Oh, I think my dental insurance coverage has changed.....
More and more patients are coming in and asking about their insurance network changes. Usually, their employer has made a change of carrier. Probably lured by a lower introductory rate insurers are enticing employers to switch. This "poaching" of employers seems ongoing and is seen in other industries as well ( Phone carriers, cable companies, etc). Sometimes my patients explain that it was their choice and they had opted for a less expensive plan.
The problem for us is our office on participates in only a couple of plans (Delta premier, and Cigna PPOand otherwise my practice is primarily fee for service) and when my patients employers make their switch it effects their reimbursement from their insurance for their visits to my office. I am sure my dental practice is not alone in experiencing this phenomenon, since most dental practices are selective about which plans they accept.
One of my colleagues, who works in a group practice that does take most insurances and she related their strategy. The practice encourages their dentists to each participate in one of the less profitable plans (as a loss leader) but not all plans. This way at least one of the dentists in the group dental practice accepts each plan and when a patient switches insurance the practice doesn't loose the patient since they have the option of switching dentists inside the group.
I thought this was an ingenious idea, since it allowed their dentists in the group to pick and choose which plans they would accept but the practice had a chance to keep patients since one of their group probably would accept the insurance that their patients employer had switched to.
from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2017/09/oh-i-think-my-dental-insurance-coverage.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/
The problem for us is our office on participates in only a couple of plans (Delta premier, and Cigna PPOand otherwise my practice is primarily fee for service) and when my patients employers make their switch it effects their reimbursement from their insurance for their visits to my office. I am sure my dental practice is not alone in experiencing this phenomenon, since most dental practices are selective about which plans they accept.
One of my colleagues, who works in a group practice that does take most insurances and she related their strategy. The practice encourages their dentists to each participate in one of the less profitable plans (as a loss leader) but not all plans. This way at least one of the dentists in the group dental practice accepts each plan and when a patient switches insurance the practice doesn't loose the patient since they have the option of switching dentists inside the group.
I thought this was an ingenious idea, since it allowed their dentists in the group to pick and choose which plans they would accept but the practice had a chance to keep patients since one of their group probably would accept the insurance that their patients employer had switched to.
from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2017/09/oh-i-think-my-dental-insurance-coverage.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/
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