Our Mechanicsburg office, as well as The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, recommends establishing a “Dental Home” for your child by his/her 1st birthday. Children who have a dental home are more likely to receive appropriate preventive and routine oral health care.
We offer personalized care. During your child’s first visit, our friendly team will focus on listening to their unique needs, getting to know them while building trust together. It’s our goal for everyone to feel comfortable. We value the voices of parents, so Dr. Nana will partner alongside you, lend a generous listening ear answering any questions you have and making sure you and your children feel heard, appreciated, and empowered. Whether it’s a routine cleaning or procedure, we pay attention to the child’s true need, their behavior, and how to accomplish the dental need for the child at that moment. We explain everything to kids and parents so your little one leaves happier and healthier than when they walked in.
When you are at Smilehaus you will feel at home. Our Mechanicsburg office features bright and colorful art in our halls and we celebrate little things like wearing your Tutu on Tuesdays! Our Mechanicsburg office features a fresh tech bar with iPads, so you can seamlessly stay connected. To give your child the most delightful, customized experience, we’ll have their treatment room ready with noise-cancelling headphones and mounted TVs playing their favorite movies and shows!
As a pediatric practice in Mechanicsburg, making life a little easier for moms and dads is something that’s always on our minds. To that end, we’re making it simple to get started and save time at our office with digital new patient forms. You will be able to fill out the new patient forms once you have scheduled an appointment using our online scheduling link. You can fill out your little one’s forms from the comfort of your smart device and step into a streamlined, stress-free first visit with your child!
Smilehaus Pediatric Dentistry, PLLC currently accepts these insurance plans:
If we have received all of your insurance information on the day of the appointment, we will be happy to file your claim for you. A copy of your current dental insurance card must be provided. We take cash, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover as form of payments.
Understanding your insurance coverage can be quite challenging. We ask that you familiarize yourself with your insurance benefits, as we will collect from you the estimated amount your insurance is not expected to pay. By law your insurance company is required to pay each claim within 30 days of receipt. In the event that your insurance has not paid your claim within 60 days, the balance may be transferred to your account. If you have not paid your balance within 60 days an interest rate of 1.5% may be charged to your account each month until paid.
Please remember that it is the patient’s responsibility to keep Smilehaus Pediatric Dentistry, PLLC informed of changes incurrent insurance information including address and/or phone number, employer and change in ID numbers. This will ensure all insurance claim filing and statements can be kept to a minimum.
The top four misunderstood facts regarding dental insurance are:
Dental insurance is meant to be an aid in receiving dental care. Many patients think that their insurance pays 90%-100% of all dental fees. This is not true! Most plans only pay between 50%-80% of the average total fee. Some pay more, some pay less. The percentage paid is usually determined by how much you or your employer has paid for coverage or the type of contract your employer has set up with the insurance company. There are literally thousands of contracts available for employers to choose from provided by each carrier.
Insurance companies set their own schedules and each company uses a different set of fees they consider allowable.These allowable fees may vary widely because each company collects fee information from claims it processes. The insurance company then takes this data and arbitrarily chooses a level they call the “allowable” UCR Fee. Frequently this data can be three to five years old and these “allowable” fees are set by the insurance company so they can make a profit.You may have noticed that sometimes your dental insurer reimburses you or the dentist at a lower rate than the dentist’s actual fee. Frequently, insurance companies state that the reimbursement was reduced because your dentist’s fee has exceeded the usual, customary, or reasonable fee (“UCR”) used by the company.
A statement such as this gives the impression that any fee greater than the amount paid by the insurance company is unreasonable or well above what most dentists in the area charge for a certain service. This can be very misleading and simply is not accurate. Unfortunately, insurance companies imply that your dentist is “overcharging” rather than say that they are “underpaying” or that their benefits are low. In general, the less expensive insurance policy will use a lower usual, customary, or reasonable (UCR) figure.
When estimating dental benefits, deductibles and percentages must be considered. To illustrate, assume the fee for service is $150.00. Assuming that the insurance company allows $150.00 as its usual and customary (UCR) fee, we can figure out what benefits will be paid. First a deductible (paid by you), on average $50, is subtracted, leaving $100.00. The plan then pays 80% for this particular procedure. The insurance company will then pay 80% of $100.00, or $80.00. Out of a$150.00 fee they will pay an estimated $80.00 leaving a remaining portion of $70.00 (to be paid by the patient). Of course, if the UCR is less than $150.00 or your plan pays only at 50% then the insurance benefits will also be significantly less.
The frequency of payment for some procedures may be limited by an insurance company. This is most often encountered in a pediatric dental office with fluoride treatments. The American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommend the application of fluoride every 6 months since it is proven to be highly effective against tooth decay. Our office follows those recommendations in order to achieve optimal oral health for your child. Therefore, if an insurance plan limits the frequency of the fluoride treatment, the parent will be responsible for this cost. This can also be encountered with other procedures, such as x-rays and sealants.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, please keep us informed of any insurance changes such as policy name, insurance company address, or a change of employment.