Thank you for choosing Dr. David P Koehn for your endodontic care. We are committed to providing you with the highest quality dental care possible, but in order to achieve our goals, we ask for your cooperation in being responsible for your dental bill.
We are pleased to offer Care Credit (3rd party financing) to our patients.
Payment plans can make needed treatment affordable. You can apply right now online, and have your approval in place prior to your appointment with us! Click on the links above for more information.
El Dorado Endodontics Financial Policy
In order to achieve our goal of providing care that is exceptional, we kindly ask for your cooperation in being responsible for your dental bill.
For our patients without insurance:
Fees for service are due at time of treatment. For your convenience we accept: VISA, MasterCard, AmEx, Discover, Debit Card, Personal Check, Cashier's check, Money orders and cash.
To our patients with insurance:
Even though we accept partial payment from insurance companies,
You, the patient, are ultimately the responsible for the entire amount of fees for service.
Payment (of your balance, co-payment, or fee for service) is not due until either your insurance pays their portion*, or until 30 days** after your appointment day, whichever comes first.
***** Instead of collecting payment on your appointment day, we will pre-authorize your credit card at that time for the full fee for service (this only reserves credit for the fee, it is not yet charged). When your insurance payment arrives to our office (if it is within 30 days**), we will charge the exact remaining balance to your pre-authorized credit card at that time. *****
If your insurance payment does not arrive within 30 days of your appointment, we reserve the right to charge the full fee for service to your pre-authorized credit card. Then we will promptly send you a refund check for any overpayment in the mail once the insurance payment is received.
This policy streamlines payment for services, and:
1. Allows you to postpone actual payment (for up to 30 days**) until we truly know what your co-payment amount will be
2. Prevents your waiting for a refund check or a statement in the mail; collection of inaccurate (over-estimated) co-pay amounts on the day of treatment
3. Prevents the need to collect the full fee for service on your appointment day. We hope this helps!
As a courtesy to you, we will:
1. Accurately fill out your insurance claim and send it to your insurance provider the same day or next business day
2. Strictly guard your CC information, keep it hidden, protected and confidential, and delete this information once your remaining balance has been paid
3. Print out your claim for you to read and follow up or verify as accurate with your insurance. We find that insurances may pay more readily and faster (ideally within your 30 day window) if their clients (you) call.
* Possible exceptions to this include: patient who have Delta Dental insurance, or any circumstances in which it is likely that the insurance is already maxed or will not cover a procedure, (i.e. implant procedures, etc.), or will not send directly to us their portion of payment. In such instances, either estimated co-payment (along with credit card pre-authorization) or fee for service will be collected at time of treatment.
** "30 days" means that it needs to arrive on the last business day of 30 days, with day one being your appointment day. Our business days are generally Monday – Thursday excluding holidays and vacations.
By signing this financial policy, you are agreeing to: give El Dorado Endodontics permission to pre-authorize your credit card for the full fees for service onto your credit card; and within 30 days** of your appointment you authorize El Dorado Endodontics to charge the exact remaining balance due, whether or not your insurance has paid a portion of that balance by that time. If there has been an overpayment once insurance pays, we will promptly send a refund check to you. Possible exceptions are listed*, meaning that Delta Dental patients agree (if necessary) to pay at least their co-payment amount on the day of service, in addition to pre-authorizing a credit card. Patients with special circumstances for whom these options will not work, agree to pay the full fee for service amount at time of service.
****NOTE****: Missed appointments:
Once an appointment has been made, this time has been reserved exclusively for you with appropriate staff to serve your dental needs. Canceling without adequate notice makes it difficult for us to meet the needs of other patients.
Missed appointments or cancellations with less than 2 business days notice prior to your appointment will incur a maximum charge for missed procedures of $1509 per procedure if multiple procedures are planned) and a $180 charge for missed consultations. If there is a second offense, then the full cost of treatment planned will be charged for the missed appointment. The charge is necessary to defer the overhead costs involved with missed appointments, and to keep missed appointments to a minimum. This in turn keeps our normal fees reasonable.
