VHI Dental (US dental insurance management company, DeCare.)

I agree not worth it. They claim that they cover emergency cases which is a lie as I had a situation and they told me that they would not honor it even though it was an emergency.
 
According to the [broken link removed], 'Dental Emergencies at Home' are covered for "Unlimited treatment to the maximum benefit of your chosen plan". If VHI refused such a claim, don't let them away with it - you should complain to the Insurance Ombudsman.
 
I have a child that will need braces just wondering would joining vhi be a good idea to cover some of this costly work ?
 
Hi Anthony - Have a look at the VHI link above, see what items are covered and compare this against the costs of the policy.
 
Whast are the typical costs of the following through your local dentist ?

Check-up (say twice a year)
Scale and polish (say once a year)
Normal filling (one a year)
Root filling (one every 2 years)
(Thats my last 2 years treatment, obviously yours may vary depending on age, whether you drink/smoke, brush properly, etc)

Add them all up and compare with cost of policy.
 
vhi dental

good friend of mine is a dentist and he told me it's rubbish really, not highly scientific I agree but there you go anyway.
 
Re: VHI Dental

VHI dental was discussed on the Joe Duffy Show during the week.

A lot of less than happy customers out there!
 
Re: VHI Dental

The dentist from the VHI explained things very well I thought.

It's mainly for medical treatment and not for visual purposes.

I felt sorry for the woman who spent €40k(?) after an accident, but this was before the VHI started covering dental work and the policy simply exempted dental work at the time. It's easy for sympathy for someone like that to be taken out on the VHI.

Brendan
 
Re: VHI Dental

Brendan, the dentist from VHI is ex HSE and was headhunted by VHI specifically to do the PR etc to limit eligibility for dental treatments. I think the HSE philosophy of "cut, cut cut" has unfortunately percolated into this scheme.
This scheme is dying in the water and the uptake is very poor.
They have tightened benefit hugely since inception and on the ground it is nigh impossible to have any confidence in the scheme as they move the goalposts so often on the patient. If I were to advise a patient to join, carryout treatment and then the patient is not reimbursed dueto the goalposts being moved then I am the fall guy and am potentially left with a bad debt whilst the vhi continue to collect premia.
The VHI dental scheme needs to be much more transparent with patients and practitioners for it to have any chance of survival.
Also it has to be said that with the fact that 80% of population quailifying for state dental schemes and the presence of tax relief on numerous dental treatments one really has to question where is the "niche" for vhi dental?
 
Re: VHI Dental

this is exactly my point jaybird.....were you to have your treatement now you would be covered for much less and this situation is getting worse. This is exactly how they are working......hook as many customers as they can in first couple of years and then reduce entitlement and tighten eligible treatments so as to increase their profits.
If only they left the entitlements as per intial inception !!
 
Is VHI dental plan worth it ?

like any insurance plan.. only if you have to claim.. ;)

No, it's just another way to "extract" money from you!

car insurance come to mind :D

I agree not worth it. They claim that they cover emergency cases which is a lie as I had a situation and they told me that they would not honor it even though it was an emergency.

asaik, it the initial emergency treatment that is covered, not treatment a few months after the accident

Brendan, the dentist from VHI is ex HSE and was headhunted by VHI specifically to do the PR etc to limit eligibility for dental treatments. I think the HSE philosophy of "cut, cut cut" has unfortunately percolated into this scheme.
This scheme is dying in the water and the uptake is very poor.
T
from the radio the other day, dental is part of DeCare an american company, and vhi are only the selling agent for it, and do not process the claims. dental would be more an american thing, and are prob testing the irish market...

I imagine the larger multinational corporations may want to offer dental plans to some of their employees.
american comp's giving the same cover as their american employee's ?


there's a lesson there some where :)..... wash your teeth, good hygiene and will not have to go to dentist, and pay way too much
 
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article in sunday business post of 19/11/06 announced premium increase 10%
but
1.max cover reduces from 2.5k to 1.5k per annum
2.waiting time to repair/replace missing tooth via complex treatment increased from 3 to 12 months in order to be covered.
3.reduced cover for major treatments from 70 to 50%.
and this is the recent podcast by dentist from decare
http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2007/pc/pod-v-311007-48m47s-liveline.mp3
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