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Facts you should know about dental insurance
Most dental practices like to
help their patients maximize their benefits. Many practices file
claims for patients at no charge. However, to avoid
misunderstandings about your out-of-pocket costs when you have dental
insurance, it would help if we share some facts about this benefit with
you. Facts about dental
insurance:
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FACT #1: Dental insurance is
not meant to pay all dental expenses. It is only meant to be an aid to help
defray some of the costs. |
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FACT #2: Dental insurance
limits the number of services it covers. There may be some necessary
services which will not be covered at all. Remember--an insurance
company is not a benevolent charity--it is a business and has a
responsibility to its stockholders to make a profit. Limiting benefits is a
legitimate way to increase profits. |
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FACT #3: Dental insurance
companies also limit the amount they will pay on covered procedures. Each
company calculates this maximum fee for itself, and many companies will not
reveal how they arrive at this fee. Sometimes, they use old data. In this
era of escalating sterilization and infection control costs, some fee
calculations become outdated rather quickly. |
In the past ten years, dental
offices have been implementing strict infection control guidelines in
response to patient demands and growing understanding of the infectious
threats faced in the health care industry. It is now considered a universal
standard to heat sterilize all handpieces between patients. Everything that
goes into a patient's mouth is either sterilized or thrown away. Many other
precautions are taken to insure the safety of patients and staff. A few
years ago, OSHA began developing safety guidelines. Following these
protocols has been expensive, and has caused dental costs to escalate. While
most dental insurance companies have kept up with the increasing costs, some
haven't. These companies have faced a tremendous cost
competition, and to stay competitive they have had to limit benefits. You
need to understand the thinking behind these limitations and not unfairly
blame your dentist for failures by your dental insurance company. |
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