In a recent poll of dentists, the overwhelming majority saw dental insurance companies as foes rather than friends. Conducted by The Wealthy Dentist, the survey showed 89% percent of dentists feeling that insurance companies are in the business of looking out for themselves, not patients or doctors. A mere 11% saw dental insurance companies as allies, expanding dentists’ practices and serving as an important marketing source for new patients.
Specialists voiced even more negative reactions to insurance companies than general dentists. Fully 100% of the specialists who voted in this poll saw insurance companies as enemies.
“Insurance should not be forcing business decisions on my practice,” said a Florida orthodontist. “My patients demand I accept insurance assignments. At first I refused, but I lost more than half my patients to other practitioners accepting insurance. I finally gave in…I had no apparent viable alternative.”
“The results of this survey amaze me,” said The Wealthy Dentist founder Jim Du Molin, a dental management consultant who has worked closely with dentists for many years. “Dentists have always had a difficult relationship with insurance companies, but I hadn’t realized it was this bad. When nine out of ten dentists see insurance companies as enemies, you know there’s a problem with the whole industry.”
[The Wealthy Dentist, April 23, 2007]
