Our Surgeons are not preferred providers. WestOMS is not affiliated with any Health Insurer.
When your dentist refers you and your family to the surgical team at WestOMS, it is an endorsement of our practice and the consistent quality of care we have provided over many years. These professional relationships are authentic and cannot be bought. They reflect trust, reliability and mutual respect between clinicians.
In contrast, the term ‘preferred provider’ describes a clinician who makes a deal with a Health Insurer to treat their members at a below market rate. In return, the Health Insurer will recommend that preferred provider to its members. This is NOT an endorsement of the quality of the practice or the skills of the clinician. It is a recommendation motivated by financial incentive to both parties.
This arrangement is appealing to Health Insurers since it increases profits. If the treatment is completed at a reduced cost, they can pay out a smaller rebate.
When clinicians are forced to reduce the cost of treatment, then the service is compromised in the following ways:
- Treatment must be performed more quicky to compensate for the reduced cost. This incentivises speed over quality and leads to rushed consults and rushed surgery.
- A preference for cheaper materials rather than those that work best. Examples include using inferior implant brands or poorer quality bone grafting material.
- Reduced access to afterhours care and advice. Such care may instead be exclusively outsourced to public hospitals since this is cheaper.
- A need to charge the patient for all post-operative appointments and reviews.
- Reduction in number and quality of auxiliary staff such as nursing and administrative assistants.
Conclusion
Our surgeons at WestOMS are focused on providing an elite standard of excellence with respect to surgical care and outcomes. Therefore, we have no preferred provider relationship with any health insurer. We are aware that some insurers have our surgeons listed as preferred providers. This is incorrect, and we have contacted these insurers multiple times to remove us from their lists.
A preferred provider scheme may promise cost reductions in healthcare, but this is only possible by diminishing the quality of that care. Regardless of how the Health Insurer markets the scheme, the reality is clear: you cannot expect to receive more for less.
