Managed Care Answers

Can fee-for-service survive the onslaught of managed care plans?
To purchasers primarily concerned with cost, managed dental care is likely to grow more prevalent. Short-term cost savings make it appealing, and too often quality considerations take a back seat to the bottom line emphasis. But aggressive, sophisticated marketing of direct reimbursement programs by the dental community has the potential to undercut the seemingly inevitable trend toward managed dental care. About one-third of Americans have dental insurance. While managed care will represent an ever growing portion of the insured dental market, most care will reflect a fee-for-service, market driven reality.

In terms of insurance, is dental any different from medical?
While there is some evidence that judiciously applied managed care is demanded by excesses of American medical care, the same case cannot be made for intrusion in dentistry. From 1960 to 1991, the average annual increase in U.S. health care expenditures was 11.3 percent. Dental care costs rose significantly over this same period, but dental increases were substantially outstripped by hospitals, physicians, and other general health care costs hikes. A cost/benefit analysis concludes that the dramatic recent improvement in American's oral health is unparalled in the rest of the health care system, despite a drop in dental expenditures over the same period. The dental profession has failed to adequately communicate its successes in prevention and primary care, and failed to take credit for an extraordinarily cost effective delivery model. To insert dentistry into a costly and too often ineffective medical model would be an economic mistake and clinical travesty.

Because dentistry represents such a small slice of the American health care pie, it is too often mingled indiscriminately with medical care by public policy makers and independent health care analysts. Current dental care costs are 4.2 percent of U.S. health care costs compared to 6.2 percent in 1975 and 7.4 percent in 1960.

Can dentists deliver quality care under a managed care model?
The rhetoric of managed dental care is that of a responsible, prevention-oriented oral health system. The reality of such dental plans is too often assembly-line, low-quality care. Managed care generally is predicated upon disease prevention, leading to long-term health improvements or stabilization and long-term cost savings. This implies significant front-end investment in an individual's health needs. Given the volatile and transient nature of American health and dental insurance (where the average person remains in a health plan less than two years before changing), there's little incentive for insurers to make the very investments that lend legitimacy to the managed care concept. Why invest in a patient's care today if the benefits of that investment accrue to a rival health plan in the years to come?

The conclusion is inescapable: managed health care too often saves money by denying patients needed and appropriate care.

[ Credentials ] [ About Us ] [ FAQ ] [ Testimonials ] [ Links ]
[ Inquiries ] [ Cosmetic ] [ Instant Ortho ] [ Restorative ] [ Implants ] [ Imtec MDI ]
[ Enamel Repair ] [ Zoom Whitening ] [ Failing Veneers ] [ Preventive ] [ Snap On ]
[ Gum Disease ] [ Root Canal ] [ Emergency ] [ Interview ] [ Replace Veneers ]
[ Bite-Occlusion ] [ Gum Shaping ] [ Dental Laser ] [ Adult Overbite ] [ Denture Cosmetics ]
[ Procedure Videos ] [ Photo Gallery ] [ Consult Request ]
[ Celebrity Photos ] [ Extreme Makeovers ] [ Face Lift Dentistry ]
[ Map-Directions ] [ Home ]

Boca Raton Cosmetic Dentist ®
Cosmetic and Restorative Dentistry in
Palm Beach County Southern Florida
2900 N. Military Trail, Suite 105
Boca Raton, South Florida FL 33431
561-368-3440
Copyright© 1997 - 2008
Powered by DentMedHost
Internet Dental Marketing