AnonymousBy an edhat reader
I was recently charged a PPE fee at a dentist’s office here in Santa Barbara. I questioned the fee and was met with anger by the staff who said it was becoming an industry standard and that I was wrong for even questioning it. I have asked around and while this is not commonplace just yet it may be becoming the norm. Is this acceptable? Charging an extra fee for safety during a time when many people don’t have much extra cash to spare?
Of course your dollars are more important to you than the people’s well being who’d be attending to you. The PPEs are to protect THEM from any biological particles who’ve hitched a ride in YOU and it stands to reason they hold YOU fiscally responsible. They also have to disinfect the room before you enter to ensure any biological particles left behind by the previous patient don’t infect YOU. As cost of doing business goes up so do fees for services. It’s called capitalism, baby.
They are doing things behind the scenes that you don’t see. For example my moms dentist in between each patient has some disinfect bomb thing that they use in between each person to kill particles in air and everything idk what it is that’s her description not mine. That is probably pricy. It’s already hard doing business right now, and as business owners we are having a lot of extra expenses that the consumer might not see or be aware of. But if u sat on it touched it breathed on it it’s getting disinfected and they have to pay someones to spend 15 minutes to do it so maybe your also paying for that persons wage. It really baffles me that ppl that have never owned a business truly don’t understand anything about how expensive a business is to run. I myself am just eating the costs into my already non existent profit margins due to covid. And being shut down for now 6 months. Maybe instead of griping over $10 u should just see a new dentist that won’t take the care to disinfect everything properly and you can keep your $10.
Delta Dental doesn’t really pay what it costs for dentistry these days, at least for some procedures. I’d like to hear what local dentists have to say about all this. Any dentists or hygienists reading Edhat these days?
Dentists got into their profession to make money. They are, in my experience, the most avaricious profession.
All doctors charge for materials used. It’s just that generally that is lumped into their fees. Covid is new and changing fees is complicated. You can send to insurance to see if they will cover if it’s part of routine covered service. They can’t be expected to take on the additional cost of all the new materials they have to use for every patient. Otherwise they can just raise lumped fee. However they shouldn’t have gotten mad at you asking about it unless you were rude about how you asked. If it was a nicely inquired question and they were jerks just change dentist. Although they should have told you beforehand that charges would be different and I wonder if they charge a markup
The Dr. Offices and Major Clinical Laboratories that have recently visited provide No PPE except latex gloves for their employees and only 1 had hand sanitizer available to the public. 2 or 3 in person visits next week. O boy 🙁
Forgot: I asked several workers from medical assistants, phlebotomists, receptionist , and was told they have to BUY their own .