<p>I’m a college student living in New York. I’m on my parents’ health insurance and very very very badly need dental care, but for some reason every practitioner I have called says that I have to pay first and then get my insurance to pay me back. I called my insurance and they said that I can go to any dentist and have them bill the insurance company, and they will pay regardless, but they don’t have actual dentists in their system that they work with. This an absolute nightmare, why won’t dentists just bill the insurance!!! It really doesn’t seem that hard. Duh, why would they expect college students to have cash to pay for random emergency dental procedures??? What am I supposed to do? I would really really like to have this treated as soon as possible. The pain is fine but it smells so nasty that gum and mints won’t cover up!! I have missed every class that requires participation, and feel sick because I’ve been consuming packs of Altoids everyday for the past 3 days. Obviously this cannot go on!! Please help me! Thank you. I’m international so my parents cannot just send me money to pay for this now (and even if they could money wire takes a really long time to clear from our country).</p>
<p>Some insurances do not cover care outside of the home country, so the dentists in US might just be skeptical. Can you get your insurance to issue a letter stating they will cover all costs, etc, for you? That might help…</p>
<p>There are costs involved when medical and dental offices have to do the billing. Also, the dentist can’t be sure s/he will get the money. There are hundreds of different insurance companies, each with many different plans. Why should any professional be expected to do extra paperwork for you? Urgent/emergency expenses are something you and your parents should have budgeted for. Lesson learned- have money in a US bank for contingencies.</p>
<p>Contact your college’s foreign student center and see what they can do for you. They may be able to loan you the money to pay for the dentist while your funds from your parents and/or insurance company come in.</p>
<p>Can you have your parents call with a credit card and get the procedure done, then wait for the reimbursement from the insurance company? Seems the simplest thing to do in this situation.</p>
<p>I would see if you can pay with a credit card and get reimbursed from the insurance company. You can also call student health services and see if they can help you. Maybe you can also call one of the dental schools nearby and see if they can help you- they may have a dental clinic that serves the local community.</p>
<p>You do need to pay up front costs but rates are reduced. THey will take emergency patients. I don’t know what type of work you need, but hopefully this will work for you.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, they said I can use my parents’ credit card which I didn’t realize was fine, so relieved! They have access to my account and vice versa but unfortunately the money can take as long as 1 week to clear, even more when there are federal holidays involved, like today. I’m international but it’s a US insurance plan thanks to one of my parents’ work. Thank you!! So ridiculous! Insurance is so expensive, one would think it would be easier to use once paid for.</p>
<p>I’m sorry you have to deal with this. SOme universities department of international student association, (or similarly named services) They may provide short term emergency loans for this’s type of scenario. Try to find a contact person and run this by them…</p>
<p>I am glad it worked out. You may want to ask your parents if they can add you on as a user on one of their credit cards so you could have one in your name on hand for emergencies such as this. When my D was at a school far away with the car we did this for her just in case she needed to make a major car repair or buy an emergency plane ticket home. Your situation today is the exact scenario where it would have been handy to have this already in place.</p>
<p>SteveMA, usually you can’t transfer money between bank accounts with an international bank. You need to send a wire, which as the OP stated, can take some time to clear from certain countries. OP, you really should have your parents wire some money to you if possible to keep in your bank account for emergencies like this… the credit card might not always be a solution in the future. :(</p>
<p>This isn’t that uncommon. We have Cigna dental insurance and have used the same dental practice for about 20 years. They recently stopped billing Cigna direct because of the bureaucracy and reimbursement rates. They now expect us to pay (credit card is fine) and then they provide all the documentation for us to be reimbursed by Cigna. I only know this because DW took DD and DS for their annual at the beginning of the school year and this was the first year we ran into this.</p>
<p>I second the idea of dental schools. They give wonderful care, under the supervision of expert teachers. I went to dental schools for my cleanings and dental work when I was a student. The downside is, you sit longer in the chair because the dental students are slower.</p>
<p>^^^True about free clinics. Dental schools, however, are open to everybody. At least the ones I am aware of. Dental schools are not free but charge very reduced prices.</p>
<p>“why won’t dentists just bill the insurance?” - Because typically the bill will be a lot more than the insurance reimbursement. If they bill you, they get the full amount up front.</p>