Dental insurance is changing and within the next few years dental offices will not be allowed to accept assignment, even if they want to. Insurance companies want to deal with the subscriber only and will reimburse the patient regardless of whether or not you accept assignment. Looking even further into the future, dental insurance could even be eliminated completely. At the very least, it will not exist in the same form that it is today. The costs of such insurance programs are just not sustainable long term.
Many companies are purchasing health care spending accounts that provides their employees with a specific amount each year that the employee may apply to whatever services they might need and include services like physiotherapy, massage therapy, vision care, etc. That creates a challenge and an opportunity for dental offices. It will be even more important to make the oral and systemic health link and to help patients see the value in investing in their oral health.
You can help your patients actually save money by not having dental insurance, by preparing them today to be ready for the future. Your patients could create their own health care spending account on their own or within your practice. They could open a tax free savings account and deposit $100.00 per month, which is approximately the amount of the dental portion of a group benefits premium that stays at the insurance company. At the end of the year, the patient has $1200.00 in their account that they don’t have to pay tax on and might even earn a little interest. As dental work is required, they could simply pay for the service from that accounts. The patient receives the full benefit from their investment, has access to the care that he or she needs and there is no delay in services because no predetermination is required.
The patient could also do the same with your office by opening a health care spending account with you. In others, the patient could pay the dental office a specific amount per month to the dentist by preauthorized debit, that remains as a credit in their account. This is a true ‘Prepaid Dental Plan’ that is very easy to administer and most importantly, it provide the patient with access to the routine care that they need. This program would not be available for larger cases that exceed $1200.00, but is really intended for the day to day bread and butter services, like minor restorative and regular hygiene visits. The patient gets all of the benefit from their investment and the insurance companies get nothing. The best part is that the patient is the winner.
Even insurance benefits that are fully sponsored by the employers end up being a taxable benefit to the employee. In this case, the patient gets a tax write off, doesn’t pay tax on the tax-free spending account and doesn’t have to be restricted by frequency limitations, annual deductibles, etc. The dental offices will have increased cash flow and a negative accounts receivable.
I call this a Dental Reassurance Program. For more information and a full benefit statement, please send an email to sandie@dentalofficeconsulting.com with “Dental Reassurance” in the subject line.
