Dental insurance is a contract between your employer and a dental insurance company. If you talk to your insurance company, they will tell you that dental insurance is not like medical insurance. It is considered a benefit instead.
The benefits that you will receive are based on the terms of the contract your employer negotiated with the dental insurance company, which means that many services are NOT covered. Though each plan is different, dental insurance companies rarely cover 100% of any dental fee. In many cases, they cover less than 50% or nothing at all. In addition, each plan has an annual dollar amount limitation. This amount has not changed in more than 30 years! Once this limit is reached, no other services will be covered by your dental insurance company, regardless of how essential the service may be to your oral health.
We advise that you familiarize yourself with your plan booklet , it is the best way to know if any services not covered in your plan benefits.
Unfortunately, we are not in network for The Oregon Health Plan and Medicaid. If you have questions about your specific coverage, please give us a call!
Although working with insurance can be confusing our office takes great pride in ensuring the process is as seamless as possible. Our office will do everything possible to help you understand and make the most of your dental benefits. We realize that dental insurance companies has made this a complex situation. It is extremely difficult to understand how to make it work or even to work with certain dental insurance companies. That is why we provide full assistance to you. Our office will complete and submit dental insurance forms to the company to achieve the maximum reimbursement to which you are entitled. We are happy to work with your insurance company to make sure your dental claim get paid and processed in a timely manner. Please be aware that some dental insurance companies take longer than others to process payment. When necessary, our office will contract the dental insurance company, or we may request your help in this matter.
In an effort to keep dental costs down while maintaining a high level of professional care, we have established the following payment options for our patients.
• All payment is required at time of service.
• For our Private Pay patients, we offer a 5% discount when paying with a check or cash.
• We gladly accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and any debit cards including your health savings card.
• CARE CREDIT- a credit card used for medical and dental services. Our office participates in the 6 – 12 month option (inquire about others). Ask our front office staff to help you get started.
• All major treatment and treatment that involves laboratory procedures will require a down payment of “one-half the total fee prior to initiating treatment”. The second half is done when the treatment is completed; this is for our private pay patients.
o If insurance is involved, the patient pays their ESTIMATED PORTION and then insurance takes approximately 30 days to process and pay their portion. If there is any remaining balance after the insurance pays, we will send you a statement after confirming with your insurance company.
Shawn N. M M.
