How Richards Frankel Dentistry Approaches Dental Insurance
Your dental insurance plan is a form of compensation provided by your employer. You can expect the insurance company to reimburse you for a portion of our office’s fees. The higher the premium paid by your place of work, the more generous the reimbursement to you, the patient.
Our office is not part of the contractual arrangement with your insurance company, but we do want to help you receive the maximum reimbursement to which you are entitled. As a convenience to you, we will help you process your insurance claims in order for you to receive this maximum benefit.
Richards Frankel Dentistry patients can be certain that we will provide you with optimal care and treatment; it will not be subject to limitations imposed by your insurance company. The materials we use, the procedures we perform, and the dental laboratories chosen are all of premium quality, and we feel that this is foremost in providing excellent care to our patients.
About Dental Insurance
Dental insurance is a contract solely between your employer and a dental insurance company. Your dental office (RF Dentistry) is not involved.
The reimbursement mechanism from your dental insurance company is merely a mathematical formula as to which benefits you will receive and the percentage of the dentist’s office fee that will be paid. Many insurance companies try to control the amount of dentistry you receive by requiring authorization for procedures in advance; we call this “pre-authorization”. Our office will do everything possible to help you maximize the insurance benefits to which you are entitled.
Furthermore, many dental services are not covered by insurance companies. The selection of non-covered services is not based on what you need or want, but is based strictly on the contract with the insurance company and your employer. Dental insurance companies rarely cover 100 percent of any dental fee and, in many cases, cover less than 50 percent or nothing at all.
Covered and Non-Covered Services
Unfortunately, some procedures are not covered by dental insurance. Our goal, however, is to help you achieve and maintain optimal dental care, which is not necessarily the goal of your insurance company. Our treatment plans are dictated by what is best for the patient. It is also important to note that each dental insurance plan has a dollar amount limitation each year. Once this limit is reached, no other services will be covered by your dental insurance company regardless of how essential the service may be to your dental health.
Some services that are typically not covered by dental insurance companies include: cosmetic dentistry, implants, occlusion or bite redesign, and other services. Although these are important dental services
that can greatly enhance a patient’s quality-of-life, dental insurance companies do not feel that they should have to pay for these services. That is why these services are rarely included in contracts with your employer.
Our Office is Here to Help You
Richards Frankel Dentistry will do everything possible to help you understand and make the most of your dental insurance benefits. Our office will complete and submit dental insurance forms to your provider in order to achieve the maximum reimbursement to which you are entitled. We will work diligently to make sure reimbursement is done in a timely manner.
Please be aware that some dental insurance companies take longer than others to complete payment. If necessary, our office will contact the dental insurance company, or we may request your help in this matter.
