Dental insurance companies are notoriously sneaky. How you ask? Each year they take any leftover dental benefits that a patient has not used and puts it in their pocket. Many patients do not understand that their dental benefits expire on December 31. Every. year. No questions asked!
That’s why we work so hard to educate the community in Sacramento to start utilizing their dental insurance benefits well before they expire. Starting early will allow patients to have better scheduling opportunities. **A word to the wise, dental offices get crazy at the end of the year with everyone trying to use up their benefits before offices close for the holidays.
Each year we have a fantastic referral game that encourages all of our patients to “tell a friend” to remind them to utilize their dental benefits and to schedule a dental appointment here with us before it is too late. When a patient refers, we enter their name into a drawing. This year, we are giving away a 55″ Samsung Smart TV. Not a bad trade-off, right?
Back to dental insurance… let’s do some math:
Becky, her husband, and their three children each receive $1,500 in benefits from their insurance company to use in 2014. But, life is hectic with three young kids with both parents working full time and dental appointments simply don’t make it into the family’s schedule for the year. Another Christmas passes and the family doesn’t utilize their benefits. That is $7,500 of unused dental benefits that Becky paid for, that she and her family never benefited from.
And Becky isn’t alone! On average, only 45% of the population even see a dentist regularly. That’s a lot of money going back into the insurance company’s pockets.
Fast forward to 2015: Becky’s husband finally makes a dental appointment only to find out that his dental work is going to cost $5,000. And he only has $1,500 to use this year, leaving him footing the bill for $3,500. However, if he would have seen the dentist in 2014 he would have been able to split his dental work between the two years’ benefits, only owing $1,500.
While many dental problems cannot wait from one year to the next and require immediate attention, in some cases the dental office is able to split up a patient’s dental work so that they may keep their estimated patient obligation lower.
Our knowledgeable team will help you maximize your dental benefits. If you haven’t already, call to schedule your first dental appointment with our experienced Sacramento Dental team (916) 649-0249.