About Dental Insurance

Our goal is to help you attain the highest level of dental health you desire and to facilitate the achievement of this goal within your personal budget. At your consultation a personalized treatment plan was designed to optimize your treatment outcome. This plan provides the road map to achieve your goals, and affords you the opportunity to pace treatment in a way that is not financially burdensome. Of course, we also want you to receive the highest and most timely benefits you deserve from your dental insurance. To that end we will:

1. File pre-determinations once you have selected your treatment plan.
2. File your insurance claims electronically the same day you receive treatment if your dental carrier supports such filing.
3. If your insurance does not support electronic filing we will send paper claims via the post office within the first week following your treatment.
4. Send appropriate supplementary information like radiographs when requested.
5. Write letters to expedite a favorable adjudication of your claim if necessary.

When submitting your claim we will assign benefits directly to you because this is the most expeditious way for you to receive your money. If the insurance company accidentally sends funds to Link Dental, we will apply those funds to your account. In the event that you do not have a current balance we will send you a check in the appropriate amount within one week.

We want you to be comfortable in dealing with these matters and we urge you to consult us if you have any questions regarding our service and/or fees. We will do all we can to assure you of maximum benefits, but bear in mind that the insurance company is responsible to you and you are responsible to us for your account. We cannot render service on the assumption that the charges will be paid by the insurance company.

There are some very important facts that you should understand about dental insurance in general and your policy in particular:

1. Virtually all dental plans have a maximum annual benefit that usually does not exceed $1500.00 per year; and every policy has its own fiscal year that may or may not coincide with the calendar year. It is important for you to know the fiscal year end for your particular policy so that you do not lose benefits.
2. Pre-determined benefits usually are only good for three to six months.
3. While there may be several different ways to treat a given dental condition not all will be equally re-imbursed by your dental insurance and some of the best treatments like dental implants may not be covered at all. Purely cosmetic treatments such as bleaching or veneers are not covered by any dental carriers. It is important for you to read and understand the exclusionary clauses of your policy.
4. If you have a claim that is denied please be sure that the treatment in question is not one of those excluded by your policy before you request our written support.
5. Most policies limit the number of times a procedure is eligible for re-imbursement in a given time frame. For example, dental cleanings may only be eligible for re-imbursement two times a year irregardless of your specific needs.

We are not a preferred provider for any dental plan because we have never found a plan that does not in some way compromise our ability to provide quality care. We would like each of our patients to enjoy excellent dental health for a lifetime which is a much longer time than the average three years most people/employers stay with their insurance plan. Because of this markedly different time horizon we have found insurance policies and practices guiding patients toward treatment options with short term success or marked compromises in comfort and/or function. In our experience, the best treatment outcomes begin with well informed decisions by our patients. Armed with good information you are the best steward of your dental health. Allow yourself the luxury of considering all treatment options based on their inherent value to your long term dental health before your judgment is clouded by the benefit, or lack of benefit, you will receive from your plan. Together we can often find a way to pace your treatment in a manner which maximizes your insurance benefit, but does not compromise the quality of your care.

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