This article will likely not be popular or well-received by most of the dental profession in Canada. It goes against the narrative and belief that has been built within the dental community and continues to be propagated. I hesitated to offer my insights as I know most dentists continue to be against accepting the Canada Dental Care Plan (CDCP) in their practices, and many believe that those who do accept it are harming or working against the profession. However, that discussion/debate is one for another day.
This article simply focuses on giving you my experience so far with the CDCP. I have three dental practices operating in the Ottawa area. Between the three practices, we have seen numerous patients (most of them new, but some existing) through the CDCP. The overall experience has been excellent, and we have had no issues receiving compensation through the plan. These payments occur like clockwork two days after treatment as direct deposit into the bank. Additionally, submissions and verification of coverage are very easy. With respect to requests for verification, we have had only ONE such request. This request was made through secure email. To understand how cumbersome the process might be, I decided to do it myself without asking my administration team to do it. I was able to send the documents by email right away. Since we are fully digital, it took me about five minutes to save the documents (the request was for x-rays taken that day, periodontal charting, and the day’s chart notes), upload, and send the email. Thus, so far, there has been no significant administrative burden with the CDCP.
We have always been an assignment office, so accepting direct payment from Sunlife for this plan did NOT change anything for us. Of course, I understand that it’s a different situation for offices that don’t take assignments.
Our policy is to balance bill patients up to the ODA fee guide. This information was communicated to our existing and new patients. We have information about this posted and available on our website and printed. Informing patients about our policies has been key; as such, we have had no issues in terms of pushback from patients, including existing patients, about there being a balance to pay.
Our experience has been that these patients are super appreciative to have the opportunity to get dental care, expressing how they have wanted to get care for years but couldn’t afford it until now, and they are eager to get back to better oral health. We have run into an interesting problem: our doctors are running behind on the complete exams with these patients because they all seem to have so much work to do, and it’s taking extra time for the doctors to plan treatment and present to the patients. What’s wonderful for these patients is that there is no dollar limit for restorative treatments, extractions, etc., so we can get them back to better oral health right away without having to delay treatment due to financial constraints.
I really believe CDCP has created a unique opportunity for dentists to be able to provide care to patients that need it the most and significantly build your practice because of the volume of patients that now have access to care and the tremendous amount of work they need. We are seeing that play out in the first five weeks of the program. In that respect it’s a win-win situation: serve patients in need and concurrently grow your practice.
About the Author
Dr. Shahrooz Yazdani is the CEO and director of Yazdani Family Dentistry, which includes two practices in Ontario. He earned his DDS with honors from the University of Toronto and then completed a two-year residency. He has completed more than 1,000 hours of comprehensive CE through the Kois Center and a 330-hour implant and bone grafting course through Ti-Max in Toronto. He opened Yazdani Family Dentistry in 2001, followed by a second location in Kanata and later expanded to a third location, Costello Family Dentistry.
