3 responses

  1. Ken
    March 19, 2012

    I’m glad you posted this and I wish more people would become aware of these tactics. I’m not saying ALL dentists do this but I believe it is way more common than we might believe. I recently had a patient that we recommended periodontal scaling procedures leave because we were “too much” especially because we were not in network. They returned a couple weeks later to our office to get the work done. They shared with me the treatment plan. They shared with me the other plan and in addition to the root planing code each quadrant also included root desensitization, gingival curretage, subgingival irrigation, & specialized o.h. instruction…when all was said and done the fee was greater than ours!
    About a year and a half ago I received a request from one of my dental supply reps that I allow a doc they were setting up in a small town to see how my office computers and operatory computers were set up. So we got talking about business and such and insurance came up. I told him I was not a fan of PPO’s and he said, “You need to learn how to play the game.” Pretending to be naive I asked him to explain “the game”? He went on to basically explain bundling of fees and using extra charges as you described above.
    Like I said, I don’t think all dentists do this but I also believe it is more common than one might imagine.

    Ken

    Reply

    • The Dental Warrior
      March 20, 2012

      Hi Ken,

      Thanks for chiming in. In my 24 years of experience and observation, it is VERY common.

      Reply

  2. AlexDMD
    March 19, 2012

    thanks for sharing

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top
mobile desktop