The Australian Dental Association (ADA) has released a number of resources for dentists about health insurance, providing information about the ins and outs of the private health insurance industry as it relates to dentists and their patients.

One of the resources is a fact sheet called “More gain or more pain? Do I want to be a contracted preferred provider?” In this fact sheet, the ADA covers points relating to dentists becoming a preferred supplier for a health fund such as:

• The possibility that practices who are preferred suppliers may be no busier than those who are not
• The provider’s patient base not necessarily growing as in the future the health-fund recommended patients may go to a cheaper provider
• The fact that some health funds will lock in the fees you are able to charge for dental services, without the fee structure being reviewed annually
• Figures indicating that in Australia in the last 10 years, private health insurers have made in excess of $7.2 billion in the amount paid to general treatment (ancillary) over what they have paid out

In the preferred provider brochure “It’s your choice” for patients, the Australian Dental Association clearly states that they believe the preferred provider scheme to be “very unfair.” They advocate for people to choose which dentist provides their dental care, pointing out that “preferred practitioners” are not preferred because of their professional abilities, but because of a contractual arrangement around the fee criteria set by the health fund.

The Australian Dental Association is also directing consumers to the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman website, and has also created a health fund complaint form so that they can use this in their dialogue with health funds.