Insurance Changes for 2024

NH Dental Partners

Insurance Changes Information

Effective January 2024, we will no longer be in network with any dental insurance. We have discussed the details of this process with our patients throughout the year of 2023, but wanted to use this page as a reference to reiterate how our office will operate moving forward. The following points will address these changes and how it affects you as the patient.

  1. Why we made this decision: In network reimbursements have not increased over the years to keep up with the cost of living. We are reimbursed roughly 50% by the big insurance companies. This has partially been driven by corporate involvement in our industry. A majority of dental practices are now owned by big corporations. As an independent dental office, we are now in the minority.  The insurance companies know this and seem to only be negotiating with the corporate dentist. This leaves us with a decision of going out of network or selling our practice to corporate dental. We at NH Dental Partners want stay independently owned and operated. We want to continue to provide the same level of care to our patients as we have for nearly 50 years.
  1. How does this impact you as the patient: We will still accept insurance and file insurance for patients. Being out of network typically means that patients will incur more out of pocket expenses for services though. Because of this, we will ask patients to pay the full amount for cleanings at time of service. We will then file your insurance and have your insurance company reimburse you for whatever part they will cover.
  1. Cost of basic fees for January, 2024.
    • Periodic exam (code 120): $60
    • Adult cleaning (code 1110): $110
    • Bitewing x-rays (code 274): $75
    • Panoramic x-ray (code 330): $135
  1. How we will handle payment for restorative procedures:
    • We can do a pre-estimate with insurance before any procedure is done. That way you will know exactly what you will be expected to pay.
    • If restorative procedures are paid in full at time of service, we will extend a 10% discount. We will then file your insurance and the reimbursable amount will be sent directly to you.
    • If not paid in full at time of service, we will ask you to pay your predetermined portion. We will then file your insurance and the reimbursable amount will come to us.
    • We accept cash, checks, debit cards, all major credit cards, as well as HSA cards.
    • For a financing option, we accept Care Credit.
  1. What actions should you take: Check with your insurance to make sure you have out of network benefits. Most insurance companies do cover out of network, but rarely does it cover 100% of an out of network dentist’s fees.
  1. What the insurance company tells you might be a little misleading. For example, they might tell you that 100% of your cleaning will be covered in or out of network. What this usually means is that they will reimburse 100% of what they have deemed as usual and customary fees. These fees are well below what the average rates in our area are. We take certain measures to know that our rates are average for our area.