The importance of your choice of healthcare providers -can not be commoditized. That is if you are a shopper whose choice of the provider is based on the lowest bid, you will not win! We are all frustrated with our national health care system. The system is full of problems. The choices are infinite. Ant the choices are infinitely confusing. If you expect to get the same diagnosis and subsequent treatment plan from different dentist, you are sadly naive it won’t happen. Those dentists have different levels of training, experience, judgement and agendas. They may work for a third party provider or work for themselves. Their benefits and motivations may be totally different. Your choice will make all the difference in your outcome and expense now and later. You must take responsibility for your choices. Investigate, question, become educated of your situation. It is your alone. Follow your heart. Only to go to the one you trust. The real cost issue is important when you consider the outcome, not just the immediate problems. Consider more than your oral health because more is involved than just your oral health. You can not separate your oral health and the rest of your health. They are connected and related.
I can think of little that I see which causes so much harm as placing so much emphasis on dental insurance when considering who, what, and when relative to choosing dental care providers for yourself. I know this is a strong statement but it is true. Patients very often will tell me “my insurance will not allow that”. Therefore the patient does without taking actions that they would benefit from. Patients tell me I have to go to a particular list of doctors who the insurance plan dictates. These doctors may or may not be the clinicians who can, or will deliver the same quality or treatment free choice doctors would. How much does the diminished compensation for services effect the treatment rendered of the true results long term? What is the agenda of the listed providers? Patients often tell me they save so much money by going to the dictated listed provider over the provider who are outside their plan.
Lets take a look at numbers, if the total annual benefit of their plan is $1000 to $1500 dollars per year. Take away $25- $50 per month premium – the total benefit is $700 – $900 per year, for which gives up the choice of providers, type and extent of treatment that is intimately related not only to oral health, oral appearance, oral comfort but also long term total body optimal health.
We all have choices on insurance, I could be on the lists of preferred providers as well. But for my practice and my patients, I find it is better benefit to not do so. When you are told what you can and can not do on treatment of oral care, as well as what you have to charge when treating your patient, I opted out. The billing codes for the charged fees added to each patients bill can be dictated by the insurance policy ending up charging you for every little item. Example – charge for injection, charge for gauzes, charge for x-rays, and the list goes on. We try at Healthy Body Dental to keep these minimal charges down only charging you what is totally necessary for the work we did. Now of your insurance does allow you to go out of network meaning it lets you choose who you would like to see that works.
Your choice of providers effect much more than your dental health. The real cost to oral health or oral disease is different than you might have thought.
