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Insured/Uninsured Dental Care Costs

April 15th, 2010 at 01:37 am

To take care of my tooth/nerve infection, I saw 3 Dentists. First was my general practitioner who referred me to an endodontist. The endodontist ended as a consult referring me back to my general Dr for referral to an oral surgeon. Twenty years ago your general was general and did it all. Not so now. Now I run all over to see Specialists racking up fee after fee and putting mileage on my car and losing time from work.

Everyone gets a consult fee. The part that is grossly unfair is how it increases the costs for people without insurance. If my insurance pays for the consult the Dr get $35 and if insurance says they won't pay then I pay $75. I had to pay the $75 up front so it will be returned to me. But, I think of the uninsured. They should pay $35 up front. They actually cost the Dr less because there are no forms to fill out, no waiting even a day for the money, no extra storage for the forms in paper or computer space, no extra employee to deal with insurance companies. If anyone should pay more it is the insured. We are the expensive ones. This is just common sense.

I really like my Dr. I've been with him for almost 20yrs. However, I may consider looking for a dentist or group of dentists where I won't have to travel so much and take off work. Consult fees of $225 when one dentist should be able to numb the area and pull it out in one visit is too much for my frugal soul. Oh, and that $225 doesn't touch the actual tooth being pulled. That is an additional cost.

4 Responses to “Insured/Uninsured Dental Care Costs”

  1. ceejay74 Says:
    1271294787

    I know exactly what you mean about unfair prices! On one of my hospital bills I noticed the insurance company got a discount--I think it was $500 or $900--and that they also deemed some expenses "ineligible" and basically said those things should have been covered on a per diem that they paid the hospital, therefore they didn't have to pay them. That one was either $500 or $900. Anyway, $1400 total, and all I could think was, would an uninsured person receiving this bill get a discount? Would they know that some of the expenses were possibly duplicates of something they'd already paid?

  2. campfrugal Says:
    1271334680

    Oh, I am with you. It is such a racket. Come get a cleaning, they are only $89.00, but then they see something, oh, we need x-rays... $300 dollars later. And, then it seems like one dentist can't do it all anymore. What happen to going to the dentist, taking an x-ray and filling or whatever the tooth needs, be done. This is a frustrating matter for me.

  3. dmontngrey Says:
    1271353088

    I get all my work done at a dental school. Not only is the cost reasonable, any specialists I may need are right there. It just takes a lot longer to get things done when a student is doing the work. I actually trust going there over a regular dentist because they have strict rules to comply with. A regular dentist has a lot more leeway. Can you tell I had a REALLY bad experience with a licensed dentist?

  4. elisabeth Says:
    1271375152

    Lucky you dmontngrey, I don't have a dental school near me or I would go there. That is if my insurance covered it.

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