Comments on: Only Half of Dentists Still Accepting Dental Insurance

By: Pat

Pat — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:35:01 +0000

you folks complaining about the dentists making thousands should see the bills i pay as a dentist. if a person makes a hundred grand and pays half of it for school loans and taxes, it doesnt leave a very luxurious lifestyle. the total i owe in all is way over a million dollars. how stressed would that make you?

By: CC

CC — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:35:07 +0000

I’ve been thinking about learning how to do my own dentistry. I just can not afford it even with my dental insurance. I think Dentists should accept only what the insurance pays as payment in full.

By: andy

andy — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:44:21 +0000

I agree w/ m&m. It makes dentists look really selfish when people are walking around w/ gaps and abcesses! It would cost 2400 dollars for one molar restoration! I bet the dentist has plenty of money…do they know what it feels like to be told by an insurance company that you have full coverage for that and be given a list of “provider” dentists by the Insurance Co. and none of the dentists on it will accept the insurance? But they are listed! They don’t deserve to be listed. Can anyone help? Three people at the Ins. Co. told me I’m covered. How do I get this to align so I can get my throbbing tooth repaired?

By: M&M

M&M — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:34:33 +0000

Are they freaking kidding us?! I can understand not wanting to have to deal with the insurance companies, but what about us working class people who WANT and NEED to get our teeth looked after but can’t because we can’t afford to shell out a few hundred dollars at one shot. Dentists accepting insurance is the only way that people even have a chance of keeping healthy teeth. Just because they get paid thousands of dollars, doesn’t mean that everyone does….think about it and quit being so selfish!

By: dmy

dmy — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:50:03 +0000

I’m like db, ditto on not taking the insurance.

By: db

db — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:03:48 +0000

I can’t afford to go to a dentist that won’t take my insurance.

By: FSM

FSM — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:30:27 +0000

I just dropped 3 PPOs this year and kept Delta. It’s tiring to cater for insurance companies who makes billions in our expense. Postage increased 5X since I practiced. It’s not helping our bottom line because it’s expensive to mail x-rays (more than once sometimes if they say they didn’t receive it) on top of not getting reimbursed because of denial of some procedures, and other delayed payment tactics while our bills are piling up. It makes me envious how much plumbers and the person who did my kitchen w/in a few days(for thousands of dollars)make without spending so much time and money to continuing education…

By: jerry simon

jerry simon — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:28:09 +0000

given that the number of patients is increasing and the number of dds is declining, and most insurance companies do not cover newer proceedures or pay what the services are worth, why would any dds accept the rules of an insurance company?
this is the only industry where supply and demand is ignored.
every dentist is not the same in skills and training and standards, and every office does not offer equal services so why be part of something like an insurance program. it is really silly.

By: Ronald Chalk, DDS

Ronald Chalk, DDS — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:55:51 +0000

Every dentist has to make this decision for himself. I have been in private practice since 1970. I have never accepted insurance assignment. You just have to have the courage and confidence in your ability to believe ther are many quality patiets out there that are looking for more than a dentist only because they take insurance. If you get so busy with insurance patients you don’t have the time to spend with those quality patients that are looking for cosmtics or implanta. If I had to do dentistry at a fee determined by insurance companies I would have gotten out of the profession years ago.

By: Angela Maynard

Angela Maynard — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:01:29 +0000

Our practice became insurance dependent about 6 years ago when teachers changed to the Delta DPO and we just happened to be contracted. We are just beginning to weed out the worst PPO plans, but the Delta DPO will be the greatest hurdle. The PFG fee hasn’t changed in the last two years, but the price of gold has skyrocketed. Here in Southern California, the competition is great. If you get out of PPO’s, the guy/gal next door will just absorb your patients. We need to unite and terminate these plans as a band of brothers.