The full cost of dental insurance: who's really minding the store?

A private practitioner describes the evolution of control of practice by insurance companies. The effects of assignment of benefits have been to limit patients' demand for care to what will be covered by insurance, postponement of needed care, damaging the relationship between patients and dentists, and erosion of patients' sense of responsibility for their own oral health. Current trends toward electronic filing of insurance claims are seen as an acceleration of these practices. Educating patients regarding their role in their own care is proposed as a needed response.