Sylvia Betts on insurance plans
We have several payment plans, first of all. We have the usual credit cards. We have a couple of programs called Care Credit and Lending Club, which are tailored more toward health care needs of patients. Those are interest-free. We follow a lot of insurance. We are with a lot of insurance. There are so many different insurance plans out there. What I like to tell patients is there are thousands of different plans and thousands of different insurance companies and different ways to be providers. The best way to find out how your insurance is going to work is to just call us, and let us help you figure out how your insurance works in our office.
What we see now though is more and more patients are losing insurance. They don’t have benefits at all, or they have some that really don’t cover anything. They are not worth it. They may be paying $600 a year in insurance premiums, and there’s a two-year waiting period, or a huge deductible. It doesn’t cover what they need. About two or three years ago, we came up with an in-house plan that we now offer to patients with no insurance. We call it the Dental Savings Plan. They pay a flat fee. It’s just under $300 a year now for two regular cleanings just for a healthy mouth. Regular cleanings, all the X-rays that are needed, and then if they need any dental care, it’s at 15% off.
That is less than anybody’s purchased insurance plan that I know about. It’s helped a lot of our patients out. It’s helped them get the cure they need. They know up front for this amount of money I can have my teeth cleaned, X-rayed, checked twice a year. That’s been a very, very successful plan for us. It’s helped a lot of people because nothing is scarier than having insurance all these years, and then you lose those benefits. It’s a way for us to help those patients.