A Halifax-area dental clinic is able to open its doors to more patients, with some saving hundreds in dental fees, now that more services are offered under the new national dental plan.
The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) rolled out in the spring to provide coverage to those without insurance – starting with seniors and now those under 18.
As of November 1, you can find out in advance if you are covered for more complex, costly procedures like crowns or dentures.
Dr. Held from the Tacoma Dental Clinic in Dartmouth says, it’s going pretty well.
“So, something like a denture that takes five or six appointments to make…we don’t want to wait until the very end and then find out that the patient wasn’t going to have any coverage. So, now we can operate the way we would with other insurance plans.”
Not only that, but it is also saving some patients a lot of money, especially seniors.
“Some of my new patients that I’ve seen out of pocket…if they have no coverage at all…they could be looking anywhere from $300-$400 [for a procedure]. With the plan, if they fall under the 100 per cent coverage umbrella, they’re paying $70…if that.”
Dr. Held says, although the CDCP is not entirely free, she tells her patients that “something is better than nothing.”
“It may not be that free dental care that they [the government] had once kind of claimed it would be. But to have any contribution from the government toward their care hugely impacts their ability to get access to it…and I’m all for that.”
The snag? Not enough staff…
Dental clinics do not need to register as a participating clinic for the CDCP, because they can bill the plan directly, for each patient.
However, if you do sign up, then your clinic, along with dozens of others, ends up on the Sun Life website.
Dr. Held says that is not something the Tacoma clinic is eager to do and from what she hears, several other local clinics feel the same.
“We don’t want to be inundated. Having our name on that list on the website will likely overload my front desk staff with phone calls and things like that.”
“Ask any dentist in HRM, we are having difficulties finding staff for all roles in our offices. From dental hygienists and administrative staff …we can’t even keep up with the patients we are currently seeing.”
Dr. Held says, although they are able to see more patients, they are still getting roughly 15 calls every week from those trying to get in, and they just do not have the capacity.
This, she says, may be something the government overlooked.
“Having a plan of how they were going to help staff and help us actually facilitate this plan would have been nice.”
As of November, more than 1 million Canadians have received care under the plan and more than 2.7 million have been approved.
Ottawa says, once fully implemented, the plan will make oral health care more affordable for up to 9 million Canadians who do not currently have health insurance.
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