If you’re part of the 44 per cent of Australians who have private health insurance, it’s possible you’re letting your entitlements slip away. Many people don’t take full advantage of their private cover. If it helps, you can think of your insurance as coins slipping through an hourglass, becoming irretrievable as they cascade past the middle section. These funds have a deadline—and they won’t roll over.
As a general rule of thumb, your private healthcare fund will split your dental coverage into three categories: preventative, general, and major dentistry.
- Preventative dentistry is baseline dental treatment: checkups, scales, cleans, and X-rays.
- General dentistry covers fillings and tooth extractions—in other words, measures taken to treat cavities, infections, or other dental issues.
- Major dentistry is larger-scale, often invasive dental work such as dental implant installation, crown installation, or more complicated fillings.
Please note that these classifications can vary from provider to provider. Before you claim your entitlements, be sure to check if, say, Bupa’s dentistry definitions are on par with ours.
Whatever your situation, though, you’ve paid for these entitlements, so you should ensure to get the most out of them! Here are four quick and easy ways how.
- Don’t delay simple treatments
You know what they say: the longer you leave something, the worse it gets. This certainly applies to dentistry. If you’ve caught something early, get on it early. Leave the condition alone and it will only progress, costing you more money in the long run.
- Take full advantage of that preventative cover
Preventative dentistry is the best way to keep things at bay. You may as well milk this category for all its worth! Go to the dentist every six months—which, by the way, is the recommended time frame—for a checkup and clean. Your favourite fund has it all covered.
- Understand what ‘the gap’ means
When people refer to the gap, they’re not talking about gap-toothedness. They’re talking about how much you pay out-of-pocket for dental treatments. Your healthcare fund will only cover so much before you’ll need to make up the rest. Check your insurance policy to learn where their financial thresholds lie.
- Understand your entitlements
Do some research to determine the best private healthcare plan for your situation. Don’t be afraid to enquire about your yearly limits for extras. Consider if you’re pouring money into extras you’re never going to use.
At Burnside Dental, we want to help you get the most out of your private healthcare insurance. At our dentist in Adelaide, we accept all private healthcare funds:
- smile.com.au
- nib First Choice
- HCF
- CBHS
- Bupa
- Medibank Private.
Why not put an hour aside before the last coin clips through that slender-middled hourglass? Compared to losing prepaid entitlements, an hour is not that costly. To learn more about our payment options, click here. To maximise your dental coverage before it expires, book an appointment at Burnside Dental! Our phone number is (08) 8364 2557 and our online booking portal is right over here.
We look forward to not only helping you get the most out of your entitlements but also to providing stellar dentistry in Adelaide. See you soon!