****NOTE****: Incomplete root canal fees:
Teeth are sometimes found to be non-restorable during treatment. Although part of the diagnostic work up is to find these things prior to treatment, if a tooth is found to have damage that is not repairable (deep fractures for example) during treatment, an incomplete RCT fee of $659.00 will be incurred plus exam and radiographs.
****NOTE****: Final Restoration needed within 1 month:
After root canal tx, it is your responsibility to get a final restoration from your dentist w/in 1 month unless otherwise instructed. If you fail to do so, you may need your root canal to be redone, or you may fracture your tooth causing the need to have it removed. The full cost of retreating or removing your tooth will be your responsibility if the temporary filling is left in too long.
Dr. Koehn / El Dorado Endodontics is opted out of Medicare.
No claim will be submitted to Medicare from the provider or the patient. Medicare will not make any reimbursement for any services.
Minors
Payment of services for the treatment of minors is the responsibility of the accompanying adult.
Service charges
It is our policy to charge interest of 1.5% per month (18% Annual Percentage Rate). This will be applied to accounts over 30 days past due. We will charge $30.00 for returned checks.
Collection fees
Fees incurred from our collection agency will be the responsibility of the patient.
Below is information regarding insurance companies and why they may or may not cover the entire cost of dental treatment.
Many carriers refer to their allowed payments as UCR, which stands for "Usual, Customary, and Reasonable". However, this does NOT mean exactly what it seems to mean. UCR is actually a negotiated list between your employer and the insurance carrier for a given procedure. The payment listing is related to cost of the premiums and the geographical area (typically by zip code of service rendered) where the work is done. In almost all cases, the payment for the billed services is usually less, frequently much less, than what we charge.
Our primary objective is to provide high-quality dental care at a fair fee while the insurance company's primary objective is to earn a profit for its shareholders. Yes, we are in business to earn a profit too, but we cannot allow the insurance company to dictate the standard and quality of care delivered to you. In an effort to maintain a high quality of care, we would like to share some information about dental insurance with you.
A common point of confusion is about how an insurance company determines UCR (Usual and Customary). Inflammatory information is often sent by the insurance companies that may state our fees are higher than usual and customary. An insurance company surveys a geographic area, calculates an average fee, takes 80% of that fee and considers it customary. Included in this survey are discount dental clinics and managed care facilities, which bring down the average. Many plans tell their participants that they will be covered "up to 80 percent or up to 100 percent," but do not clearly specify plan fee-schedule allowances, annual maximums or limitations. In fact, “80% of UCR” many times is not even calculated by the fees in the area but instead is some arbitrary number so the company can sell the plan to your employer at a specific cost per person. Hence, it may not represent a practical fee for a given procedure. It is more realistic to expect dental insurance to cover 35 - 65% of major services. Remember the amount a plan pays is determined by how much the employer paid for the plan. You get back only what your employer put in, less the profits of the insurance company. Dental benefits differ greatly from general health insurance benefits. In 1971, your dental-insurance benefits were approximately $1,000 per year. Figuring a 6% rate of inflation per year, you should be receiving more than $4,549 per year in dental benefits. Your premiums have increased, but your benefits have not. Therefore, dental insurance is never a pay-all; it is only an aid or supplement.
The cost of handling insurance within our office includes numerous lengthy phone calls, resubmitting information or radiographs (x-rays) two or three times because insurance companies "lost" or "never received" them, excessive paperwork, mailing and redundant billing. Hence, the cost of handling insurance is not trivial and really is substantial. Patience is involved since it takes at least 1 month for claims to be processed; it’s not unusual for 3 months and sometimes longer!
Our financial policies are in place to enable our patients to receive the highest level of endodontic care our office can provide. Please ask us if you have any questions!