This has been our experience since forever. The first place we ever were offered Care Credit was at a dentist’s office. Is this not other people’s expected experience with dentists?
Looks like par for the course with US healthcare. We have such a silly system.
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My dentist does the same thing. My husband’s dentist does, too.
The nice thing is that I can at least find out in advance from my dentist exactly how much a procedure is going to cost me. I can’t get that from a hospital or a medical provider. I can get an estimate from my insurance, but a lot can happen with the procedure to change that number.
It’s pretty bogus that it works that way.
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I’m not sure I understand. The allowed amount was $178 and the dentist was paid that by insurance and then charged the patient an extra $20?
I guess those $20’s could add up but it’s a slow way to get rich…
Is the dentist getting a kickback from Care Credit? Is the dentist recommending services that aren’t really needed and then recommending Care Credit as a way to pay for unnecessary procedures?
I guess I’ve been pretty lucky with my dentist. So far there’s only been one procedure recommended that I didn’t get, and she wouldn’t have been the one doing the procedure anyway, so she didn’t have a financial incentive to make the recommendation. I was gonna do it, but then hubby needed a surgery and I didn’t want to totally deplete our bank account with a “nice to have” procedure.
I assumed it was a $20 copay and that the cost of the procedure was more than insurance pays so it got capped there.
Not sure what about this is a problem
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$20 was paid by me and not covered. OMG what was it called? Plaque, pesticides, film, FLORIDE!
My dentist in Kenosha, WI - his chargemaster was like a 10% discount with WAY lower chargemaster. This visit down by him would have been ~ $132 after discount - (I just messaged him).
Providers have incentives to mark up prices knowing that insurers will still pay a chunk of it and it’s more than they’d get if they charged actual fair prices because insurers would still try to cram them down from that.
Film at 11.
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I love, LOVE, getting the question from our Large Groups: “Hey, what is your average discount?”
LULZ…
I wonder if my $20 was in the $363?
I recommend not answering truthfully about your socioeconomic status, and wear your shitty clothes to appointments. Maybe they’ll take pity and not charge you so much.
Cliff Huxtable tried that when he was buying a car, but it all went to pot when the husband of one of his patients recognized him and blew the deal by thanking him profusely for being such a great doctor.
Actuaries may not have that problem though.
it’s not around here. the fact that they charge extra for fluoride is one of the reasons I don’t get it for me. I mean, it’s a little swish of juice, and you feel justified charging 20 beans? come on, man. monopolies gonna monopolize.
If you don’t use the JCPenny model of pricing the customer doesn’t feel like they’re getting a deal.
Are you upset about the co-pay or the provider write-off/in-network pricing?
I am actually confused as to what yiur complaints are.
It looks like you have really good dental insurance.
I read it as the latter.
I think his co-pay was $0 and the $20 was for a non-covered service like fluoride.
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Ok but that’s not at all clear from the screenshot.
I’m complaining about the charge master. So a person off the street is going to be charged what? Big discounts I am not a fan of. I think that is a shitty thing to do. Would the provider rather get cash on the spot or go thru insurance company adjudication.
This is right. BUT, is the $20 charge in the total charge? I do not know that
I have good dental insurance
No copay
I have a $20 uncovered service I paid out of pocket.
I believe it’s in the $363, although I’m not positive. It’s certainly not in the $178.