Dental Insurance Plan May Still Leave Bill For Patient
Even with the best dental insurance plan, a patient can end up with a hefty bill as more dentists are opting out of accepting insurance company's payments for their services. Many medical doctors and facilities have agreed to accept payments lower than their normal charges, enabling insurers to reduce out-of-pocket expenses to their subscribers. Dentists however, are not as quick to sign on to a dental insurance plan and are rejecting the lower payments being offered.
There are essentially three basic types of plans, one is paid for by employers either fully funded or with premium partially paid by the employer; another is personal dental insurance fully paid by the individual and there are plan offering a dental insurance plan paid by the patient, but limit the dentists a person can visit.
With many employer-funded plans, many dentists will not accept the insurance as payment in full for their services. Dentists will accept insurance payment for part of their usual charges, requiring the patient to pay the difference usually before service is received. Even with the person paying for their own dental insurance plan, there may still be charges the patient is required to pay before receiving dental care.
Discount Plans Work Like Network Medical Offerings
New dental insurance plans being offered are typically with member dental offices agreeing to accept discounted payments for many services, with the drawback being a member is limited to the dentists they can see, having to be members of the plan. These plans are similar to many network plans for healthcare, in that doctors, hospitals and other providers need to belong to the same network for the reduced rate to be available.
With dental care an important part of the public's overall healthcare, the need for dental insurance continues to rise. With many office visits costing a minimum of $50 or more with no work being included in the price, people are finding the need for some sort of dental insurance plan necessary to reduce the cost. Just because an employer offers dental insurance does not guarantee there will be a choice of dentists willing to accept the insurance form as payment. Many include annual cleaning and examinations and some work such as X-rays, but any other work must be paid by the subscriber.
People are finding that they need to check the acceptance of a dental insurance plan before signing up for a plan that may offer few benefits for the employee or their family. Premiums may begin as low as $35 a month with little or nothing available in return for their investment.
