10 Reasons Why Spring Valley's Membership Plan Makes Sense
For the duration of my career as a dentist, patients and non-patients alike have asked me if I knew of any reasonable dental insurance policies that were available to them. My answer has always been that I did not. I still don’t, in case you’re wondering. Insurance companies collect ridiculous amounts in monthly premiums, while radically limiting what they pay for, as well as putting a cap on how much they’ll shell out in any given year. It might interest you to know that in 1969, when dental insurance plans became a thing, the average maximum benefit per year to a patient was $1,500. That amount, in 1969, bought a ton of dental work. Today, the average maximum benefit per year to a patient is $1,500. Do you think today’s premiums are the same as they were in 1969?
We want all our neighbors to have reduced costs available to them. So, we are willing to reduce our own prices in exchange for your patronage. Using our Spring Valley Membership Plan eliminates the industry between my patients and me. My staff no longer has to file and refile paperwork with companies who secretly serve neither the patient nor the dentist. Here are some reasons we believe our in-house membership plan can be a better choice for you.
No billion-dollar industry between your dentist and you. Imagine the cost of sustaining an entire insurance industry, planted squarely between dentist and patient. We then hope having insurance will somehow reduce our expenditure. Insurance companies are massive. They advertise during a Super Bowl. They employ salesman, phone agents, attorneys, consultants and janitors. They build multi-million dollar skyscrapers. And they are in business primarily to make profit. The problem is, they get their profits by extracting dollars from four sources, dentists, patients/insured customers, employers, and now, government. Insurance companies have to extract from those four sources, enough from us to pay for their existence as well as their profit margin. No wonder patients complain their premiums are so high!
No yearly maximum. If someone needed $20,000 worth of dental work, a typical policy would pay roughly half of your dental expenditures as you go, until they’d expended $1,500 in a year, and then the company is done for that year. The Spring Valley Membership Plan has no yearly maximum. Your discounts apply to anything you care to have done, as long as we can accomplish in house, while covered.
No 500-page encyclopedia or attorney required to determine coverage. Our entire plan can be described on the front and back of a sheet of loose leaf paper. How many times a day do we hear the question, “Does insurance cover that?” or, “How much of this procedure will my insurance pay for?” With our membership plan, you won’t have to wonder. With a tiny number of exceptions, your discount applies to anything you could want your dentist to do for you.
Annual cost of membership is less than the amount you’d spend on two cleanings, periodic exams & x-rays. To say that a different way, if all you had done was the minimal cleanings, exams and x-rays your dentist needs to see, you’d already come out a winner. The cost of these few procedures exceed the annual cost of membership. It’s really hard to lose.
No one other than you and your dentist will be “nudging” treatment decisions; that which is best for you, is available to you. Get what you want. No one is going to try and control what you choose by what is or is not paid included as a benefit. Insurance companies have patients routinely choosing against their own best interests simply by defining what they cover. With us, it’s all discounted, so long as we can handle the procedure.
Our 30% discount applies to every procedure we are capable of accomplishing at Spring Valley Dental. There will always be treatment that needs to be referred to specialists. That’s why God built specialists; I wish more general dentists knew their limits! But, Spring Valley Dental currently has a combined 55 years of experience. We enjoy every facet of dentistry, and will keep every bit of your business we can, right here with us. Only when we know it’s in your best interest to be at a specialist will you be referred to a specialist in any given sub-discipline.
If you have a family, additional members are added at a reduced annual price. Take a look at the plan. It’s simple. If you have a spouse, they can be added at a price less than an individual. If you have kids, they can be added even more affordably. So, feel free to bring your family!
No waiting periods. My least favorite question to answer pertains to waiting periods. Imagine having to explain to a patient that they must wait longer to have something done if they want their insurance coverage to apply. I’ve had patients sign up for insurance because they had a particular need. They wait for their coverage to take effect, then make an appointment for the first day their insurance is in force. They want me to fix the problem that prompted them to get insurance, and we have to be the ones to tell them they have a year-long waiting period before major work can be done. “Never mind that toothache, you can get their teeth cleaned!” Those are some frustrated patients. Waiting periods are not a feature the insurance companies want you to know about, it’s the stuff of fine print. Never get caught like that with our membership plan.
No pre-existing condition exclusions. Another unfortunate issue is when a patient gets insurance specifically to have a missing tooth replaced, they’ve outlasted their waiting period, then we have to share with them the clause that disallows replacement of a tooth missing prior to coverage. Of course, because we are the ones that get to explain this infuriating, got you-rule to an aggravated patient we are also the ones that catch the brunt of their frustration. Never will this happen with our membership plan. If you need it, and you want it, you get it with your discount!
No distinction drawn between dentistry done for reasons of dental health, versus procedures done purely for cosmetic reasons. Our plan is not a money mongering, self-interested entity trying to cut corners. We provide what you want, short of committing malpractice, as you see fit. Your discounts will apply!
If you have no dental insurance and feel dental care isn’t available to you at a reasonable price, the Spring Valley Dental Membership Plan is for you. If you feel abused or cheated by your existing insurance plan, the straight forward Spring Valley Dental Membership Plan may be for you as well. See our simple plan for yourself by going to our website and click on the patient information drop-down menu. We think we’ve got a winner!