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A Healthy Smile is a Healthy Child
| Facility
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Appointments |
Cancellations
Do I Stay
with My Child During the Visit?
| Insurance
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Our Office Policy Regarding Dental Insurance
A
Beautiful Practice For All Your Dental Needs
Our team strives to keep
your and your children's smile and teeth at
their best, beginning with healthy
habits from a young age through adulthood.
Our entire team is committed to meeting your
needs. Our practice's vision is to provide
high quality dentistry in a nurturing and
caring environment. Our focus is
patient-centered with emphasis on preventing
dental disease, starting at infancy.
In order to prevent dental disease, it is
important that children are seen by a
dentist at an early age. Avoiding the need
for dental restorations is by far the
easiest way to keep your child’s mouth
healthy and to engender a positive attitude
toward dentistry.
We are always happy to answer any questions,
so feel free to call anytime during our
regular business hours. Thank you for giving
us the opportunity to provide dental care
for you and your loved ones.
 A
Healthy Smile is a Healthy Child
We believe in providing high quality
dentistry in a nurturing and caring
environment. Our mission is to build a
foundation of health and safety for each of
our patients in our prevention based
practice. We have created a dental home with
a warm and personalized approach to
long-lasting relationships.
Facility
We are proud to provide a state-of-the-art
facility for the highest quality dental and
orthodontic care available. It is one of
our top priorities to protect the well-being
of our valued patients. For this reason, our
office meets and surpasses all Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and
Center for Disease Control (CDC) standards.
We are confident that you will feel right at
home in our office as we welcome all
patients as family.
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Appointments
If you would like to make an appointment,
please contact our office by phone or email.
Our office facilitates open communication
and emergency calls; appointments are
available and welcome, especially for new
patients seeking help.
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Cancellation
If you are unable to keep an appointment, we
ask that you kindly provide us with at least
48 hours notice. We ask for this advance
notice in order to be able to offer this
appointment to another patient. A fee may be
charged if an appointment is broken without
sufficient notice.
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Do I Stay
with My Child During the Visit?
We invite you to stay with your child during the
initial examination. During future appointments, we suggest you allow your
child to accompany our staff through the dental experience. We can usually
establish a closer rapport with your child when you are not present. Our
purpose is to gain your child's confidence and overcome apprehension.
However, if you choose, you may come with your child to the treatment room.
For the safety and privacy of all patients, other children who are not being
treated should remain in the reception room with a supervising adult.
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Financial
We will be more than happy to submit all
insurance forms for you and help you recover
the most from your benefits. We will do
everything we can to help you afford the
treatment you need and want. For patients
who require major work, a complete payment
plan is designed with an appropriate payment
schedule. Forms of payment accepted by our
office are check, cash, or any major credit
card.
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Insurance
Insurance companies we
participate with include: Aetna, Delta
Dental, GEHA, Guardian, MetLife, Smiles for
Children (Medicaid), United Concordia, Anthem (PPO),
Blue Cross Blue Shield (PPO), Cigna (PPO).
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Our Office Policy
Regarding Dental Insurance
If we have received all of your insurance information
on the day of the appointment, we will be happy to file your claim for you.
You must be familiar with your insurance benefits, as we will collect from
you the estimated amount insurance is not expected to pay. By law your
insurance company is required to pay each claim within 30 days of receipt.
We file all insurance electronically so your insurance company will receive
each claim within days of the treatment. You are responsible for any balance
on your account after 30 days, whether insurance has paid or not. If you
have not paid your balance within 60 days a finance charge of 1.5% will be
added to your account each month until paid. We will be glad to send a
refund to you once insurance has paid us.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND that we file dental insurance as a courtesy to our
patients. We do not have a contract with your insurance company, only you
do. We are not responsible for how your insurance company handles its claims
or for what benefits they pay on a claim. We can only assist you in
estimating your portion of the cost of treatment, we at no time guarantee
what your insurance will or will not do with each claim. We also can not be
responsible for any errors in filing your insurance, once again we file
claims as a courtesy to you.
Fact 1 - NO INSURANCE PAYS 100% OF ALL PROCEDURES
Dental insurance is meant to be an aid in receiving dental care. Many
patients think that their insurance pays 90%-100% of all dental fees. This
is not true! Most plans only pay between 50%-80% of the average total fee.
Some pay more, some pay less. The percentage paid is usually determined by
how much you or your employer has paid for coverage or the type of contract
your employer has set up with the insurance company.
Fact 2 - BENEFITS ARE NOT DETERMINED BY OUR OFFICE
You may have noticed that sometimes your dental insurer reimburses you or
the dentist at a lower rate than the dentist's actual fee. Frequently,
insurance companies state that the reimbursement was reduced because your
dentist's fee has exceeded the usual, customary, or reasonable fee ("UCR")
used by the company.
A statement such as this gives the impression that any fee greater than the
amount paid by the insurance company is unreasonable or well above what most
dentists in the area charge for a certain service. This can be very
misleading and simply is not accurate.
Insurance companies set their own schedules and each company uses a
different set of fees they consider allowable. These allowable fees may vary
widely because each company collects fee information from claims it
processes. The insurance company then takes this data and arbitrarily
chooses a level they call the "allowable" UCR Fee. Frequently this data can
be three to five years old and these "allowable" fees are set by the
insurance company so they can make a net 20%-30% profit.
Unfortunately, insurance companies imply that your dentist is "overcharging"
rather than say that they are "underpaying" or that their benefits are low.
In general, the less expensive insurance policy will use a lower usual,
customary, or reasonable (UCR) figure.
Fact 3 - DEDUCTIBLES & CO-PAYMENTS MUST BE CONSIDERED
When estimating dental benefits, deductibles and percentages must be
considered. To illustrate, assume the fee for service is $150.00. Assuming
that the insurance company allows $150.00 as its usual and customary (UCR)
fee, we can figure out what benefits will be paid. First a deductible (paid
by you), on average $50, is subtracted, leaving $100.00. The plan then pays
80% for this particular procedure. The insurance company will then pay 80%
of $100.00, or $80.00. Out of a $150.00 fee they will pay an estimated
$80.00 leaving a remaining portion of $70.00 (to be paid by the patient). Of
course, if the UCR is less than $150.00 or your plan pays only at 50% then
the insurance benefits will also be significantly less.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, please keep us informed of any
insurance changes such as policy name, insurance company address, or a
change of employment.
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