Patient Financing

1.Insurance

Are you a preferred provider for my insurance?
With most PPO dental plans, we will accept and process insurance assignment and your insurance company will pay. Delta Dental and Blue Cross Blue Shield Dental will not issue a check directly to our practice but will issue a check directly to you. Therefore we can make financial arrangements with the patient to pay us or finance in advance, and they will receive reimbursement directly from their insurance company. The insurance companies are required by law to reimburse, regardless of whether or not the dentist you choose is a preferred provider. Because we are not a preferred provider the reimbursement may be at a slightly lower percentage.

By design most dental insurance maximums are budgeted to address preventative care and maintaining health. Because there are so many limitations to what is even covered, dental insurance is a very small part of the overall picture for someone who is ready to restore their mouth. The coverage does not go far in addressing restorative care and should not be the determining factor for most people’s dental future.

If a dentist is a preferred provider for closed panel type insurance, they have agreed to accept a lower fee, in most cases, than what they would normally need to charge for providing the service. Somewhere along the line, the practice needs to make up for this loss. In most cases it is made up by becoming a high volume practice where patients are run through and procedures are done as quickly as possible, exchanging low dollars for a quick service. To save money, some dentists are also forced to use low cost labs that produce mediocre results rather than making the selection based on quality. For those who are simply maintaining good oral health, most dental insurance serves them well for examinations, cleanings, and preventative care.

For us to provide the kind of treatment that we value for our patients, which is the highest quality, individualized care with personal attention, and helping set goals based on the patient’s values takes more time and costs a little more money to provide. For this reason, we can’t discount fees to what an insurance company has dictated so that they can make a profit. This practice was not designed for high volume but for personalized care.

2.Payment Options

Financial Arrangements

We have several payment methods available to assist our patients who value quality dentistry and good oral health. We are committed to helping our patients manage their dental related expenses. This allows them to comfortably fit the cost of dental treatment into their monthly budgets while they continue to receive the needed care.

Payment Methods

For your convenience we accept cash, personal checks and Debit Cards, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.

Financing Dental Expenses

For patients whose treatment expenses exceed $300.00, our office provides 6 & 12 month interest-free loans that require no down payment. This special lending arrangement is available for those with acceptable credit ratings through http://www.carecredit.com/apply/index.html. Care Credit also offers long-term financing for 24-48 months at a fixed interest rate for expenses over $1,000 or 60 months for expenses over $2,500. Decisions for loan approval take less than 15 minutes and applications are available at our office or by contacting Care Credit.

Care Credit: phone # 800-677-0718

For patients whose treatment expenses exceed $2,000 and would like long-term financing, SpringStone Patient Financing offers 24-84 month financing at a fixed interest rate with options available for a broad range of credit histories. SpringStone also offers interest-free loans for treatment over $1,000. Apply online https://secure.springstoneplan.com/apply/.

SpringStone: phone # 800-630-1663

Please contact our office at 479.845.1225 and our Practice Coordinator will be more than happy to assist you in the credit process.

Phasing Treatment

We respect that each individual is the expert regarding their own lives. It is your job to determine what place you are in life and our responsibility to make you aware of all the options that are available to get you to maximum healthy and comfort until you are ready for the next phase. We can phase the treatment over time so that it fits into your budget and other needs.

3.Privacy Practices

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES This notice is to inform you that your personal health information will only be used for purposes of treatment in our facility and will not be misused or disclosed by / anyone outside of our practice. You may gain access to this information if you desire. Please review it carefully. The privacy of your health information is important to us.

• OUR LEGAL DUTY We are required by applicable federal and state law to maintain the privacy of your health information. We are also required to give you this notice about our privacy practices, our legal duties, and your rights concerning your health information. We must follow the privacy practices that are described in this notice while it is in effect. This notice takes effect on April 14, 2003 and will remain in effect.We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice at any time provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our notice effective for all health information that we maintain, including health information we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will change this notice and make the new notice available upon request.  You may request a copy of our notice at any time. For more information about our privacy practices, or for additional copies of this notice, pleas contact us using the information listed at the end of this notice.
• USES AND DISCLOSURES OF HEALTH INFORMATION We use and disclose health information about you for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. For example:
  1. TREATMENT: We may use or disclose your health information to a physician or other healthcare provider who is currently providing treatment to you.
  2. PAYMENT: We may use and disclose your health information to obtain payment for services we provide for you (i.e. insurance companies).
  3. HEALTHCARE OPERATIONS: We may use and disclose your health information in connection with our healthcare operation. Healthcare operations include quality assessment and improvement activities, reviewing the competence or qualification of healthcare professionals, evaluating practitioner and provider performance, conducting training programs, accreditation, certification, licensing or credentialing activities.
• YOUR AUTHORIZATION You may give us written authorization to use your health information or to disclose it to anyone for any purpose (e.g. a family member picking up records, referral to a dental specialist, etc.) If you give us an authorization, you may revoke it in writing at any time. Your revocation will not affect any use or disclosure permitted by your authorization while it was in effect. Unless you have a written authorization, we cannot use or disclose your health information for any reason except as described in this notice.
• TO YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS We must disclose your health information to you, as described in the Patient Rights section of this Notice. We may disclose your health information to a family member, friend, or other person to the extent necessary to help with your healthcare or with payment for your healthcare, but only if you agree that we may do so.
• PERSONS INVOLVED IN CARE We may use or disclose health information to notify, or assist in the notification of (included identifying or location) a family member, your personal representative or another person responsible for your care of your location, your general condition, or death. If you are present, then prior to use or disclosure of your health information, we will provide you with an opportunity to object to such use of disclosures. In the event of your incapacity or emergency circumstances, we will disclose health information based on a determination using our professional judgment disclosing only health information that is directly relevant to that person’s involvement in your healthcare. We will also use our professional judgment and our experience with common practice to make reasonable inferences of your best interest in allowing a person to pick up filled prescriptions, medical supplies, x-rays, or other similar forms of health information.