Despite being part of a very heavily regulated industry (thanks to the insurance companies and their Washington DC lobbyists), discount dental plans can all too often be a source of deception and in some cases outright trickery unless you take care to read the fine print... and how many of us do that? There is a history of fraudulent discount dental plan firms collecting membership fees without providing any service. So make sure you are working with a legitimate firm by checking with your state insurance commissioner to make sure the firm is registered. You can reach your state insurance office by visiting NAIC.org.
Thankfully, there are several precautions you can take before you purchase a dental plan to make sure you are being taken by a scam artist. These include the following tips;
(1) Avoid any company that asks you to send in your money before it mails you membership information. All legitimate plans will be more than happy to send you their marketing materials before you lay out any cash.
(2) Call a few doctors on the network list to make sure they are indeed part of the plan
(3) Check with the secretary of state in your state to see if the company has registered, a requirement for any legitimate business. You may even be able check for this online
(4) Ask for the company's national or local office address. Be wary if the person on the other end of the phone will only provide you with a post office box
It's important to understand that the major players in the discount health care industry are very "sensitive" to not being grouped together with those companies that use less than honest sales tactics to sell their discount dental benefits. In fact, many of the largest discount healthcare providers (i.e. AmeriPlan, Careington, Care Entree and others) have joined together to form the Consumer Health Alliance (CHA) which is the national trade association of the discount healthcare industry. Founded in 2002, the CHA protects consumers' rights to choose affordable and practical non-insurance healthcare programs.
CHA Rules of Conduct
One good way to sniff out a Dental Plan Scam -or more precisely a discount dental plan scam- is if a company selling discounted health benefits does not comply with anyone of the 5 CHA agreed-upon rules of conduct:
Mandatory minimum refund policies
Operational requirements regarding toll-free numbers, websites & membership cards, etc.
Appropriate use of marketing materials and practices
Complaint resolution and compliance with any and all state or federal regulations
Disclosure materials that prominently state that a discount program is NOT insurance (the word NOT must be capitalized) and that otherwise comply with state law disclosure requirements
Below are a few examples of tricks that companies who offer discounted dental plans employ in order to get you to join their plan and how we here at DiscountDental4u.net recommend you handle each situation. Should you end up having the complaint against a specific dentist or dental office, go to our page on Dental Care Complaints: What Can An Unhappy Patient Do?
"Cancellation Problems" It's unfortunate but there are some unscrupulous discount dental plan companies which made it very difficult for enrollees to cancel their membership even though they may provide any "satisfaction guaranteed" policy which is anything but guaranteed! The reason they do this is so that enrollees will stay on as members for an extra month or two allowing them to bill your credit card for an extra month or two worth of membership fees.
SOLUTION - Most discount dental plans require you to send an e-mail to them when you want to cancel your membership with them while other companies allow you to cancel via a phone call. Whichever way you chooseto do wish to cancel discount dental plan membership, I recommend that you first follow the company's written cancellation policyand wait no more than 10 days. If after that time you membership has not been canceled, send the letter (preferably a registered one) to the company care of their "Membership Cancellation Department" and wait one week before calling your credit card company and seeing if your membership has indeed been canceled. If it wasn't, then inform your credit card company that you do not want them to charge your card anymore as you have already sent them a letter requesting this.
"Up To (Whatever) % Off" Probably the most pervasive of all the different types of deceptions discount dental plan companies use is the phrase "up to (whatever)% off" in its advertising. Although not a lie, use of this phrase suggests that you will receive the quoted percentage off of all dental work you have done while a member of their plan. This is simply not true; rather, what they're doing is quoting the most dramatic example of savings under their plan, even if the savings could be for only one specific type of dental procedure done in one specific area of the country (EXAMPLE: a periodic oral exam performed in Phoenix, Arizona).
SOLUTION - The next time you see the words "Up To (Whatever) % Off" when evaluating a discount dental plan, understand that the claim, while true, is an exaggeration and the real discount you'll probably receive on dental work will be a lot closer to half of the stated percentage.
"Ghost Dental Providers" This occurs when a company offering a discount dental plan exaggerates the number of dental providers in its regional or national network. Most dental plans like to boast about how many tens of thousands of dental providers they have in their network as a way of leading prospective members to believe that they have many different providers to choose from. These claims can be very deceiving as dental plans have a couple of "tricks" to boost their network numbers making it seem that there are many more dentists who accept their plan than who actually do.
a) Dental providers who no longer accept a particular dental plan but are still included in the dental plan company's database and thus considered "Active".
b) Dental providers who work out of two or more offices are always counted as two separate providers when in fact they are really only one dental provider.
SOLUTION - Before enrolling in any discount dental plan, make sure you call-up two or three of that plan's providers in your local area to make sure that they are still accepting this plan and that the discounts/fee schedules that the plan advertises are still valid. If need be, call that plan's customer service number to get more information.
"Unwanted Health Benefits" Another technique dental plan companies use to squeeze as much money out of each dental plan they sell is to offer additional health benefits such as vision, prescription drug, chiropractic care, hearing, etc. The more health benefits they pack on the more they can charge for their dental benefit plan. This "extra benefit" trick is so widespread that is now virtually impossible to find any discount dental plan that does not offer at least one extra health benefit.
SOLUTION - Shop around and compare. That is really all you can do as most companies will offer a dental plan almost automatically offer at least one other health benefit. Now, maybe you and/or your family can use these extra benefits; if so then these extra health benefits associated with your dental plan will make the plan that much more useful to you and/or family.
Are You Happy With Your Dental Coverage?
If you don't have or are unhappy with your dental coverage, then your best bet is to enroll in a Discount or Reduced Fee Dental Plan as they will lower your dental bills by Up To 60% or more. All types of procedures are covered, including those done by dental specialists (ie. Periodontists, Endodontists, Oral Surgeons, and Prosthodontists).
Although DiscountDental4U.net doesn't endorse one dental plan over another plan, those looking to enroll in a cheap dental plan should go to DentalPlans.com because and they make it easy to comparison shop by allowing you to quickly compare membership fees, participating dentists, dental procedures prices, and much more between 10 to 20 different regional and/or national dental plans. In addition, you'll save 10% on any plan you purchase! To do so, click on the link below, type in your zip code and begin comparing dental plans available in your area. Then, when you've decided on which plan to enroll in, use DiscountDental4U.net's SPECIAL 10% OFF COUPON by using the code-word "blurt" when filling out a DentalPlans.com's online application.
