In my column “Invoices that hurt”, published a few days ago, an employee of a dentist’s office told me about some schemes used by certain dentists to avoid their patients having to pay a share of the bill. which they should, in principle, pay.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
Obviously, this subject has caught your attention. And divided. Many of you reacted.
In the batch of emails received, there were a few outraged dentists to see that I dared to broach this subject. “It’s been a long time since we’ve hit bad dentists on the head,” one wrote to me. A dentist even offered to “redeem” me by writing a “positive” column about her profession.
But most importantly, I received a large number of testimonials from employees in the dental sector who told me that what I was describing is easily observable. And for years.
“Having worked for many years in the dental field, it is correct to say that fraud exists,” a professional wrote to me.
“I’ve been in the business for over 30 years and what you describe is commonplace,” adds another. […] I worked in more than 15 dental clinics and only 2 or 3 did not overcharge. »
For his part, a dentist retired for more than 10 years adds that the fraudulent procedures mentioned in my column did not “surprise” him at all.
But several dentists, and this is the aspect that interested me the most, told me about the enormous pressure they receive from patients who want to obtain “creative billing” (an expression used by a dentist).
And when an honest dentist refuses to play along, it is not uncommon to see these patients go to another dentist.
“How many times have patients asked me to inflate treatments so that they have nothing to pay,” a dentist told me. When I refused to do so, I often lost them. »
A dentist told me that he receives “every week” calls from patients asking if he is ready to be paid only with what his insurer offers. “This puts a lot of pressure on dentists and forces some of them to adopt fraudulent practices, particularly if their practice is fragile,” he wrote to me before adding that “cheating dentists are however poorly perceived by their peers.
For many professionals, part of the solution lies in a change in payment method. “It is obvious that the ideal would be for patients to pay all of their costs and be reimbursed by their insurance”, suggests one of them. He is not the only one.
Many believe that the principle of “delegation of payment” should be discontinued, as other professions are now doing, including the Order of Dental Surgeons of Quebec. “Dentists are much less inclined to inflate the bill when the patient has to pay it when leaving the office,” thinks a dentist.
Why, indeed, is it up to the dentists to claim the costs from the insurance companies? This new process would not entirely prevent the creation of “creative invoices”, but would take a weight off the shoulders of dentists who wish to be honest.
I wanted to know if the Order of Dentists of Quebec was ready to put forward such a change. Unfortunately I have not heard back.
Through the testimonies received, I felt that a certain revolution is desired. So who should take up the torch? The Order of Dentists of Quebec? The dentists themselves? The insurers? Networks (increasingly numerous) of dental practices?
One thing is certain, if this fight is fought, it must put everyone on an equal footing. How can an honest dentist then compete with colleagues who agree to “accommodate” patients?
An employee who worked for a dentist for 23 years told me that her boss has always refused to commit fraud at the request of her patients. “But it takes a strong personality and great motivation to stay within the norm,” she added.
A dentist who has been practicing for 25 years told me that she chose to be honest, because that’s how she was “raised”. But this dentist knows very well that there is a category of colleagues who have chosen this profession to earn a lot of money.
“During this time, I am being judged by Mr. and Mrs. Everybody who think that I earn $300,000 a year when it’s more like half,” she writes. But obviously, with my title of doctor came that of crosseur. »
When I told you that this subject divides everyone.