WHAT THE INSURANCE COMPANIES DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW 

 ABOUT DENTAL INSURANCE

BY SAM MOORE

I have not been able to take care of my teeth like I should because of my Parkinson's disease.  As a result, I had to make a visit to a dentist.   Knowing that I needed work done on my teeth, I added dental insurance to my health plan with Alignment Ins.
When I had my appointment, I discovered I needed $40,000 of work done.  I ask the dentist what it would cost if  I didn't have insurance.  The answer was double or $80.000.  With a few additional questions, I found that the insurance cut the cost to me by  50%.  That on the surface seems like a terrible burden on the insurance company.  The question I had was, how does the insurance company stay in business?   I ask that question of the dentist.  The response was, don't worry  about the insurance company, they negotiate a rate with the dentist.   This smells bad, somebody is taking a beating.

Guess what,  it is the patient.     I don't know where the fraud lies, but I know somebody is profiting from the situation.   Pinning the blame is going to be difficult.  I have come up with two quiet different scenarios leading to the situation.

The first, lays the blame on the dentist.  I don't believe this is the case.  The second, places the blame, I believe, on the rightful place, the Insurance industry.   In the first scenario, the dentist's conspire to boost the price of their services by a factor of two.  They then clue the insurance companies into the idea of selling an insurance plan.   They convince the public that the insurance is paying for the  service, leaving a significant copay for the patient..  What is really happening is, the Insurance company negotiates a price for the services, individually, with each dentist.

In the second case, the most probable,  the insurance industry, either, cons, or pressures the dentists into increasing their prices.  The insurance company, then "negotiates" the prices of the services.  As a  result, the insurance co. can say they are insuring the patient when actually they are selling a discount card at no cost to themselves.   Check it out, you can get a discount card for free that allows you to get 50% off on your dental services.

I believe greed allows this fraud to continue,  It appears, the insurance industry is the profitee in the fraud.  The dentists go along with the situation because in the worst case they get a fair return for their services, and in the best case they get double the price from the unsuspecting  "uninsured". There are still some conscientious dentist, who have kept their prices at a reasonable level.  They don't get the insurance business because there is no room for price negotiation.