Hi Folks
My teeth are not in the best of condition and need some fixing. A friend told me about smile.com.au and apparently when you pay a $70 yearly fee you get big discounts at participating dentists for procedures and check-ups. Can anyone please give feedback if they have used the service.
Thanks
These schemes scrape the bottom of the professional barrel.
How so?
Highly knowledgeable and/or skilled professionals are highly sought after. They are more likely to turn away patients than advertise in the bargain bin.
I don't think that's necessarily the case. I go to a fairly upmarket dentist in Melbourne CBD who is part of the Smile network.
The exception does not make the rule, however, think about this - if I am a highly reputable clinician, a full book of high value cases, what would be the reason for me to employ a service that looks for budget oriented patients?
Most people get access via their health insurance company, all the major providers are a part of the network so you're looking at a huge portion of the population that they're being marketed to. Also who cares about cheapskates (I doubt you would consider most people with private health insurance as 'budget oriented') when it's the health fund picking up the bill anyway. I get the logic that you're using here but I don't think you know enough about the business model to make that judgement.
@Cheaplikethebird:
You're talking about preferred providers. These clinicians have a contract with the PHI - clinicians charge the PHI dictated fees, in exchange, PHI refers patients to them and provide a higher level of reimbursement (or full reimbursement).
In such an arrangement, some procedures would not be lucrative, ie the PHI may dictate fees for a 60min procedure to be $X and a 30 min procedure to be $2X. A independant clinician would probably charge $4X for the 60min procedure. The preferred provider is unlikely to even provide all options as clearly some options are more profitable than others, a scenario that wouldn't occur if clinicians set their own fees.
Also, PHI dictated fees are far lower than average fees.
Smile is not a PHI, they are just an e-marketing platform that markets based on perceived discounts.
Ps. Most people do not get their access via PHI. They may have PHI but most patients go to their own clinician and get the default reimbursement from their PHI.
@tshow: Ok yeah fair enough. I get an automatic membership through my PHI and I skimmed this page and was under the impression they all gave automatic membership. https://www.smile.com.au/health-insurance-insured-members
Smile while i take your wallet
I don't think it's that big of a discount, usually membership comes bundled with health insurance. I imagine you would need to have a bit of work done before you would recoup the membership costs. I would go in for a check-up, get a qoute, and from there you can work out what kind of discount it would be and if it's worth it.