Elsevier

Dental Abstracts

Volume 62, Issue 2, March–April 2017, Pages 78-80
Dental Abstracts

The Big Picture
Reimbursement for dental care

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.denabs.2016.12.006Get rights and content

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Background

Over the past 15 to 20 years, the earnings for dentists have risen, plateaued, declined, and stabilized. Today, most dentists’ earnings have been unchanged for several years. With adjustments for inflation, the average net income for a general practice dentist in 2014 was comparable to what was earned in 1997. The factors affecting this state of affairs were evaluated.

Supply and Demand

A major factor in dentists’ earnings is supply and demand in the dental care market. Fewer adults are visiting the dentist, and this includes adults with middle and high income levels. This trend correlates precisely with the stagnation in dentists’ earnings.

Along with this fall in the number of adults using dental services is an increase in the supply of dentists in the United States. Beginning in the mid-2000s, the number of students enrolling in dental schools and the average retirement age

Reimbursements

Another factor that plays into dentists’ earnings but is little studied is how payment rates to dentists have changed over time. The major reason this has not been widely studied is the lack of data available to researchers on the payment rates to dentists through private dental benefit plans. Changes are needed in this area.

An analysis was done of the payment rates provided to dentists through private dental benefit plans between 2005 and 2014 based on data from the Health Policy Institute (Fig

Explaining the Variations

These findings raise questions regarding why there were these variations and what impact large reductions in payment rates made to dentists might have. Many potential factors may be related to changes in payment rates, including the market dynamics between insurers and providers. But the market power of insurers compared to providers is difficult to assess because there are no publicly available data on dental insurance carrier concentration. Data are available, however, regarding dentists’

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Vujicic M: Why are payment rates to dentists declining in most states? J Am Dent Assoc 147:755-757, 2016

Reprints available from M Vujicic, Health Policy Inst, American Dental Assoc, 211 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611; e-mail: [email protected]

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