was denied because the provider had scheduled her with an out-of-network dentist. She uploaded the denial letter into ChatGPT, which summarized the document and suggested submitting a second-level appeal along with a complaint to the Arizona Department of Insurance. She followed through on both steps, submitting a formal second-level appeal and filing the complaint.

After her second-level appeal, the dental office did not send her a bill for services not covered by insurance. She never paid the $1,201.80 balance.

The patient returned to her previous dental office, a 45-minute drive from her home, where she had been a patient since childhood. She had maintained good dental health with only one cavity in 33 years and attributed this to having the same dentist since age 4.