As for the OTHER overhead, of course they have over head, I realize that. I am saying that I know for a FACT that I get my dental services for half the stated price, because I PAY CASH. that is why I know it is a profitable business. They are RAPING most people. They can do so because the guy down the hall prices the same services at relatively the same price. It is PRICE COLLUSION and the ADA should be up on charges.
I am as much of a capitalist as anybody, more so than most, but the dental profession is little more than the local auto mechanic writ large. That lift costs allot too and that flugal valve cost $275.
Anecdotal evidence of SO many dentists forced to drive high end luxury cars and live in McMansions shows the poverty that they continue to suffer as a profession.
Want to save some real money? Ask the price up front and offer half in cash, you may be really surprised. Go in strong with three other dentists on speed dial on your cell phone and start calling for prices. He will make a deal with you. He knows he is ripping you off.
Dental insurance still decides they’re not paying that much for that. Because they’re still insurance companies. My dental insurer is MetLife, an insurance company.
Again you’re really back to the insurance. Even if the dental insurance doesn’t act like all the other medical insurance companies, which they are and do, it still takes longer to get the money from them with more overhead. When you pay for all your own dental work your dentist gets the money NOW, when I make my insurance company pay for most of my dental work my dentist’s AP people have to fill out the MetLife form (which of course they had to be trained in) pile a bunch of them together for submitting to the insurance company, then they have to wait for the insurance company to get around to paying. There’s a 2 or 3 month delay in getting the money, not to mention the dramatically increased labor cost in getting it.
I’ve got 3 different friends that have done medical billing. One of them specifically handled medicare and 4 private insurers, that was it, there were other people in the AP department that handled other insurance companies. There were 3 doctors in the office and 4 AP people handling insurance billing. Now this office was an oncologists, so they had to deal with the most flack from the insurance companies. But it was really only the quantity of crap they dealt with that’s different from dentists, not the content.
If you want a bad guy in the cost of medicine look no further than insurance companies. They’re ripping off everybody. They’re #1 goal is to not pay out a dime, but they still want money from you so you’ll be “covered”. And the games they play drive the cost of doing medical business through the roof.