The dental fee guide will be increasing again in 2024. Find out the impact this could have on your employees and on your company's dental plan.
The B.C. dental association has now released their annual fee guide. The intention of the guide is to offer recommendations for the pricing of dental services and to help ensure access to competitively and reasonable priced dental services. Insurers also use this guide to determine the maximum reimbursement amounts for dental claims. Dentists in B.C. are not required to charge the fees listed in the dental fee guide, as the guide only provides a recommendation of what to charge. Each dental office independently determines how much they wish to charge for various treatments.
In 2024, the fee guide increase in B.C. will be 4.73% for dentists and 3% for denturists. This year’s increases are much more reasonable than the 2023 increases which were 5.99% for dentists and 10% for denturists.
The dental fee guide has a direct impact on group benefits plans with members who utilize dental services. For example, if a dentist follows the dental fee guide and increases their prices by 4.73%, a group plan can expect increased claims of approximately the same percentage if employees continue to use the same level of dental coverage.
The dental fee guide also has an impact on individual plan members. Insurers use the dental fee guide to determine price standards for the average cost of various services and supplies, which are known as reasonable and customary amounts. An employee will have to pay out of pocket for any cost that exceeds the reasonable and customary amount if a dentist chooses to charge a higher fee. If an employee finds that their dentist consistently charges above the reasonable and customary amount, they may wish to look for a new dental office with fees that are closer to the normal range.
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