Delta Dental Insurance vs. Delta Dental Dentists

Delta Dental Insurance and Delta Dentists

How many dentists are members of Delta Dental and hope one day to drop them?

How many of you dentists are members of Delta Dental and have been pushed to diagnose a certain way or get fined?

How many of you Delta Dental dentist have diagnosed patients with severe periodontal disease, therefore recommended a deep cleaning (root planing) more often than once every 2 yrs (which is what Delta is only willing to pay for), have informed patients of this choice, believes you, gets their root planing more than once within 2 yrs, pays for the treatment out of their own pocket because they want to keep their teeth from falling out or prevent more bone loss, and Delta Dental turns around and tells you that you were "over billing" the patient and takes your money by subtracting it from your Delta insurance bulk payments?

How many of you Delta Dental Doctors have experienced patients who tell Delta they don't like the crown you put on them (the patients chose & paid for the cheaper metal based porcelain crown vs the more expensive white empress all ceramic crowns), claims that no one in your office explained that there was a difference, even though a consent was signed by the patient that they were happy with the color, size, contour, fit, & look of their new crown, & that they chose the cheaper crown, yet Delta Dental takes your insurance money anyway to give it back to this patient?

How many of you Delta Dental Dentists do such a high volume of work that you get audited more than once a year, and feel interrogated every time they go to your office, since they make you pull 20 + charts and go over all the work that you've done, like you have to prove that the patient even exists, & stays to hound you for at least 3 hours at a time? Oh, an X-ray fell off the chart missing, & you cannot find it at that exact moment. Ding. Kiss that money you spent to take that x-ray good-bye because Delta will subtract it from your Delta Dental check. Oops, your assistant forgot to put the patient's name or the date of the x-ray. Ding. Bye bye hard work. Money subtracted from you.

What Delta insurance claim? Lost claims? Delta Dental didn't loose your insurance claim Doctor, you did. Or your staff did! How many times has that happen to you? Like, every 10th insurance claim? Why are the insurance claims always missing (Delta Dental never received it from your office ,Doctor, therefore you must waste your staff time and money to resubmit the insurance claims again)How many times has Dental Dental ever told this to your patients,(2+ months later) "Patient, your Dentist and his team never gave us your insurance claim." or We asked your dentist for an explanation of the treatment & we are still waiting for their response, that's why we haven't paid your claim yet. (Reason: The tooth has a cavity, okay?!) (& Delta, you never sent any letter to us about this!)

What other games has Dental Dental insurance played on you, Doctor?

Did you know that Delta Dental has been subtracting (taking money) from your bulk payments, and you might not even know it? Have you really looked at your Delta Dental statements?

When you want something from Delta Dental, they can take months or years to give you that information. When Delta Dental wants something from you, they expect it at that moment or within days, or else ding! money will be taken from you! or subtracted from your Delta Dental paycheck. What a stressful and unfair relationship!

Disclosure:
Fortunately we at Emeryville Dental Care, are no longer pons of Delta Dental. We are treating our patients the way they should be treated. It feels very good not to be dictated by non dentists or retired/old school /behind the times dentist, on what your treatment should be on your patients they've never seen.

Unfortunately Delta Dental tells their members that they dropped us, however, at the time (almost 10 years ago), we refused to play their paperwork games, ( we were done & refused to give them any more of their "required " paper work" and mutually consented to separating ourselves from them instead. Of course, Delta Dental tells their patient members to go elsewhere.

Fortunately, we have Delta Dental patients (who see through the insurance company games & nonsense) who stayed and new patients who are still coming to our office who expect higher standards and want better service and care.

Side note:
Delta Dental Patients: Delta Dental must pay your dental claim, even if you choose to go to a non Delta Dental provider. Even though Delta tells you to go elsewhere and find Delta Dental member Dentists, Delta Dental must pay your insurance claim even if you go to a non Delta Dental provider. A non Delta Dental provider can still treat you and some of them will bill your insurance for you, so that your insurance claim will be paid. If Delta Dental tells you otherwise, complain to the Dept of Managed Care, 980 -9th St # 500, Sacramento, CA 95814, Fax 916-229-0465