Dealing with insurance companies at the best of times is challenging. We have car insurance, household insurance, life insurance, income protection insurance, indemnity insurance, health insurance and the list goes on………..
Insurance is a ‘no brainer,’ we all need it, we can’t live without it, but who likes it? No one I know enjoys having to call your car insurance company to make a claim, or household insurance to tell them you’ve been broken into. Inevitable questions arise, will they cover me? Can I have a repairer of my choice? Am I underinsured and will they send a loss adjuster to investigate and reduce my claim? Dealing with insurance companies is not fun no matter which way you look at!
So why put your dental health and treatment in the hands of an insurance company whose sole desire is to make a profit, often for distribution of dividends to their shareholders. Do you really think that stock exchange listed insurance companies such as BUPA, Medibank Private, HCF etc. have your ongoing dental welfare at heart?
Patients who attend ‘preferred provider’ dental insurance clinics often are not aware of the ‘Business Rules’ that dictate to the dentist which treatments they are allowed to offer and how often. Go into an Insurance Office … if you can find one that is still open and ask to see these rules, I have. The array of answers you will most likely get is amusing….’What do you mean?’ was one response I got. “The rules that describe (dictate) how many treatments I can get and how often and the exact monetary rebate I will receive for my treatment?” I replied. “Oh, that right here” I was told and handed a tri-fold A4 glossy sales brochure. When I insisted on actually seeing the ‘Business Rules,’ pretty much like the PDS (product disclosure statement) we are told to read before signing up for any type of insurance, the agent said that she would have to check with her manager and then disappeared behind a partition, never to be seen again.
At Cosmetic Dental and Implant Centre (CDIC) and the All On Four Clinics we believe in a totally different approach. We treat all our patients the same regardless of their dental insurance status.
An ethical dentist should treatment plan each and every case the same whether a third party dental insurance company is involved or not. Our patients treatments are planned as though they are family members offering the very best each time and the cost discussed once optimal treatment planning has been completed…That way the patient is given a choice…hmmmmmm, don’t those dental insurance companies call it something like ‘members choice?’
What choice I say?
