Dental care: possible refusal to offer assignment of benefits

The Association des chirurgiens dentistes du Québec (ACDQ) recently recommended that its members stop offering assignment of dental care benefits.

Should a dentist apply this measure, insured individuals would be required to pay the total amount of fees charged by their dentist out-of-pocket and then submit a claim for reimbursement to their insurer. This situation may cause dissatisfaction among insured individuals.

The implementation of this measure is left to the discretion of dentists. Dentists will continue to send treatment plans to insurers and insurers will be able to continue reimbursing dentists directly. Under these circumstances, it is impossible to predict how many dentists will follow the ACDQ’s recommendation to apply this measure.

This recommendation resulted from commercial and financial disagreements between the ACDQ and the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA). This was a decision made by the ACDQ and not by insurers.

The Normandin Beaudry consultants will follow the developments on this subject and will keep you informed.

¹  Agreement between the insured and the dentist that allows the insurer to directly pay the dentist on behalf of the insured and the insured to pay only the portion not covered by their insurance plan.

Please feel free to contact us for additional information.