A few weeks ago I received a flyer in the mail for a new dentist practice in my neighborhood which had a new customer special for $99 to include x-rays, cleaning and a smile. When trying to make an appointment, the woman asked if I had dental insurance. I said I wasn’t 100% sure what my plan was and I was willing just to pay for out of pocket since I hadn’t been to the dentist in quite some time. The woman informed me she would really like to know if I had dental insurance because then “at no cost to me” they would bill the insurer $350 for my visit. I decided that was unfair to my insurer and that I would pay for this visit myself. When I went yesterday (one cavity) it was unlike any dentist office I had ever seen. With the styling of a chic clothing store or hair salon, the waiting area had internet terminals and Sony Play Station. When I was sitting in the chair, I was given a TV remote for the flat screen hanging above me. And on my departure I was given a nice pouch with a fancy toothbrush and flavored dental floss. So how does this office afford all these amenities? Partially off my $99 fee of course, which they would have preferred the extra $250 from my insurer, but they also gave me a “treatment schedule” which included removing my wisdom teeth for $1,600 which are fully grown in and cause no pain. The dentist pointed to a small spec in my x-rays saying it would eventually become a problem and so on.
I’m no medical expert but I am a skeptical consumer and I couldn’t help but think the practice was more motivated by exploiting the insurance company than improving my smile (one of the questions on the forms was whether I liked my smile or not). I had flashbacks to Obama’s recent media event with all the doctors in white coats and thought to myself, are all those doctors solely motivated by their patient’s health or would they be willing to prescribe a few harmless tests and procedures if they could get a few extra bucks out of it? How would patients know whether a recommendation was driven by health concerns or easy money or both? Realizing dental and health care are related but vastly different, the relationships and interplay are similar. With billions of combinations and permutations of the complex love triangle between doctors, patients and insurance, how does the government intend improve care by inserting another agent of complexity, unintended consequences and red tape?
