Dental Insurance

[Marilyn. 340]

Sodas and fruit juices will do that to you with time.

he likes his soda

Another excellent reason to switch to beer

ugh, beer

[Fandango 1,439]

my mother needed a root canal on one of her back teeth and she needed to go to an endodontist cos the tooth had 3 roots. This was before she had dental insurance.

When she went to pay:

Lady (also with a phone sticking out of her hear): that'll be $900.

Mom *eyes wide open*: Really? wow I had no idea

Lady: oh wait, no I'm wrong

Mom *nervous laugh* oh good, cos I was like whoa!

Lady: that'll be $1300 please

hahahah to this day, i have never seen that look on my mom's face before or after.

$4k sounds like a lot but I suppose the best thing to do is to review the bill and if there are any questions, call the dental insurance to make sure that they covered everything they should have.

[Girona40 0]

I just forked out $900 to have my teeth cleaned - I thought they were pretty good myself!

But my dentist's office was good, in that they got it all done before the end of December. Apparently, and I didn't know this, my insurance coverage goes from January to December. I have $1500 coverage and had only used, something like $500. So, they got me in before the end of the year and the insurance covered the majority of it. Rather than losing the $1000 benefit for 2006 he squeezed me in. That way I have $1500 worth of insurance to cover anything I need doing in 2007.

I was horrified at the price of a root-canal here. It isn't unusual for it to cost over $1000 per tooth! Yikes! Thank God I didn't have any cavities.

[AngelK96 0]

How about getting supplement dental insurance?

I had Delta Dental throught my job and my ex had Aetna through his. Mine would cover most of the charges, and they would send the rest to my ex's insurance. It helps out a lot with dental bills.

[Marilyn. 340]

We have Delta Dental through hubby's work......

[AngelK96 0]

well ####### i changed over to blue cross blue shield and now my husband as delta, and how it works with delta is whoever birthday comes first if you happen to get supplement insurance in the future that insurance will be the first submitted. With delta they don't pay ####### with being a supplemental my co worker told me.

Good Luck!

[Marilyn. 340]

well ####### i changed over to blue cross blue shield and now my husband as delta, and how it works with delta is whoever birthday comes first if you happen to get supplement insurance in the future that insurance will be the first submitted. With delta they don't pay ####### with being a supplemental my co worker told me.

Good Luck!

thanks...

they offered hubby a payment plan to pay off the bill... looks like we will be paying it for the next 2 years but we might be able to pay a good chunk of it with the income tax money... we have to pay off the credit cards first though...

Edited January 5, 2007 by MarilynP

[Girona40 0]

We also have dental insurance with Delta. Just be aware that their year runs from January to December. Use up your benefits or you will lose them each year.

[Marilyn. 340]

We also have dental insurance with Delta. Just be aware that their year runs from January to December. Use up your benefits or you will lose them each year.

thanks...

wish we would have known that last year.... hubby was wanting to make a dentist appointment for a month or two already... of course he was waiting for me to do it for him

[AngelK96 0]

another thing look around for a dentist who takes delta, sometimes it's cheaper. We didn't have a provider in my town, so all the checks got mailed to me and i would have to take them to the dentist's office. I have a lost check in my house from last year/december I am still looking for.

[Girona40 0]

Each cleaning appointment cost me $450. I had to pay the dentist's office, up front. Then today a check came in the sum of $333. I guess that is the amount that Delta cover. I must admit that they paid their portion really quickly, I only had the work done just before Christmas.

I was lucky that I found out just in time about the "use it or lose it" policy and the dentist could fit me in.

[Marilyn. 340]

well, it looks like the dentist made a mistake... the total bill is @ $2,400 not almost $4,000....

so we owe about $1,200....

phew, that sounds a little better....

[Marilyn. 340]

just ignore my whining if you want to but this stuff is driving me crazy....

well, my hubby went to the dentist for some more work on Saturday and they told him they had made another mistake... they thought he had some other insurance or something... and is total bill was going to be around $4000 again...

Just now I was looking at the bill he got when they told him the total was going to be around $2,400 and it shows a detailed list of all the work they did and are planning to do and what the fee for each one is.... the total comes to $2,400, this is before insurance...

now just because we have different insurance the total jumps to $4,000?? :

So I was looking at the Delta Dental site at the claims and it looks like the fee they charged for each thing is higher then it shows on the bill he got the other time ...

so my thinking is that they charge different fees for each different insurance ??

I am all confused....

[Flames9_RN 358]

Oh yes, there are different fees if you have insureance, or do not have insurance!!! Fees are higher if you do noty have insurance. Insurance companies get charged at a less rate, than you do if no insurance. Sort of like group buying power, the more u buy, the bigger the discount!!

Watched a TV program last yr on a couple that was steaming mad. They had no insurance, and he had a heart operation, bill was over $100,000 that they had to pay. But if an insurance company was picking up the tab, the hospital would have charged the insurance company much, much less!! The couple stated it wasn't fair that they should get charged more!! And of course the fees differ for each insurance company/plan!! Best of luck.

[Marilyn. 340]

what I meant was that the fee the dental office charged for each procedure seems to be higher then the fees they charged when they thought we had the other insurance....

Example: Original bill - Crown total cost $647 (before insurance)

Recent bill - Crown total cost $800 (before insurance)

shouldn't the fee for each procedure stay the same... I know that what the insurance covers changes with each different insurance but the base fee should be the same, shouldn't it??

we do have dental insurance....

Edited January 22, 2007 by MarilynP