Dentists out of all insurance networks

[Anonymous]

... seems the new trend. What does this mean to patients? How much more do you pay generally?

[Anonymous]

I have never had dental insurance. They never offered enough to be cost effective.

[Anonymous]

It is rare for families and individuals to have dental insurance. Most people pay as you go.

[Anonymous]

I’ve always had dental insurance (I guess I’m fortunate that my employers have had that as a benefit?). My dentist doesn’t accept any insurance and the OOP costs have varied greatly depending on my insurance plan’s “reasonable and customary” allowance. An exam and cleaning is about $250, my current insurance covers all but maybe $10-15 or so. In the past, with a different employer’s insurance, it covered less than half (so it was ~125-150 out of pocket.

[Anonymous]

I'm good friends with my dentist and he's had it with insurance companies. None of the insurance companies were paying him enough to even cover the salary for his dental hygienists.

He said that even though he doesn't take insurance, you just send it into your insurance as "out of network" and they still provide coverage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is rare for families and individuals to have dental insurance. Most people pay as you go.

Is it? My pediatric dentist won't allow you to pay cash. If you're "uninsured" I have to pay their yearly cash fee, which is like a type of insurance basically. I'm so annoyed with it that I don't want to go there any longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never had dental insurance. They never offered enough to be cost effective.

I used to think that for many years, but I've found it really worth it. We pay $20/mo for a family of four, and all cleanings are free, major price reduction on fillings, my ds's wisdom teeth removal was under 1k which honestly was so worth it in itself. I can say I take much better care of my teeth since having it and would recommend it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is rare for families and individuals to have dental insurance. Most people pay as you go.

Is it? Federal employee here. I don’t think it’s uncommon.

[Anonymous]

I didn't want to change dentists to get one where cleaning was $20.

[Anonymous]

I don't have dental insurance but every time I go to the dentist they ask me if I have it. So I guess they still accept it.

[Anonymous]

Dental is a very common benefit

[Anonymous]

My excellent dentist is out of network but our bills aren’t that much higher because dental plan copays are already high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never had dental insurance. They never offered enough to be cost effective.

I used to think that for many years, but I've found it really worth it. We pay $20/mo for a family of four, and all cleanings are free, major price reduction on fillings, my ds's wisdom teeth removal was under 1k which honestly was so worth it in itself. I can say I take much better care of my teeth since having it and would recommend it.

Agree with this. The premiums tend to be low and it gets people into the dentist regularly. In addition to cleanings being free, we get annual X-rays that are fully covered and yes, a good discount on fillings (we usually pay around 80-100, I think once I paid 150 so my DD could have laughing gas, which is not covered, and then she hated it so we've never even bothered with that again and it's cheap).

My employers have always offered dental insurance as an add-on and for a time I didn't get it because I was already paying extra for vision but I finally switched and now I think it is so dumb all those years that I just paid out of pocket, and thus was not great about going every 6 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My excellent dentist is out of network but our bills aren’t that much higher because dental plan copays are already high.

I only ever have a copay if I have dental work done. Cleanings and X-rays are always fully covered. The copay for fillings is decent -- usually a 50-70% discount over what it would be without insurance. For a time we had a dental HMO that was even better -- fillings were $40 and I got a root canal for less than 1k which is very, very good. However it was really hard to find providers who took the HMO so we went back to regular insurance and it is still worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never had dental insurance. They never offered enough to be cost effective.

Same.

At least my kid’s appointments are covered for preventative care. Unless this administration killed that? I don’t even know.