Greetings!
With every new year comes a clear slate and hopefully, a new perspective on old issues. One of the challenges that keeps popping up is dental insurance. We know that the way our patients - and potential patients - view dental insurance has an impact on the choices they make. It can have a huge impact on how successful we can be in providing optimal care.
We can learn to work more effectively with these patients and influence them to think differently about the role insurance plays in their care. This newsletter is dedicated to helping you learn how to make this shift in thinking among you, your staff, and your patients.
While this article can help jump-start you and your team and provide a new direction for dealing with insurance, change really becomes fruitful with the help of a gifted facilitator and communicator who can help your unique team learn skills that apply the concepts in your practice every day.
If insurance has become an ever-present challenge for your team, we recommend Sandy's Private Insurance Workshop Team Teleconference for your future staff meetings. You and your staff will receive private sessions with Sandy to learn how to handle the toughest insurance-related questions and situations.
Click on the program icon to get more details and call MaryBeth now to receive your discount ($200 off) and reserve your time with Sandy.
Thanks for reading!
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The Five Truths of Dental Insurance
by Sandy Roth
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With the debate raging in this country over health care reform, isn't it interesting that we have heard not a peep about dental insurance? Perhaps it is because dental coverage is miniscule compared to the larger health care picture. Nevertheless, the issue of dental insurance has an impact on almost every dental practice, especially in the current economic climate.
Deciding whether to participate in any dental plan is simply a business decision and not a reflection of one's character or standards. This business decision is one based on many factors including community culture and conditions, prevailing expectations, the local business climate and economy, your practice model and financial needs. In some areas, virtually no dentist could afford to not participate in a plan that dominates the community; in other areas, the conditions allow a greater range of choice.
If you have chosen not to accept assignment or participate in any plan, chances are that it has had an impact on your practice. Some potential new patients may not even consider your practice as you are not "in network" and thus they would have a higher out of pocket payment, which is more or less difficult given the individual's personal financial situation. Some existing patients may find it increasingly difficult to justify the additional costs associated with your practice versus another which has agreed to accept a lower fee. Thus, some patients may be considering a move which they would rather not make. This is not good news for you.
First, let's understand exactly what dental "insurance" actually is. Quite simply, it is a pre-paid benefit, usually provided by an employer and the degree of the benefit is wholly determined by what your employer has been willing to pay the carrier. So, of course, dental insurance isn't really insurance at all. It is only a way of defraying some of the costs of some of the services the patient authorizes the dentist to provide. (Do you and your staff characterize it this way with patients?) Frankly, this is not a bad thing on the surface. Anything that helps people pay for at least some of their dentistry is more than if they had no help at all. The array of services, the level of reimbursement, the maximum, the percentage, and the co-pays however are all determined by some Wizard of Insurance OZ, who operates behind a creepy facade. So what's the problem?
The patients' erroneous thinking that they are limited by their insurance coverage. And... the patient's incorrect thinking that the insurance company knows what is clinically appropriate and therefore would cover necessary services. In order to shift our own thinking and those of our patients, we need to understand the following Five Truths:
The Five Truths of Dental Insurance
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