Bah, humbug

[unixronin]

First off, we already knew we did not have separate full dental coverage.

The good news:  It actually turns out that we do have preventive-care dental coverage from Harvard Pilgrim, for the girls up to age 12.  Two visits per year are covered, including examinations, cleaning, X-rays and fluoride treatments, as long as we use a contracted in-network provider.

The bad news:  Guess how many contracted, in-network pediatric dentists there are in southern New Hampshire.

If you guessed "zero", you're correct.  The closest one is in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.  Want to try for general dentistry now?

...Yup.  Zero again.

So, we have preventive-care dental coverage for the girls -- on paper... and that, plus 99¢, will get you a cup of bad coffee at Starbucks.

But wait!  The bullshit gets deeper.  Medically necessary extractions are covered, with the same in-network proviso ... but only for either impacted wisdom teeth, or if extraction is necessary because of an injury whcih damaged a tooth, and the damaged tooth subsequently became infected, and the extraction is performed within 72 hours of the injury, and if it's performed by an oral surgeon, not a dentist.  72 hours?  You may not even know you have a problem within 72 hours of damaging a tooth, let alone be able to get it extracted.

Why is all this suddenly topical?  Because we've just discovered that Wen the Eternally Surprised has a badly infected tooth that needs to come out.  NOW.  But it wasn't, to our knowledge, caused by an injury, and certainly not within the last 72 hours (48 hours, actually, since her extraction appointment is tomorrow).  So, emergency or not, it's not covered.

So, to all practical purposes, whenwe thought we had no dental coverage at all, we were right after all.  The print on the paper may make it look like we do, but in the real world it's purely theoretical coverage with no practical use whatsoever.

Comments

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

Check to see if the county is an in-network provider. Sometimes the county acts as one.

Good Luck.