Two-Tiered Dentistry? Discount Dentistry Brokers VS Freedom of Choice & Marketplace Competition?

  Capitation dentistry, midlevel providers and sinfully huge tax savings

 On December 7, I posted an opinion piece on The American Way of Dentistry titled “Is the nation really ready for two-tiered dentistry?” (On the 8th, it was picked up by the Medical Executive-Post as “Dental Therapists [Emerging New Providers?].”)

http://medicalexecutivepost.com/2010/12/08/dental-therapists-emerging-new-providers/

 Yesterday, a reader named Tom opened the door for me to further expound on my opinion of midlevel providers and a future of multi-tiered dentistry. I’ll be sharing this conversation with my state and national lawmakers as well. Do you think I’ll get any responses?

 Tom says: “It already exists. There are insurance based practices and fee for service practices and if you don’t think there’s a difference in quality…..”

 I agree with you, Tom. But I should warn that as dentists, you and I are now skirting the fringes of unwritten rules of “professionalism” should we openly mention that managed care dentistry is dentistry by the lowest bidders with no quality control.

 It’s also politically incorrect to reveal that one can go to the dentist rating site, DR.Oogle (doctoroogle.com), and quickly research preferred providers’ popularity with patients compared to other practices. Invariably, the managed care practices average in the lower half of the ratings by the only critics who matter.

 Indeed, dental patients across the nation confirm that there have been two tiers of dentistry for decades: First is fee-for-service controlled by freedom of choice and marketplace competition, and then there is a second, preferred-provider tier controlled by discount dentistry brokers like Delta Dental, United Concordia and BCBSTX according to cost. Now a third tier is in the race for the bottom – capitation dentistry, and it’s coming to a state near you.

 Decades ago, the concept of paying dentists on a per-head basis rather than per-filling was soundly rejected by Americans for good reason: It proved to be unethical to encourage even a professional to profit from neglecting patients’ health. It’s much, much better to make someone work for their pay. Nevertheless, capitation is returning to the dentistry marketplace. In Europe, the UK ’s National Health Service (NHS) which provides free dentistry as an entitlement will soon begin a pilot program to carefully investigate the promise that capitation will indeed solve the nation’s access problem before making the benefit plan law.

 On the other hand, the Texas Dept. of Health and Human Services has guts. Naïve leaders in the state organization intend to persuade lawmakers to turn Medicaid dentistry into capitation immediately without bothering to even ask dentists about it. How is that not bureaucratic bonehead?

 The 1980s sales pitch went something like this: “We pay dentists for quality outcomes instead of unnecessary crowns, and pass on the savings to you!”

 The difference of 25 years? This time, capitation decay will be ignored, then delayed and finally treated by non-dentists instead of dentists. The pitch: “It will cost taxpayers even less to provide dental care to the poor (including avoidable, painful complications – which are contractually up to the dentist to resolve). And who will be the unfortunate dental patients? Children in Texas from poor homes who have no choice where to go for dental care and whose complaints matter little if at all.

 There is no latent fairness in “tiered” dentistry. Only different levels of pain.

 D. Kellus Pruitt DDS