• Our office is a fee-for-service office, meaning we politely ask you for payment of your portion, after insurance estimates are applied, at the time services are rendered. For your convenience, we accept most Dental Benefits, Cash, Check, Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card, American Express, and CareCredit payment plan. We offer a 3% bookkeeping discount for pre-payment of services above $1500.
• At this time, we are participating providers for Cigna, MetLife, Delta Dental Premiere and Retiree, United Concordia, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina plans. We will also accept North Carolina Medicaid and Health Choice for children age 12 and younger only. This means that we have agreed to reduce our office fee to the amount that the insurance company allows us to charge. Please call your insurance carrier if you are unsure if our office is in your dental plan’s network.
• For all other insurance plans, we are able to file dental claims and, in most cases, receive payment directly into our office. Any differences between our fee and insurance company reimbursement will be charged to the patient. Our software program can track historical payments for your group plan, but we are only able to offer estimates since insurance company reimbursements are constantly changing.
• The adult, parent(s), or legal guardian accompanying a minor child are responsible for the family’s portion not covered by any Dental Benefits you may have at the time services are rendered.
• For unaccompanied minors, non-emergency treatment will be denied unless arrangements for payment on a pre-authorized credit card, cash, or check are made prior to the appointment date and time.
• We charge a $25 returned check fee and a $25 collection fee for accounts over 90 days that are sent to our outside collection agency. We charge a $30 broken appointment fee for appointments that are broken with less than 24 hours notice. This is done at the discretion of the Treatment Coordinator and under certain circumstances only.
• We try our very best to accurately estimate your portion on the date of service based on the information given to us by your insurance carrier. However, sometimes there is a need to send you a statement, which will be mailed to you at the end of the week the payment is received from your insurance company for your visit.
• Our courtesy service to you includes electronically filing your insurance within 24 hours of your appointment so that benefits may be paid directly to our office, researching your plan to advise you of benefits available to you and following the American Dental Association guidelines for coding and filing insurance claims.
• Our expectation of you as the owner of the policy is to make payment in full of fees or copayments not covered by your insurance plan at the time services are rendered. We also ask that you understand that the policy belongs to you and we have no leverage to obtain payment from your insurance. With that, we ask that you take responsibility for payment of your visit should your insurance company not pay within 75 days of your appointment date. In order to avoid this situation, we ask that you keep our office informed of any changes in your insurance coverage or employment.
• Every dental insurance policy has a maximum benefit, which we are able to track for services rendered in our office. If you have received care by another office, we cannot be responsible for calculating your remaining benefits accurately. You may call your insurance company to receive an updated amount after services have been made to all offices involved.
Feel free to contact our dental office in Jacksonville, North Carolina, today with any questions and to schedule your next appointment with our dentists, Dr. Armstrong and Dr. Tant.