General Information

The fee for your endodontic treatment will be based on the type of treatment needed. During your first visit we will discuss the probable number of visits, their length, and the fees involved. It is expected that your portion of the fees be paid in full prior to completion of treatment. We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.  If you have any questions regarding our billing policy or fees, please call our office.

Financial Responsibilities:

Thank you for choosing Dr. Clifford T. Wong for your endodontic care. We are committed to providing you with the highest quality dental care possible, but in order to achieve our goals, we ask for your cooperation in being responsible for your dental bill.
 

Payment Plans:

We are also pleased to offer CareCredit to our patients. CareCredit is a convenient, low minimum monthly payment program specifically designed to pay for healthcare treatment.  If you are interested please click the link below or ask us during your visit.

www.carecredit.com

We are pleased to offer CareCredit Healthcare Finance to our patients.
Offering outside financing is a win/win solution for those of you who would like to receive quality endodontic care from us, but would feel less financially burdened with payment plans. You can apply right now online, and have your approval in place prior to your appointment with us! Click on the link above for more information.

To our patients with insurance:
 

Option A:
Payment (of your balance, co-payment, or fee for service) is not due until either your insurance pays their portion*, or until 60 days** after your appointment day, whichever comes first. Instead of collecting payment on your appointment day, we will pre-authorize your credit card at that time for the full fee for service (this only reserves credit for the fee, it is not yet charged). When your insurance payment arrives to our office (if it is within 60 days**), we will charge the exact remaining balance to your pre-authorized credit card at that time. If your insurance payment does not arrive within 60 days of your appointment, we reserve the right to charge the full fee for service to your pre-authorized credit card. Then we will promptly send you a refund check in the mail for any overpayment once the insurance payment is received.
Option B:
No credit card pre-authorization is needed if you pay 65% of the total fee for service on your appointment day. Then we will either send a refund check or collect the remaining balance due when your insurance pays (or after 60 days** has expired, whichever comes first if there is a remaining balance).

Our insurance financial policy:
1.    Allows you to postpone actual payment (for up to 60 days**) until we truly know what your co-payment amount will be
2.    Prevents you waiting for a refund check or a statement in the mail; collection of inaccurate (over-estimated) co-pay amounts on the day of treatment
3.    Prevents the need to collect the full fee for service on your appointment day. We hope this helps!
As a courtesy to you, we will:
1.    Accurately fill out your insurance claim and send it to your insurance provider the same day or next business day
2.    Strictly guard your CC information, keep it hidden, protected and confidential, and delete this information once your remaining balance has been paid
3.    Print out your claim for you to read and follow up or verify as accurate with your insurance. We find that insurances may pay more readily and faster (ideally within your 60 day window) if their clients (you) call
* Possible exceptions to this include: patients who have Delta Dental insurance, or any circumstances in which it is likely that the insurance is already maxed or will not cover a procedure, (i.e. implant procedures, etc.), or will not send directly to us their portion of payment. In such instances, either estimated co-payment or fee for service will be collected at time of treatment.
** “60 days” means that it needs to arrive on the last business day of 60 days, with day one being your appointment day. Our business days are generally Tuesday – Friday excluding holidays and vacations.

Our financial policy states, you are agreeing to: give Aloha Endodontics permission to pre-authorize your credit card for the full fees for service onto your credit card; and within 60 days** of your appointment you authorize  Aloha Endodontics to charge the exact remaining balance due, whether or not your insurance has paid a portion of that balance by that time. If there has been an overpayment once insurance pays, we will promptly send a refund check to you. Possible exceptions are listed*, meaning that Delta Dental patients agree (if necessary) to pay at least their co-payment amount on the day of service. Patients with special circumstances for whom these options will not work, agree to pay the full fee for service amount at time of service.

Minors
Payment of services for the treatment of minors is the responsibility of the accompanying adult.

Service charges

It is our policy to charge interest of 1.5% per month  (18% annual percentage rate) if your account becomes 60 days or more past due.  We will charge $15.00 for returned checks.

Collection fees
Fees incurred from our collection agency will be the responsibility of the patient.

Below is information regarding insurance companies and why they may or may not cover the entire cost of dental treatment.

Many carriers refer to their allowed payments as UCR, which stands for "Usual, Customary, and Reasonable". However, this does NOT mean exactly what it seems to mean. UCR is actually a negotiated list between your employer and the insurance carrier for a given procedure. The payment listing is related to cost of the premiums and the geographical area (typically by zip code of service rendered) where the work is done. In almost all cases, the payment for the billed services is usually less, frequently much less, than what we charge.

Our primary objective is to provide high-quality dental care at a fair fee while the insurance company's primary objective is to earn a profit for its shareholders. Yes, we are in business to earn a profit too, but we cannot allow the insurance company to dictate the standard and quality of care delivered to you. In an effort to maintain a high quality of care, we would like to share some information about dental insurance with you.

A common point of confusion is about how an insurance company determines UCR (Usual and Customary). Inflammatory information is often sent by the insurance companies that may state our fees are higher than usual and customary. An insurance company surveys a geographic area, calculates an average fee, takes 80% of that fee and considers it customary. Included in this survey are discount dental clinics and managed care facilities, which bring down the average. Many plans tell their participants that they will be covered "up to 80 percent or up to 100 percent," but do not clearly specify plan fee-schedule allowances, annual maximums or limitations. In fact, “80% of UCR” many times is not even calculated by the fees in the area but instead is some arbitrary number so the company can sell the plan to your employer at a specific cost per person. Hence, it may not represent a practical fee for a given procedure. It is more realistic to expect dental insurance to cover 35 - 65% of major services. Remember the amount a plan pays is determined by how much the employer paid for the plan. You get back only what your employer put in, less the profits of the insurance company. Dental benefits differ greatly from general health insurance benefits. In 1971, your dental-insurance benefits were approximately $1,000 per year. Figuring a 6% rate of inflation per year, you should be receiving $4,549 per year in dental benefits. Your premiums have increased, but your benefits have not. Therefore, dental insurance is never a pay-all; it is only an aid or supplement.

The cost of handling insurance within our office includes numerous lengthy phone calls, resubmitting information or radiographs (x-rays) two or three times because insurance companies "lost" or "never received" them, excessive paperwork, mailing and redundant billing. Hence, the cost of handling insurance is not trivial and really is substantial. Patience is involved since it takes at least 1 month for claims to be processed; it’s not unusual for 3 months and sometimes longer!

Our financial policies are in place to enable our patients to receive the highest level of endodontic care our office can provide. Please ask us if you have any questions!