If your child receives a treatment plan, we will provide a breakdown of all procedure codes, applicable fees and we will inform you of all predicted costs, (to the best of our ability), before treatment is administered.
Estimated co-payments and any past due balances are to be collected prior to all treatments. If someone other than a parent/guardian will be escorting your child to their appointment, we ask that you contact our office to settle your account.
We accept cash, check, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, AMEX, and CareCredit.
Newburyport Pediatric Dentistry is presently contracted with Blue Cross Blue Shield Dental Blue and Delta Dental Premier/Plus insurance. For your convenience and as a courtesy for our patients, we will submit your dental claims for those patients in and out-of-network. We will make every effort to help you receive full insurance benefits. We can only assist you in estimating your portion of the cost of treatment. Unfortunately, we cannot always predict how your insurance company will handle your claim. We encourage you to call your dental insurance company to inquire what they may pay and what your responsibility may be for recommended treatment.
Remember, dental insurance is meant to provide assistance with the investment in your family’s dental health, and is not always meant to pay fees in full.
No Insurance Pays 100% of All Procedures
Dental insurance is meant to a be a benefit to aid in receiving and paying for dental care. Many patients think that their insurance pays 90%-100% of all dental fees whereas most plans realistically pay between 50%-80% of the average total fee. Some insurance plans pay more and some companies pay less. The percentage that your insurance company will pay is usually determined by the type of contract your employer has set up with the insurance company.
Benefits are not Determined by our Office
You may have noticed that sometimes your dental insurer reimburses you or the dentist at a lower rate than the dentist’s actual fee. Frequently insurance companies state that the reimbursement was reduced because your dentist’s fee has exceeded the usual, customary, or reasonable fee (“UCR”) used by the company. A statement such as this one gives the impression that any fee greater than the UCR fee is unreasonable or well above what most dentists in the area charge for a certain service.
Recall that the UCR fee is a number that is chosen by the different insurance companies and is at the discretion of the insurance companies; the UCR fee does not necessarily reflect the “appropriate” cost for a specific procedure. Note that even though insurance companies often set their own UCR fees, insurance companies usually pay only a set PERCENTAGE of their set UCR fee, and NOT THE FULL UCR fee.
Frequently the data used by the insurance companies to determine their specific UCR fees can be three to five years old, and these “allowable” fees are set by the insurance company so they can make a net 20%-30% profit.
Some patients misinterpret an insurance company’s relatively low UCR fee as implying that your dentist is “overcharging” rather than thinking that the insurance company is “underpaying.” In general, a less expensive insurance policy will use a lower UCR figure.
Deductibles and Co-Payments Must be Considered
When estimating dental benefits, deductibles and percentages must be considered. Some factors that may affect the amount of insurance company reimbursement, other than deductibles, and thereby the patient’s financial responsibility include:
- If the UCR fee is not equal to the dentist’s fee
- If the insurance plan pays only a percentage of the UCR fee
- If the yearly maximum benefit has been met
- If the procedure is not covered
EXAMPLE 1:
Assume the fee for a particular service is $150.00 and the insurance company allows $150.00 as its UCR fee. If a particular plan pays for 80% of the UCR then the patient is responsible for $30.00 and the insurance company will pay $120.00.
$150 fee – Insurance Reimbursement = Patient Responsibility
$150 fee – (80% reimbursement of UCR of $150) =
$150 fee – ($120 paid by insurance) = $30 patient responsiblity.
If there is a deductible, one may be responsible for an additional $50 (on average) making the patient’s contribution $80.00 and the insurance company’s contribution $70.00.
EXAMPLE 1 WITH A $50 DECUCTIBLE:
$150 fee – Insurance Reimbursement = Patient Responsibility
$150 fee – ($120 normally paid by insurance – $50 deductible) =
$150 fee – ($70 paid by insurance) = $80 patient responsibility
EXAMPLE 2:
In this example the dentist’s fee for the procedure is $150 and the insurance company’s UCR fee is $100. Here, the insurance company pays 80% of the UCR fee:
$150 fee – Insurance Reimbursement = Patient Responsibility
$150 fee – (80% insurace payment of UCR fee of $100) =
$150 fee – ($80 paid by insurance) = $70 patient responsibility
Notice that in this situation, the $100 UCR fee set by the insurance company is less than the dentist’s fee of $150, and that the insurance company only pays 80% of its set UCR fee.
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