Question:
I accept Delta Dental Premier...considering accepting United
Concordia..man their fees are low! Other than that, anything to beware of?
Answer:
If the fees are much less than your normal fee, I wouldn't
bite (unless I was desperate to get any live body in the front
door).
'Course if you sell half of them bleaching and they all get
4 quads of SC/RP instead of a prophy, it might work.
In fear of having the anti-trust lawyers attack me, let me say that if no
dentists participated with those cheap plans, the plans would not be in
existence. If you are willing to accept a plan that pays 15% less than your
normal fees, now, in a year, you will think that 20% less is okay. The next
thing you know, you are doing the bait-and-switch routine with managed care
patients. I am willing to go as high as 5% if I am paid in 3 days or less.
I figure the cost of carrying the debt can go that high. Beyond that, well,
I wonder how a dental office can do it. I have heard lots of dental offices
tell me that having a _body_ in the chair for 50% the normal fee is better
than having an empty chair, and I say the opposite is true. AS you could
have condensed the schedule and sent staff home and turned down the
utilities, and used less supplies. You would have probably saved 65% by not
seeing the patient at 50% normal fees.
Just to put a fine point on it: what you are doing is exercising your
constitutional right of free speech. It will be a long time before you
have to worry about that unless Bush and his followers are able to pack
the Supreme Court. On the other hand, when you try to organize a group
into not participating, you may need legal advice.
Just to put a fine point on it: what you are doing is exercising your
constitutional right of free speech. It will be a long time before you
have to worry about that unless Bush and his followers are able to pack
the Supreme Court.
