Question:
My dentist is recommending that I get a crown and I was thinking
of getting some dental insurance. I have called up some dental insurance
companies in the bay area and they either don't provide individual
converage or they do not allow you to choose your own dentist. Do
any of you know of a good dental plan for individuals that allows you
to choose your own dentist? I am also interested in out-of-state plans.
Answer:
Any dental-insurance plans I know of have a list of participating dentists
and you have to use one of them. Why not ask your dentist which plans
(if any) he/she participates in, and then inquire for details to those
plans only?
Our dentist participates in one called "Dental Source" out of Kansas
City. I joined for this past year because my wife needed a new crown.
Unless we have a similar need at her next checkup, I will drop the
membership. It's saving only a relatively small amount, and my Blue
Cross coverage takes care of some of the regular check-up expenses.
The way this works is that the plan pays the dentist a monthly fee for
each insured who has listed that dentist as their selected one. They
don't actually pay the dentist for each procedure, the way Blue Cross
does. In turn, the dentist agrees to charge the patients according to
the Dental Source schedule. In our case, the dentist collects what they
can from Blue Cross, and then either absorbs the rest of the charges
(if it's something Dental Source covers 100%) or charges us according to
the Denatal Source schedule (like 50% for crowns) for the remainder.
This situation is EXACTLY why individual dental insurance is virtually
unavailable (except for very pricy of low benefit policies). Looking
for insurance because you just developed a condition is liking trying
to buy auto collision insurance to cover a wreck you just got in.
That's also why our "Dental Plus" extended dental service has a six
month waiting period before it takes effect and once dropped you can't
pick it up again. You either want the extra coverage or you don't!
Maybe individual dental insurance policies should adopt the same
policy.
When I was in college, I used to buy the plan offered by the State of
Washington called Denticare. I had to see the dentist on the list
which didn't have many to choose from. And the dentist had to
accept the price that he/she agreed with Denticare. Tbe plan covered
free check up + clean up + full mouth X-ray (once a month except
X-ray). Other than that, I had to pay in full on any service. The
price of the service will be based on the Denticare rates.
One thing bad about it is that some dentists treat these kind of
patients like second class citizens which means they will get
you waiting for hours even though you have an appointment.
