Dental Insurance and other ways to pay - Page 3

[gilnikche]

Smilemomma,

I have a question on something you posted on the "G.A. thread" in the Archives. This was from 9-26-2002:

I would absolutely not do general anywhere but in a hospital, with a pediatric anesthesiologist alongside the dentist. The dentist needs to concentrate on the dentistry, and the anesthesiologist can focus on the child. I don't know if the dentist has hospital privileges, if the peds do, etc, so that's a hard one to answer. I'd research them all and interview them all, then go with my gut. Provided the dentist has hospital privileges and can work there, the dentistry isn't any different on an anesthetized patient, so you're fine there. The peds wouldn't work on a 2 year old? So who do they work on? If you love and trust your dentist, I would start there, and get your referrals from him.

Do you think it is safe to have the Anesthesiologist come out to our dentist's office? This is the first time I have heard of anesthesia outside of a hospital or outpatient surgery center.

Carla

[ajsmom]

How screwed up is this? (Insurance Rant!!)

My ds, almost 2 1/2, has 3 cavities that need filling. Our dental plan only covers anesthesia for extractions but our medical insurance covers anesthesia if done in a hospital. The dentist only works in his office, not the hospital.

My only hope is with a dentist in another county who performs procedures in the hospital only if the patient cannot be treated in the office or has another medical condition. Even then, we must get prior authorization.

My frustration comes from being a paying customer for procedures I can't get. This is because my husband's employer did not choose coverage for office procedures!!!

I know it could be worse if we had no coverage but I have too many other things to do besides chase down dentists with my insurance who will work in a hospital. I can't wait until I have to tell my nursling that he can't have anything to eat for 5 hours or even nurse for 3 hours before anything we do anyway!!!

Ranting over now... calm slowly returning. Yes, I am now grateful again for all I have. Not quite blissful yet but I will be, someday soon. Where's my chai? Ah-h-h-h...

Rebecca

[simonee]

AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

:
Wouldn't you just wanna feed them hairballs sometimes?

[Jennifer H]

We're in the same dilemma right now. Dane has 4 cavities in his front teeth and to go the GA route will be $625 (it will be more if he needs more than an hour of anesthesia), none of which is covered by our dental insurance. The work that needs to be done (4 fillings, x-rays and cleaning is an additional $625, but we are only responsible for $121.50 of that).

As if it isn't bad enough to be told that your child has cavities at 16 months despite doing all the things "right" things as far as dental health, then they tell you what it is going to cost!! They won't even schedule us without the money upfront.

When I told her I had to go home and discuss it with my dh and that I'd probably be getting a second opinion before going ahead, she looked at me like I had two heads! DH and I both have good jobs with decent salaries and this is a lot of money for us. Do other people just write out the check?

[Jennifer H]

We've got the same issue, except that our medical insurance won't cover any dental procedures at all, so even getting it paid in a hospital is a moot point.

[gilnikche]

Originally posted by Jennifer H
When I told her I had to go home and discuss it with my dh and that I'd probably be getting a second opinion before going ahead, she looked at me like I had two heads! DH and I both have good jobs with decent salaries and this is a lot of money for us. Do other people just write out the check?

Apparently people must do just that. Or perhaps they get a cash advance on their credit card. The receptionist gave me just the same kind of look you described.

[sozobe]

Insurance companies suck.

Well... people who work at insurance companies suck.

Or something.

I actually have a much better situation that others mentioned here, so I'll be duly grateful for that. But have had a really horrible experience with our insurance company. Have gone into it here before, so will try the Cliff's notes version -- Bad bad bad dentist who had been written up for ignoring decay (we didn't know this until later) said that my dd's teeth were completely fine, when I was concerned about a brown spot. "Just a chip." I remained concerned, wrangled a referral to a ped. dentist which took SOME doing, delays delays delays, found out she had SEVEN cavities. At the time, were p.o.'ed at insurance co. for the fact that they sent us to this quack, they were vaguely apologetic and implied that they would pay for the composite fillings we had done even though only amalgam was covered. DH is the one who dealt with them, and didn't get the implication in writing, and they've been perfectly horrible since. "Well, 7 cavities don't just happen... you need to take some responsibility..." GRRRRRRRRRRR.

Anyway, much sympathy to all of you, and thanks for the opportunity to rant. We're going back for the 6-month check up next week and I'm a nervous wreck.

[Ragana]

Have any of you had luck with arranging payment plans? We just found out our daughter had 4 cavities that need to be filled soon. I am freelance, so we have independent medical, but unfortunately no dental insurance, and tax time is right around the corner. I want to find a good pediatric dentist (our regular one mentioned using restraints, and I don't want to do that) but I'm afraid that if I ask about a payment plan, I won't get the time of day. For reference, our dentist quoted $475 to fix this, which sounds quite low to me.

[Myra]

Dental costs

We had the same problem with one dentist who wanted all the money up front before she would even schedule the hospital appointment. We asked them if they could check with the insurance company first to find out how much they would pay. They reluctantly agreed and sent out a predetermination of benefits request to the insurance compnay.. The insurance company replied within a week and we only had to pay what the insurance said they would not cover.


Hope this helps.

[cattrane]

We had our son's dental work done in the hospital and to confuse things even more his primary dental insurance was on my dh's policy and primary medical on mine. Our dentist told us upfront what the ballpark cost would be for what she wanted to do and let us know the receptionist could help us out with insurance questions.

Not only were the receptionists incredibly polite and understanding that hundreds of dollars is a lot to come up with at once, they checked at that moment with both our insurance companies to find out what exactly would be covered. When we had the work done we did pay our dentist up front, the full amount, whereas Children's preferred to bill us afterward for the room, anesthesia etc.

It sounds like the pay-now policy for dental work is pretty common. It's too bad the attitude of your receptionists has also been common One of the only reasons i would love to be rich is so i could pull a Pretty Woman and pull out my wads of cash and say "wow, i was fully intending to prepay now but i'm sorry you have such a classist and condescending attitude toward my appearance and questions about the bill ~ we WILL be going elsewhere for all the services recommended."



I work in an animal hospital and it's kinda the same in a lot of areas - this particular service costs this much, if you can't do it you can't do it and it may be detrimental to your pet's health but my gosh we aren't rude about it!