dental insurance/discount plan

[robr]

My company doesn't provide dental. My wife just dropped $300 (!!!) today on a cleaning and X-rays... thieves. Now she finds out she needs her wisdom teeth out.

I'm trying to figure out the cheapest way to do this. I keep stumbling upon "dental discount plans" and have no idea if they are a scam or what they cover. They all make claims like "30-65% off".... is it 30, or 65? Is it off everything?
I need a cleaning and x-rays myself, but I'll be damned if I'm willing to pay another $300 for that.

 

[Steven Allen]

My expereince is most dental insurance plans are not worth it unless the employer is the one buying the insurance.

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

Ditto. I think an unfortunately consequence of being self-employed or otherwise being in the position of having to shop for your own dental/health insurance... is getting screwed!

In any event, check with the provider you are using to make sure they are going to honor it and/or work out the intricacies of the plan on your behalf.

 

[peiserg]

My company doesn't provide dental. My wife just dropped $300 (!!!) today on a cleaning and X-rays... thieves. Now she finds out she needs her wisdom teeth out.

I'm trying to figure out the cheapest way to do this. I keep stumbling upon "dental discount plans" and have no idea if they are a scam or what they cover. They all make claims like "30-65% off".... is it 30, or 65? Is it off everything?
I need a cleaning and x-rays myself, but I'll be damned if I'm willing to pay another $300 for that.

you should call around for pricing if you are paying out of pocket. if you pay cash they may discount the price.
As for being theives, you should just ignore your teeth. eventually, they'll go away, and you won't have to give any more money to the crooks.

 

[DocL]

Wisdom teeth removal can be covered by medical insurance. If you need some guidance about so called dental "plans", shoot me a PM. :biggrin:

 

[sahtt]

There are always those experimental medication trials in which they give you a grand or two for letting them take out your wisdom teeth. They are usually very qualified dentists as well. The only "issue" if you are a wuss is that you have a decent chance of relying on sugar pills for your pain relief. Sounds like fun.

 

[robr]

you should call around for pricing if you are paying out of pocket. if you pay cash they may discount the price.
As for being theives, you should just ignore your teeth. eventually, they'll go away, and you won't have to give any more money to the crooks.

The thieves comment was tongue in cheek. The last time I had to pay for a cleaning out of pocket it was $50.

 

[BLKDMD]

Impacted wisdom teeth are often covered by medical insurance if you are seeing a surgeon. I would recommend that you have your wife see a surgeon as they can provide iv sedation and perform the best job as they do this day in and out.

Pick a dentist that you are happy with and ask the front office to explain what dental plans are best. If they dont have time to explain dental insurance to you then you might want to consider a different office. You can save money by going to a chain dental office Bright Now Dental, Affordable Dental Care, Etc... but you will be seeing a different dentist every year or so. Just when you find a good one he leaves to start or buy his own office.

If you are in decent shape and you have not had many problems with your teeth then the best thing to do would be to set up a HSA (checking account for health service that avoids tax dollars) And pay your medical dental dollars from this account. The most difficult part is that it requires you to estimate how much you will be spending for the year.(Ask your dental office)

Dental insurance usually has a waiting period for major work such as crowns etc. 6months to a year. They will not pay untill you have been paying them for this amount of time.

Please feel free to ask any questions in the future! Good luck, You get what you pay for!

 

[robr]

Thanks, I appreciate all the info. Her wisdom teeth are not impacted, but they are apparently causing bone loss for one reason or another, so I'm not sure if medical will pick this up.

 

[Hrant]

My expereince is most dental insurance plans are not worth it unless the employer is the one buying the insurance.

I agree also. Most employers don't pay the full premium, even then if you have a relatively healthy teeth, its cheaper to pay as you go. As for discount plans (or managed dental plans), most "established" dentist in California don't accept patients with such insurance. They have been successful in rebuffing what has happened in the medical insurance.

Not sure if this is an option, but you might be able to have the wisdom teeth pulled for free at a University that has a Dental school if you qualify or are eligible .......... the dental students perform such procedure under the supervision of their profs; and it does work :wink:

 

[L5-S1NSX]

Impacted wisdom teeth are often covered by medical insurance if you are seeing a surgeon. I would recommend that you have your wife see a surgeon as they can provide iv sedation and perform the best job as they do this day in and out.

Pick a dentist that you are happy with and ask the front office to explain what dental plans are best. If they dont have time to explain dental insurance to you then you might want to consider a different office. You can save money by going to a chain dental office Bright Now Dental, Affordable Dental Care, Etc... but you will be seeing a different dentist every year or so. Just when you find a good one he leaves to start or buy his own office.

If you are in decent shape and you have not had many problems with your teeth then the best thing to do would be to set up a HSA (checking account for health service that avoids tax dollars) And pay your medical dental dollars from this account. The most difficult part is that it requires you to estimate how much you will be spending for the year.(Ask your dental office)

Dental insurance usually has a waiting period for major work such as crowns etc. 6months to a year. They will not pay untill you have been paying them for this amount of time.

Please feel free to ask any questions in the future! Good luck, You get what you pay for!

Excellant Advice !

 

[da3dalus]

Anyone have advice for other general health insurance plans for those of us who are self-employed. Next year i'll be 22 and out of college, so I won't be covered by my parents plan anymore. Being a daytrader, i don't exactly have health benefits as part of the job. If anyone has some ideas or reccommendations of good companies to look into I would appreciate it. I want to be prepared for this well in advance even though i've been healthy my entire life.

Cheers!

 

[Ric]

Anyone have advice for other general health insurance plans for those of us who are self-employed. Next year i'll be 22 and out of college, so I won't be covered by my parents plan anymore. Being a daytrader, i don't exactly have health benefits as part of the job. If anyone has some ideas or reccommendations of good companies to look into I would appreciate it. I want to be prepared for this well in advance even though i've been healthy my entire life.

Cheers!

check with bluecross/blueshield in your area. Unfortunately I couldn't use them since I travel around the country for 6 months to a year at a time and bluecross/blueshield doesn't offer coverage in 50 states, so I ended up with Assurant Health PPO medical insurance. They cover most states that work for me. I am single, healthy and my policy is about 200 bucks a month with $2100 deductible. I have no idea if this is a good policy or not.

 

[Ryanmcd2]

This is the worst part about not having a job working for someone. I got general care for about 120$ a month a few years back but that did not cover my 5500 in dental work that year. You can write it off but you still have to pay for it.

 

[Hrant]

check with bluecross/blueshield in your area. Unfortunately I couldn't use them since I travel around the country for 6 months to a year at a time and bluecross/blueshield doesn't offer coverage in 50 states, so I ended up with Assurant Health PPO medical insurance. They cover most states that work for me. I am single, healthy and my policy is about 200 bucks a month with $2100 deductible. I have no idea if this is a good policy or not.

You will know if its a good "premium" once you ask the medical loss ratio for the PPO product. You can find this from your State department of Insurance or Corporations.

If for every $1 in premium they collect they are spending more than $0.15 on administration and profit margin, then you are paying too much. Not sure if Assurant Health non-profut or profit; but if it is non-profit, they should do even better in the admin cost. Of course, this is not specific to your age but to the risk pool they insured for the PPO.

Kaiser Health Plan, which has more limited and convoluted way of reporting their medical loss ratio, tends to run at about 7-8% admin cost - though they have occasionally reported 5%; they are non-profit.

As to whether the policy is good or not, that is a totally different and subjective matter. It depends on the network of providers they have, their geographic distribution (how far from home/work you need to travel) ease of making timely appointments and referrals, and whether they have too many denials when it comes to authorizing services. HTH.