To Our Valued Patients:
If you do not see our practice for dental hygiene services, please disregard this letter.
We are writing to inform you of a policy change we are making regarding the billing of your dental insurance for dental hygiene visits.
If you have Delta Dental or Blue Cross Blue Shield (Anthem/BCBS) dental insurance this change does NOT affect you, as we have always been required to collect 100% from patients who have these insurances.
For those patients with dental insurance other than Delta or BCBS:
Starting February 1st, 2024 we will begin collecting 100% of the fee at the time of service for dental hygiene visits. Up until this change we had been collecting 70% of the total fee, then billing the rest to insurance, accepting assignment, and issuing you a refund of any final payment balance after we received it from the insurance company.
Unfortunately, this decision has come because over the last 3-4 years insurance companies have been providing very slow reimbursement back to us on your hygiene visits. We cannot continue to carry months of billing while we wait for them to provide reimbursement, despite our repeated attempts to follow up on claims.
To be clear we will still send your claims for each hygiene visit to your dental insurance as we have in the past for all dental insurances. Starting Feb 1, 2024, we will collect 100% of the cost from you at the time of service, not accept assignment, and then the insurance will reimburse you directly for the amount they choose to pay based on the terms of your specific insurance plan. We will still be submitting all information to the insurance companies to help determine payment, and are happy to help you follow up on claims to a reasonable extent.
Thank you for your continued trust and confidence in our practice as your partner in achieving and maintaining oral health.
Sincerely,
Jill Wullink
Practice Manager
