Insurance Companies Are NOT Your Friend

The insurance companies have done such a good job at getting the public to believe they need insurance benefits to visit the dentist that when those insurance benefits aren’t available to them, they often choose not to go to the dentist or follow through with treatment.

The problem that we’re always going to run up against as dentists is that people don’t realize how important routine preventive care is. Going years without seeing a dentist isn’t a problem in their minds, and if they find themselves without insurance or insurance that really doesn’t cover needed treatment and believe that dentistry is expensive, the majority of Americans are going to choose to skip routine care and necessary treatment.

Most uninsured patients and under insured patients operate under the philosophy that they’ll go to the dentist when something goes wrong in their mouths. When they get a toothache or chip a tooth, then they’ll call for an appointment. The problem, of course, is that pain doesn’t always accompany potentially serious problems.

The bacteria that are growing in the untreated mouth could be causing other health complications. They could be contributing to heart disease or diabetes. One disturbing fact: 7 out of 10 cases of oral cancers aren’t detected until the late stages, so even though it’s 90% curable when detected early, it has one of the highest mortality rates of all cancers. Why? I’d venture to say that this is in large part because 50% of Americans don’t have a dentist, and most physicians don’t examine any part of the mouth except the back of the throat.

The mouth is connected to the rest of your body and you need to get past what the insurance companies have done to dentistry since the passage of the “Affordable Care Act”.  Talk to us to see what can be done.  Don’t let your insurance company dictate your treatment.

Novy Scheinfeld, DDS, PC

ZoAnna Scheinfeld, MS, DMD

Hanna Orland, DMD

290 Carpenter Drive, 200A

Atlanta (Sandy Springs), GA 30328

404-256-3620

and

3781 Chamblee Dunwoody Road

Chamblee, GA 30341

770-455-6076

info@rightsmilecenter.com

www.rightsmilecenter.com

Dental Suppliers Screw Your Dentists

And with little choice we pass it on to you the patient.   The suppliers listed below have a lock on the dental profession and have colluded to screw you and me.

In re Dental Supplies Antitrust Litigation

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
Case No. 1:16-cv-00696 – BMC-GRB

Dentists specifically allege that Defendants Patterson Companies, Inc., Henry Schein, Inc., and Benco Dental Supply Company acted in concert to fix margins and unlawfully raise barriers to entry by more efficient, lower priced competitors allowing them to maintain artificially high prices and margins. As a result of this activity, it is alleged that dentists paid higher prices for dental supplies than would have been charged absent the conspiracy, sums they seek to recover through this lawsuit. This of course has been passed on to you, the patient or has made it more difficult for me, the dentist to make a living.

Settlement

Following years of hard-fought litigation, the parties reached a settlement agreement, providing for the payment of $80 million to the settlement class. At a Fairness Hearing held June 24, 2019, Judge Cogan approved the class settlement and granted class counsel’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs.

Do you think you or I will see a dime of this recovery?  I doubt it.  But you and I paid the price for almost a decade of collusion among these dental suppliers.

Between dental suppliers and insurance companies screwing us, it’s hard to provide decent care to our patients.  And despite being screwed we were still able to do so. I need a month of national dentist appreciation. And you deserve the quality care we try to provide despite these challenges.

Novy Scheinfeld, DDS, PC

ZoAnna Scheinfeld, MS, DMD

Hanna Orland, DMD

290 Carpenter Drive, 200A

Sandy Springs, GA 30328

404-256-3620

And

3781 Chamblee Dunwoody Road

Chamblee, GA 30341

770-455-6076

info@rightsmilecenter.com

www.rightsmilecenter.com