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.
Now you have strayed into an area that you know nothing about. Dental insurance is nothing like traditional insurance in any way shape of form. Dental insurance is more of a prepaid service agreement. They will pay X for cleaning and check ups twice a year. They will pay UP TO 1/2 of the cost of dental work, fillings, extractions etc. and they will pay a certain definite dollar amount for dental services, often $1,000 per year. A generous plan would cap benefits at $1,500. Remember, they will only pay half the price in most instances, you pay the rest. They have a HARD cap on benefits.
If a dentist is willing to take my cash for dental services and charge me half and if they bill you half at the time the services are rendered and bill the insurance company for the other half, I think it is safe to say that the entire payment from the insurance company is PURE PROFIT.
Also: Dental practices are among the highest profit margin professions of all. http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/03/29/focus1.html?b=1269835200%5e3096961
In 2008, Forbes ranked dental services as the third most profitable business to start – behind accounting and legal services firms – with an average pretax margin of 21 percent. Dental practices enjoy an average 17% profit margin. WOW! That is a whopper, just ask any businessman. As a matter of fact they rank as the MOST profitable industry in a 2008 study by StageWorks,Inc.
As far as the Oncologist is concerned, they have so many people billing because the Federal Government SETS THE TONE for medical billing. It is their ridiculous pricing in Medicare that drives the costs to the private insurers up.
Medicare has a schedule of payments, regardless of actual cost. They dictate the pay, the procedure and whether or not the doctor will get paid at all. Medicare turns down more claims than any insurance company by total dollar and by percentage.
If Medicare rejects the claim, the doctor gets $0. He can not BY LAW charge the Medicare Supplement company or the patient. He therefore has to bill MORE to you, the person with private health insurance.
The doctors also are required to fill out a different form for every insurance company. The process of streamlining the billing is frustrated by the asinine rules of fifty different insurance boards in fifty different states and one huge Behemoth of a steamroller in the Federal Government Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Doctors also have to treat the uninsured and the indigent, regardless of ability to pay. A large portion of a medical doctors time is with patients that are uninsured or Illegal Aliens, both of whom pay nothing in the end. You get to pay for these people through your insurance as well.
A dentist treats NOBODY for free. They are not required to do so by law, medical doctors are.
The doctors are forced to overcharge the private insurers to pay for the discounted prices of the Medicare system. Medicare/aid pay doctors below cost and STILL are unable to balance the books and that is when they are confiscating a not insignificant amount of the GDP. Why? A full 1/3 of the Medicare system is outright FRAUD. Between $90 - $150 Billion dollars a year is stolen outright in Medicare. Add in Medicaid and the fraud is even greater.
Medicare and Medicaid funding totals $489.3 billion and $264.5 billion respectively. The Center for Health Care Solutions estimates that just eliminating the Fraud in the two programs would save tax payers close to $250 Billion yearly.
The fraud doesn't include the retiree who decides that since they pay $200 a month for a Medicare supplement, they decide to go to the doctor three times a week because it is ‘FREE’. My knee hurts better see the doctor, has that spot gotten bigger, better see the doctor, I saw a commercial for so and so, I have those symptoms, better see the doctor.
Ever watch daytime TV? Notice all the rascals and electric wheelchair adds there are? Ever notice that everyone of them has a ‘testimonial’ stating ‘My new chair didn't cost me one red cent!’ Of course it didn't, It cost the tax payer $5,200 and you died three days after it was delivered and nobody EVER buys a used one. Why would they when the government will send them a new one for ‘FREE TO ME’!
Ever wonder why Dentists where never subject to Medicare. The ADA lobbies heavily to keep them out of the Medicare and Obamacare system. They would go broke. That is why so few dentists take Medicaid. It is a loser.
Your entire last post shows you are talking completely out of your A$$. You have no knowledge of the insurance industry or the dental industry beyond being a passive consumer. Yo don't even engage in the commerce directly as you have an insurance company as a third party payer. To you the costs are justified., You see a shiny piece of equipment and believe it is purchase just for you.
I, on the other hand, have an intimate knowledge of the Insurance Industry and the Medical industry. I worked as an Insurance Executive for many years, I hold licensing and certifications in four states. I have also dealt with Insurance companies and health care professionals as a patient and an advocate for one of my children.
I have literally spent years acquiring real knowledge, because I was forced to, both professionally and personally. Millions of dollars in claims have been paid out by my insurance carrier for medical services provided to both my son and for myself.
Insurance companies as crooks goes over like a lead balloon with me and those in the know. Insurance companies operate on a 1%-3% profit margins, that is when they are a for profit company. A vast MAJORITY of insurance companies are NON-PROFIT Mutual companies. Look it up.
I think you have been shown to know absolutely NOTHING about the dental, medical and insurance professions. Please, leave business up to the professionals.
I have actual knowledge, you have none. I have experiences and facts. You have anecdotes and friends and relatives ‘WHO SAY’ or here-say.
You should stop showing your ignorance on this topic and maybe stick with what you know.
Dentists are just short of a criminal enterprise based on the FACTS, not conjecture. Al Capone would have enjoyed the profit margins of the average dental office.