Search
Related Links

 

 

Informative Articles

A Magnificent Obsession Is The Best Medicine!
The idea I'm about to share with you can bring you the greatest hope. It can bring you happiness beyond anything you've ever dreamed. It can present to you the quality and quantity of life that may seem like only something that always goes to...

b>Is Your Ability to Buy Dietary Supplements, Herbal Preparations, and Tonics in Jeopardy in the USA?
When the DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health Education Act) was passed by the USA Congress in 1994 it was a boon to all of us consumers. Finally, we all could buy herbals that had long histories of safe and effective use throughout the world. Before...

Saving up on Discounted Medicines
Have you ever remembered a time when your health suffered and you did not bother about having a physician check you out and write out a prescription from for the medications you need to have? Well, we would understand you very much if you answer...

Why Our Healthcare System Isn't Healthy
Most people are well aware that an estimated 45 million Americans currently do not have healthcare, but is the crisis simply the lack of health insurance or even the cost of health insurance? Is there a bigger underlying problem at the root of our...

Your own attitude makes the difference!
In life there is a huge variety of things that you can’t control, no matter what! Nevertheless, you should never let those things, regardless of how bad they are, defeat you. Remember that, no matter how bad the situation gets, you’re the one who...

 
What is the difference between HMO and PPO dental plans?

You can re-publish this article as long as you provide clickable links to the source. A courtesey email to marketing@dentistry21.com will be appreciated.
What is the difference between HMO and PPO dental plans?
If your employer offers dental benefit or if you are shopping for it yourself you often come across two terms:
1. Dental HMO plans (DMO)
2. Dental PPO plans
To be able to make a correct decision you should know the difference between the two, and I don't mean the coverage difference that is usually presented by the insurance companies. What I mean is the real difference.
You should know how they pay the doctors and which plans the doctors favor. Why? Because eventually it is the dentist that will provide the service to you and not the insurance company. So, no matter what the insurance company claims their doctors have to do, your dentist will treat you as he or she sees fit.
To look at the issue from the perspective of a dentist, let's see how they differ in terms of payments to the doctors.
1. The PPO plans
PPO plans, also called preferred provider plans, pay doctors based on the procedures they perform. In other words, for each approved treatment or service performed by your dentist the insurance company sends him a payment (assuming other limitations don't apply). When you are talking about this kind of coverage, it means the more your doctor does the more he is paid. Of course there are checks and balances in place to make sure the doctors overall performance is acceptable.
2. HMO plans
When it comes to a general dentist,


usually the way the insurance companies pay is called capitation payment. Which means they sign a contract with a doctor for a certain number of people (let's say 500 people). Then they pay doctors a monthly payment for each patient (Something around 1-6 dollars per person). Then in return they expect the dentists to perform certain procedures for free and some others at a discounted rate.
When you think about it, you realize practically they reward doctors who do less! As far as the dentists are concerned if they are performing a "covered benefit" they are losing money! The only time they make money is when they perform a procedure that is not covered by insurance.
Getting more familiar with the system, you now realize why some dental offices act strongly when you call them for appointments having an HMO plan.
The fact is that insurance companies (being a large monopoly dealing with a non-union crowd) have pressured many doctors (both in medicine and dentistry) to sing up with HMO plans. That has resulted in lowering of the quality of service across the country.
Next time you are thinking about selecting an insurance plan keep in mind the way they reimburse the doctors. You should not make your decision only based on the list of co-pays they give you. You may end up paying much more for a lower quality of service in the long run.
Go to http://dentistry21.com/public for more information.

About the Author

Dentistry21.com a comprehensive dental resource that contains dental plan information. You can compare and buy a dental plan that suits you.

 

National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ...
www.nlm.nih.gov
 
Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com
Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns.
www.medicinenet.com
 
Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory
Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ...
dir.yahoo.com
 
MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications.
medlineplus.gov
 
Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ...
en.wikipedia.org
 
Journal Home - Nature Medicine
Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ...
www.nature.com
 
The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ...
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ...
content.nejm.org
 
eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base
eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ...
www.emedicine.com
 
Open Directory - Health: Medicine
the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ...
dmoz.org
 
the www virtual library biosciences medicine
www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages
 
Medicine - home
Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice.
www.md-journal.com
 
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health.
www.iom.edu
 
ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News
Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily.
www.sciencedaily.com
 
Google Directory - Health > Medicine
Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ...
www.google.com
 
the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine
www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages
 
PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal
PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ...
medicine.plosjournals.org
 
Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal
Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com.
www.priory.com
 
Entrez PubMed
PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Stanford University School of Medicine
Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
med.stanford.edu
 
Medicine OnLine
Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ...
www.meds.com