Sandy
Springs Dentist
Why
the cost of your dental care really hasn’t increased that much? In fact it has either tracked or lagged
behind the consumer price index and this is despite all the advances in dental
technology. Compare that observation to
your medical care costs. If you go in to
see your dentist and ask for an estimated cost of treatment, 9 times out of 10
you will get a quote. Try doing that in
your physician’s office. Why? Because
your dental care has
been a product of the free market system.
The insurance companies have yet to invade the purview of your oral
health the way they have dominated, if not destroyed your overall health care.
You get your teeth examined, cancer
screening, teeth cleaning and x-rays twice a year for less than $300.00. And that’s about two hours of actual
treatment from your dentist and his/her team.
At the physician’s office you go in once a year, see your physician or
his PA for about 10 to 15[i]
minutes on average and it costs $300 to $900.00, depending on possible
immunizations and your blood work[1].
Physicians are paid
by insurance and Medicare submittals based on the procedures they submit performed
and not by the amount of time they spend with you.
So the quicker the visit the
more procedures they can bill insurance companies in a day of operation. If they take too long it cost them money, not
you. And all their revenues are based on
negotiated fees with your insurance company, not the free market system.
Ah, finally,
the key phrase – free market
system.
Dentistry never bought into
insurance coverage for your treatment and care, and as a result of the free
market system there has been a reasonable or to put it better, an affordable
increase to the cost of your oral health care based on the supply and demand
curves.
So how much does insurance influence
the cost of your health care?
Anecdotally, let me tell you about my daughter’s experience, but really
my experience with health care and why we are the losers in this battle to
secure adequate health care treatment at an affordable price. My daughter had a cyst under her eyelid. It was not visible to you or me, but it
irritated the dickens out of her cornea.
I found a specialist and
accompanied my daughter to the examination.
It was determined that the treatment required general anesthesia to
safely perform the surgery. When I asked
‘how much’, I received no answer. I was
passed on to the patient coordinator for that physician. So I asked ‘how much’, and again I received no answer. They didn’t have a clue what this was going
to cost me. So I immediately said ‘sign me up, I’ll take two’. Seriously though, they needed to contact my
insurance carrier and they would let me know, great.
I get a call from the physician’s
office. It’s going to cost you $800 and
change. Ok, great, and is that my drive out price? ‘Oh
no, that’s just the doctor’s fee.’
Ok, so what else? I have to
call the surgical center. Ok, how much
does that cost? We [the doctor] don’t
know, you just have to call and find out.
So I called. The gentleman quoted
me $1540.00 including 2 hours of facility and the anesthesiologist. ‘Oh, and you won’t be needing a biopsy, since
this is cosmetic.’ No wait, this is not
cosmetic, it’s required surgery. So the
gentleman backs up and re-quotes the price.
It will be $4 to 7 thousand for the surgical suite, $1800 & change
for the anesthesiologist and X amount of dollars for the biopsy.
Wait, hold on, back up a minute, you
just quoted me a price that is almost 7 times what the same procedure would
cost if it was elective surgery. Ah,
that key phrase creeps back in to the conversation. Under
a free market system, elective surgery only garners what the market will bear. But under an insurance based system,
physicians don’t know what it costs, so
they inflate the costs and hope for some remuneration equal to or in excess
of what it really costs under a free market system to treat you. In other words, it’s a crap-shoot your physician
is playing with your health insurance company.
And the loser is you. So the next
time you go to the physician or the
dentist, remember why you’re paying what to whom, the physician or your
insurance company. And the next time you
discuss health care reform; you’re probably talking about insurance
reform. If we can answer your questions
or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Novy Scheinfeld, DDS, PC
290 Carpenter Drive, 200A
Atlanta (Sandy Springs), GA
30328
404-256-3620
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[1]
Lab work from your physician costs more than twice what an independent lab
charges if you have it done outside of your physician’s office.
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