I have two comments on Dr. Jeffcoat’s March JADA editorial, "Management Help at Hand: Boning Up on the Business of Dentistry." Regarding one quote—"we have always welcomed manuscripts on practice management from ‘wet-fingered’ [sorry, make that ‘wet-gloved’] dentists"—well, Dr. Roger Levin is an expert in practice management, but is he a "wet-gloved" dentist? (Editor’s note: Dr. Levin, a practice-management consultant and JADA columnist, maintained a private dental practice for 10 years.)
The other quote, which I may take out of context and comment on, concerns the gathering of statistics regarding how often "specific procedures" are "rejected by insurance plans."
If we are not to fall into the same web of insurance intrigue as our medical colleagues, we need to educate our patients that "dental insurance" is not insurance in the same vein as medical insurance, but merely a benefit that they either receive from their employer or purchase themselves.
We need to educate them that we have no relationship with their insurance company, but are their dental health provider on a fee-for-service basis. We propose and render treatment based purely on the needs and wants of the patient. We do not base treatment on what the insurance company "allows."
There is no real bottom-line benefit to either the patient or the dentist when the dentist accepts payment and conditions from the insurance company.
I am fully supportive of supplying patients any documentation they may require in order to fully utilize their insurance coverage, and to let patients deal with insurance companies as they see fit.
I believe, from the demographic statistics of graduating dentists and population growth, that we are indeed going to have an acute shortage of dentists in the near future. We need to spend our resources and time treating patients, not facilitating insurance company profits.
