WE'VE TURNED HOW YOU PAY FOR DENTISTRY ON ITS HEAD!
It's not insurance, but a dental service buying club.
Our Dental Club is a novel way to help you and your family get the dental care you need at affordable prices, without having to buy dental insurance or a managed care plan. The Dental Club is a buying club, whereby, you get free services and heavily discounted fees. In addition, your Dental Club membership provides you with priority appointment selection, up to 4 dental cleanings per year and coverage for cosmetic and elective procedures! These are things that no dental insurance or managed care dental plan can provide.
We are able to provide our club members with better benefits for the same cost of a managed care dental plan and far below the cost of traditional insurance. We can do this because instead having a sizeable portion of your premium going to an insurer or a managed care company, 100% of your club membership goes directly to your care! Some managed care companies take up to 75% of your premiums for their overhead and profits! With our dental club, you'll find our member dues similar to managed care plan premiums, but ALL of it goes to your dental provider--and that means more benefits, services and better discounts for YOU!
While club membership has various requirements, once you've joined you're entitled to renew and remain a member indefinitely. To see if you meet our qualifications, call our office and we'll be glad to review your record.
The Dental Club was designed to help folks get the dentistry they need. We offer our club only to patients of record who have a history of visiting regularly, and keeping their account with us current.
Club membership must be renewed annually, and should you allow membership to lapse more than one month (30 days,) you may not be eligible for a new membership for five years. It is the sole responsibility of the member to assure this does not happen, but we will usually contact members once a renewal is necessary.
· Free fluoride (for individuals under 18 years of age)
· Specialty care discounts of 25%
· No lab fees for crowns, bridges and new dentures and partials*
· Priority appointments· Discounted dental procedures (25 to 75%)
· Discounted fees for cosmetic and elective work
· No 5 year limit on prosthetic services as with most insurance
· No waiting periods for dentures or bridges
· No annual limits
· No office visit co-payments+
* Precious metal surcharges do apply when applicable. Repairs on existing prosthetic devices apply.
+ Sterilization/Consumable fee applies for each member visits.
Plan members do pay a $5.00 consumable/sterilization fee at each visit. Specialty care benefit is through those selected specialists which have partnered with us to offer this buying club and is offered as a 25% discount off of the specialists normal, usual and customary fee. Club memberships are for 1 year periods. Annual membership dues are fully payable at time of membership initiation. Members may make 12 equal installment payments via a credit card, with a service fee of $1.00 per month. Club memberships may NOT be cancelled or changed during the membership period. Any credit card installment payment that does not process with your credit card company, may cause the full membership balance to be due immediately, and such balance may be processed via your credit card if demand for membership balance is not received promptly.
Dental Club memberships are sold as INDIVIDUAL, FAMILY, MINOR INDIVIDUAL and ADD ON MEMBER types:
- Individual Memberships are for one dental patient.
- Family Memberships are for a couple and up to 4 minor dependent children.
- Minor Individual Memberships are for a minor whose parent(s) are not members.
- Add On Memberships are for minors whose siblings exceed the 4 allowed on a Family Plan
Your Dental Club membership provides you and your family with cosmetic and elective dentistry benefits. This is a feature that virtually no insurance or managed care plan can provide you. This benefit provides club members with a 25% discounts on all such procedures. Elective benefits, are however, restricted to patients that are disease free--meaning if dental caries or untreated gum disease are present, no such elective benefits can be used unless your dentist agrees that it is proper for you to be completing elective dentistry before essential dentistry.
Current membership dues for the Dental Club are listed below:
Membership Type
Annual Fee
Monthly Payment
INDIVIDUAL
$ 264.00
$ 22.00 / month
FAMILY
$ 384.00
$ 32.00 / month
MINOR (w/o family)
$ 180.00
$ 15.00 / month
Additional Minor on Family Plan
$ 60.00
$ 5.00 / month
All dental procedures that are free of charge or discounted are listed on your Dental Club fee schedule. This schedule encompasses most of the dental procedures that you are likely to encounter, but it is NOT an exhaustive ADA CDT fee schedule. In the unlikely event you require a procedure not listed on your Dental Club fee schedule, it will be billed to club members at UCR, minus 25%. UCR is our "usual, customary and reasonable" fee, or our cash patient fee.
Your Dental Club fee schedule can undergo a fee increase once per year. Such an increase will often be tied to the Consumer Price Index and an across the board increase will not be more than 5% in any calendar year, however, certain individual procedures may be adjusted according to changing costs. Club members join at different times, but all join for one year periods, so no member should experience more than one complete fee schedule increase in any membership period. We reserve the right to this fee increase, but will only exercise such a right when inflationary costs dictate such. Other changes such as annual membership fees and membership types may--at our discretion--be amended at renewal time. Club memberships will automatically renew, but all members will be contacted before such a renewal for authorization.
Unlike many managed care plan members, our club members DO NOT pay laboratory fees or extra for things like porcelain on molars. Such are included in our fees. Members are, however, responsible for precious metal surcharges. This charge is the difference between what our laboratory charges for a base metal crown and a high noble crown + any surcharges for the precious metal itself. We are forced to do this because of the steep rise in gold, platinum, palladium and indium prices that have been experienced over the past few years. Members may avoid such charges by electing all porcelain crowns. Such crowns are durable, hypoallergenic and highly esthetic--an excellent alternative to precious metal crowns.
Dental Club membership does not alter or amend any office policies that all patients of William D. Titus, DMD, PL agree to upon entering the practice. Club membership rules act in accord with and as an addendum to our printed office policies.
We offer our Dental Club as a means to help patients achieve dental health and then to maintain that dental health. Our objective is to get patients to a point of being dentally healthy so that only minor work is required to maintain the patient. Patients which are non-compliant with recommendations can have renewal of membership of the plan denied--especially when non-compliance produces repeated emergency examinations and emergency treatments in relationship to uncompleted work.
Procedures listed on the club's fee schedule are for information only and only procedures prescribed by your dentist and part of your treatment plan are available to the patient member. This is the case with all insurance and dental plans as well as our club.
Dental Club membership is open to all patients of record of William D. Titus, DMD, PL and the availability of this membership should in no way be considered a solicitation for participation with this club. Only current patients in the practice may join and thus, initial examinations and x-rays are not covered. We desire all potential members to be familiar with the practice and our doctor before joining. Patients electing to join the Dental Club do so of their own accord. We do not encourage, promote or solicit this plan to patients who are already clients of any managed care dental plan or beneficiaries of any PPO or indemnity insurer.
Dental Club discounts cannot be used in combination with any other discounts, including those discounts extended to beneficiaries of a dental plan or a dental insurance policy and as such, using our Dental Club cannot be used in conjuction with any type of third party insurance or dental plan.
Specialty referrals under the plan are made to specific specialists that we maintain excellent relationships with. Such specialists will provide members with a significant discount on any services performed--usually, 25% off their normal fees. Such specialty discounts are currently limited to Oral Surgery and Periodontal services.
