Choose your own dentist.
Making your own choices about the quality of care you desire for your teeth…
A word to the wise…Third Parties and You
Your employer may attempt to save money by contracting directly with an insurance company to provide for "managed dental care." The following information will be helpful in understanding how these plans work.
There are basically two types of managed dental care programs:
1. PPO (Preferred Provider Organization)
- Make no mistake - the subscribing dentist is preferred because he or she is willing to work for substantially reduced fees.
- Usually only a few dentists in the community choose to participate. These tend to be new in practice or mature dentists with less active practices.
- Dentists with active practices providing the modern "standard of care" with updated dentistry can't usually participate if they want to maintain a high level of service to their patients.
- If you join one of the plans, you can usually only expect a maintenance level of care.
2. HMO (Health Maintenance Organization)
- The human is basically a lazy animal. When you pay a person the same whether they work or not, most will chose not to do any work. This is the basic reimbursement principle of the HMO.
- The dentist gets paid a set amount monthly whether he/she sees you or not.
- Who profits from the HMOs? Certainly not the patient or dentist. You guessed it - the HMO owners.
- When you remove the main incentive to do quality work, you decrease the quality of work that will be done.
Traditional "fee for service" and regular
employer paid dental expense plans have provided excellent dental care for
Americans for decades, and still do.
Remember: there are no bargains in Parachutes or Dentistry.
For the very best dental care in Portland, Oregon, choose Bravo Smile.