Among Friends

[Leelynn]

For years I worked for the same company. Our dental insurance covered the entire cost of a cleaning twice a year. Unfortunately, that company closed. Now I work for the state and our dental insurance is awful!! Any time I tell someone who I work for they seem to think our benefits are great.  Not!!  Very expensive and hardly cover anything. I made an appointment for myself and my son to have our teeth cleaned. My out of pocket costs for the exam and cleaning varied from dentist to dentist from $133 per person to $200 per person. First, I don't understand how the costs can vary so much from dentist to dentist. But, my biggest complaint is how much out of pocket I have to pay now. That's in addition to the monthly deduction coming out of my check to pay for the insurance. It sure has gotten expensive to try and take care of your health!!

[Desertdi]

Most dentists around here advertise a huge discount for "first time customers".     

[shoekitty]

Hi

Most every dentist I see advertised offers free cleaning and xrays for first time patients.  My dental is good, for routine and if you need a filling or some small work.  One crown and the yearly allotment is gone!  I think we get 1500 a year benefits.  Most years there is money we don't use.  But there have been years we have needed crown work, root canals, or a small surgery, and we were wiped out in one visit!  

Have you called the insurance company and had them explain it to you.  Maybe the dentists are quoting wrong?

[JavaQueen]

You shourld try a dental discount program. It isn't insurance, but for a yearly or monthly fee, you can get free exams, cleaning and xrays.  A lot of procedures are more reasonably priced.  It's not that expensive;  you have to shop around for them and compare what they offer. However, I don't know how your deductibles work. I think $200 for an exam and cleaning outside of a big city is outrageous.

I think dentists get away with overcharging. The younger ones coulld have a horrible debt load; the ones getting ready for retirement are taking advantage also.

I am sure that there are excellent and compassionate dentists out there, but dental costs have soared. Insurance hasn't kept up.

State jobs aren't what they used to be: 30 years ago, they had Cadillac benefits. Not any more.

[Hooty]

I don't have dental insurance, every thing I pay is out of pocket, and never heard of getting free cleaning or x-rays for new patient, I paid to the tune of $600 on first visit!!!  Plus, I had a broken tooth and had to go elsewhere (oral surgeon) to have tooth pulled and that was $600 more!!!  And you are ranting???

[shoekitty]

@Hooty

It is pretty competitive here.  I am in a small city (under 50,000) and free xrays and cleaning are everywhere.  However, they are for new patients only.  I can guarantee you, they will find something to work on and charge you for once they take the free xrays.  Here a crown is 1200 plus. 

[Laura14]

I don't opt for my company's dental insurance because the premiums are about what I pay to the dentist myself every six months plus he's not in network and I don't want to drive to a stranger who is.

If you have access to an HSA account (Health Savings Account), I really recommend it.  I have a little bit of money taken out each paycheck before tax and use that for my out of pocket costs like the dentist.  It doesn't hurt as much when the money is already there waiting for you to use it.     And you can also throw some after tax money in the account too if you need to buffer or get caught with unexpected expenses that you know are coming.  It all (pretax and post tax) gets deducted on your income tax return too.  

[2blonde]

I'm also a state employee (I work for a state supported college, (I'm in SERS in Ohio), but our medical and dental coverage is not controlled by the state.......it's controlled by the individual employer.

My college is part of a group of schools in my county that have a joint plan set up through Medical Mutual.  My medical coverage is the typical 80% on most things with a deductible and copays.  My dental coverage is 80% on cleaning, checkups and fillings, and only 60% on crowns.  What saves me money on the dental is that they have a PPO network on the dentists, just like with the medical.  Luckily, my dentist is part of that network, which means he accepts a reduced amount, just like the physicians do.

[scotnovel]

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@Leelynn wrote:

For years I worked for the same company. Our dental insurance covered the entire cost of a cleaning twice a year. Unfortunately, that company closed. Now I work for the state and our dental insurance is awful!! Any time I tell someone who I work for they seem to think our benefits are great.  Not!!  Very expensive and hardly cover anything. I made an appointment for myself and my son to have our teeth cleaned. My out of pocket costs for the exam and cleaning varied from dentist to dentist from $133 per person to $200 per person. First, I don't understand how the costs can vary so much from dentist to dentist. But, my biggest complaint is how much out of pocket I have to pay now. That's in addition to the monthly deduction coming out of my check to pay for the insurance. It sure has gotten expensive to try and take care of your health!!

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Charges vary because those dentists are trying to cover their costs plus make a profit.  Perhaps the rent or property ownership costs, like property taxes, are significantly higher for one dentist versus the other.  All of tha depends on location, age of facility, percent profit they are trying to make.  Other differences in their operating costs are things like employee salaries and benefits,  Perhaps one of the dentists actually provides benefits for employees and the other doesn't. One of the dentists may have more long term employees who have higher salaries than the new employees at the other dentist.  Maybe the one dentist just wants to pay off his new house or car or boat. 

ALL businesses base what they charge on operating costs plus a write up so that they make a profit.  And the markeup isn't the same across all goods and services.  Restaurants are a good example.  The markup on soft and other drinks is usually much higher than the markup for food because they know people are willing to pay extra for those items and with the volume of those items sold they add a lot to the bottom line.  One of those dentists may have a higher profit margin on cleaning services than the other because they know people will pay that for cleaning.  

Charges for goods and services are not just set in a vaccum. 

[KathyPet]

I agree that Dental insurance benefits have not kept pace with the rising cost of procedures.  I have had Delta Dental through AARP for several years and they are still paying the same flat amount for root Canals and crowns as they did back when I took the insurance out.  meanwhile the insurance premiums keep going up.