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By Arlene Furlong

"We don't accept any dental plans."

That's how at least one dentist lost a prospective patient who had a direct reimbursement dental plan.

Thanks to a five-minute presentation on ADA.org, no dentist or dental team member ever has to turn away a patient with these dental benefits again.

"One of our members said he got a new patient because the previous dentist the patient contacted for care didn't accept dental plans," explained Bob Macdonald, director of dental care and health of the Florida Dental Association. "That patient had DR."

The ADA supports DR as the preferred mechanism of financing dental benefits. Direct reimbursement, and its offshoot direct assignment, are self-funded methods to provide a dental benefit for employers.

Under a DR plan, the employee and covered dependents visit the dentist of their choice, receive treatment, make payment and later present proof of treatment for reimbursement. The employer then reimburses the patient for all or part of the expense, according to the plan design. Direct assignment operates similarly, and uses a third party administrator to manage and pay claims directly to the dental office.

The words "network" or "plan" can deceive dental team members or dentists who don't understand direct reimbursement or direct assignment, explained Mr. Macdonald. To eliminate misinterpretations, the Florida Dental Association developed the five-minute presentation, originally on CD-ROM.

"This presentation is a great resource for office staff and dentists, as well," said Dr. Steven W. Hogg, chair of the ADA Council on Dental Benefit Programs' Dental Benefit Information Service and Third Party Issues subcommittee. "It gives the entire dental team the opportunity to walk through the information without having a patient on the line."