"Preferred Provider" status?
What is a “preferred provider” and why isn’t Fiddlehead on your insurance company’s list?
As you know, your dental insurance involves a contract between your employer and an insurance company. As the "user", you are the 3rd member of that loop. But it's important to keep in mind that a dental office is not part of this equation at all, unless they have signed a contract with your insurance company themselves.
The “preferred provider” status simply means that the dentist has signed a contract that obligates them to subscribe to the insurance company’s rules about a host of issues. We take issue with this arrangement because that contract may limit diagnostic and treatment options - all this, in order to hold down costs to the insurance company.
As a “preferred provider”, the dental office is a designated extension of the insurance company - A position that is not comfortable for some dentists, like ourselves. It is an ethical question that each professional has to answer for him or herself.
We cannot speak for other dental offices. We can only offer that at Fiddlehead Dental we have made a conscious choice to give you our best advice and services completely independent of 3rd parties who might try to tell us how to treat you or tell us to offer you different options according to a contract.
In addition, most of these contracts obligate the “preferred provider” to accept a reduced fee for your care, thereby reducing their office’s operations budget for top-notch staff, new technology and the highest quality materials. Being a “preferred provider” can guarantee a certain flow of new patients for the dentist,.... but we have always relied on word of mouth referrals from patients who have been unusually enthusiastic about sending their friends and co-workers to our practice.
Here’s the bottom-line: At Fiddlehead Dental, we start with the assumption that you want our best recommendations and attention – the same advice and care that we would give our own friends and families. Then, we spend a great deal of time helping you learn about ALL your options, regardless of restrictions and limitation. Once you are well-informed, then you can weigh the pros and cons of insurance limitations for yourself. There are different choices for any budget and we are happy to help you with whatever level of care you are seeking.
Most of the time, dental problems don’t happen overnight and they don’t have to be fixed overnight. If finances are a huge concern to you, for 20 years we have been giving our patients our best care using payment plans and treatment plans that are spaced out over time. It seems to work for the vast majority, with or without insurance.
Again, we believe the decisions about the kind of care you receive should be solely determined by you and a dentist. All our advice will be independent of business contracts and outside entities.
At Fiddlehead Dental, the only relationship we have with an insurance company is with Northeast Delta Dental. This particular company is a not-for-profit organization that has served to enhance patient care since its founding more than 30 years. It does not have any of the short comings (for patient and doctor) that other insurance companies would impose on us.
Our commitment is first to you and your health, second to our staff and their professional well-being, and finally, to our ability to keep doing exceptionally modern dentistry for years and years to come. Nowhere in our loop, do outside entities (like insurance companies) have the opportunity to influence the quality of your care.
In exchange for agreeing to the restrictions in the contract, the dentist’s name gets put on a list that is often promoted a “special" or "select” group.
Sometimes when the insurance companies are marketing their policies they make the “preferred providers” list sound as if it is an indication of higher quality dental care. But to make no mistake… it’s simply a business contract signed between the insurance company and the dentist. We have never seen any part of such an arrangement that verifies quality of care.