Does that seem like an odd question? After all, providers aren’t charged when they join a new dental insurance network. It’s mutually beneficial, isn’t it? Providers get access to more patients, and insurance companies get another provider to add to the network they offer to their subscribers. Everybody wins, don’t they?
Nobody Sells Something For Nothing
When a dentist decides to participate with a new insurance network, what do they expect to get out of it? Insurance companies offer dentists:
- Access to a wider patient base as a preferred provider in their network.
- Free marketing, since you’ll be listed in their provider registry.
- They’ll take care of all the complex billing and claims paperwork for you.
- And best of all, it’s free of charge!
The catch is, insurance companies aren’t just creating lists of dental offices to send their subscribers to. They explicitly market that their benefits holders will receive significant discounts from providers in their networks, usually 20-40% off of your office fees.
If you didn’t pay for it, you’re the product
If joining an insurance network was going to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, would you still sign the contract?
Insurance companies want to have as many providers in their network as possible. They can gain more premium-paying subscribers by showing them that they have many affordable and convenient care options in their area. If you didn’t pay for it, you’re the product that’s being sold.
The goal of the dental insurance industry is to make as much revenue from premiums as possible, and spend as little of it as possible actually paying dentists for the care they provide. It’s just business.
So, if they can get dentists to pay for the right to provide care to their subscribers, why wouldn’t they?
So how much do you pay to be in-network with your insurance carriers?
How much of a discount on your office fees did you agree to take when you signed the contract?
What are your monthly, quarterly, or annual write-off? What’s the difference between how much you submitted and how much you were reimbursed?
We don’t think it makes sense to pay insurance companies for the right to provide care to your patients.
We think established practices don’t need insurance companies to help them find new patients. The truth is, most people choose a new dentist based on convenience and recommendations. However, your patients return to you after their initial visit because they had a great experience at your office, they received excellent care, and their expectation of getting a “free” cleaning and exam was met.
We don’t think you need to pay insurance companies thousands of dollars to help you keep your patients. We think your office staff is fully capable of handling all the necessary billing paperwork, and working with your patients to educate them on what they’re being billed for and why it’s necessary for their dental health. Solutions 101 will work with you and your staff to give you all of the tools, training, and resources you need to effectively retain patients.
We think dental professionals deserve to be treated like the essential medical service providers they are, and not like products for insurance companies to sell to their subscribers.
So what’s the solution? Well, the easiest thing to do is not sign one-sided, unprofitable insurance contracts in the first place.
If you’re an established practice already in-network with numerous carriers, and you’re ready to escape the unfair system that’s charging you to be a part of it, the next best thing you can do is call us.