Dental Insurance Tips
Many people who have dental insurance don’t use them at all or use them inefficiently. One main reason that some people don’t use their dental benefits is because they are unsure whether dental clinics accept them. Second, people are unsure what benefits they are eligible for. Lastly, many are worried that they may incur unexpected costs for dental treatment.
Accepting Dental Benefits
Direct Billing of Dental Insurance is when the dental clinic that you visit, either electronically or through paper forms, requests direct payments against your dental treatment costs. You only need to pay for outstanding treatment costs. This has become simplier with the reimplentation of the Alberta Dental Fee Guide. This fee guid is used by most dental insurance providers. However, some dental clinics don’t voluntarily follow this fee guide for all the services that they provide. At Harvest Dental Care we direct bill your insurance and also follow the Alberta Dental Fee Guide.
Eligible Dental Benefits
Dental treatments are generally broken down into Basic and Major treatments by most dental insurance providers. Basic treatments usually include things like cleanings, check-ups, fillings, root canals and tooth removals. Major treatments usually include treatments like crowns, bridges and dentures. Knowing what percentage of benefits you have and the annual plan amounts is useful in knowing whether you are covered for treatments.
Avoiding Unexpected Costs
The best way to avoid unexpected dental costs is to have a Pre-Determination of Benefits sent to your dental insurance by a dental clinic. This can either be sent electronically or by way of paper forms. We can always do an immediate electronic request in which we receive a reply within a 30 second. However, depending on your dental insurance provider the response to these requests for major treatments are sent to an online account or to your mailing address.
Get to Know Your Benefits
We know it is frustrating dealing with dental insurance (we do it all the time!). Let our Reception Desk team help you understand what dental benefits are available to you. The best way to meet with us is to book an appointment for a Cleaning and Check-up. If you are a New Patient, then make sure you bring in your dental insurance information and government issued photo identification (we only use this to confirm the name on your dental insurance card in order to prevent fraud).
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