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New Alberta dental fee guide calls for 8.5% reduction in fees

A new dental fee guide has been announced in Alberta that the government says will help patients get greater value from the money they pay their dentists.
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A new dental fee guide has been announced in Alberta that the government says will help patients get greater value from the money they pay their dentists.

The guide — the first in more than two decades — suggests an 8.5 per cent reduction in prices for 60 common dental procedures.

Alberta Health said Wednesday that the guide will empower Albertans to talk to their dentists about what they’re being charged.

“I don’t know a lot of Albertans who are excited to discuss economics when they’re sitting in a dental chair,” said Health Minister Sarah Hoffman.

“This makes it a little easier to be able to have some of those conversations.”

The guide was developed by the Health Ministry and the Alberta Dental Association and College, and is to go into effect Jan. 1.

Dentists will not be obligated to follow it, but the government says it will continue to work with the college to bring dental fees closer in line with other provinces.

The government said a 2016 review found Albertans pay more than other provinces for certain dental procedures.

In August, the government ordered the governing body for the province’s dentists to draw up a fee guide to cut patients’ bills by more than three per cent.

The order came after the college proposed a guide that reduced fees by no more than three per cent — a move Hoffman said was not good enough.

The health minister told the college that if it didn’t comply, the province could take steps that included splitting the association and the college into two separate bodies.

Dr. Mintoo Basahti, president of the Alberta Dental Association and College, admitted some dentists are worried about the potential effects of the guide on their practices.

“At the end of the day they have to trust senior leadership and trust the stability the minister has given them, then go back and focus on day-to-day, high-quality care,” he said.

“It’s a tool created by dentists, for dentists, in partnership to be able to say, ‘This is fair and reasonable,”’ said Hoffman.

The lobby group Friends of Medicare said it welcomes the new guide, but also urged the Health Ministry to add dental coverage to the province’s health-care insurance plan.

“We don’t believe your health needs end where your mouth begins, and cost barriers to good oral health should be removed,” executive director Sandra Azocar said in a release.

Alberta Liberal MLA David Swann said the new guide “does little to resolve the problem of high, unregulated dental costs, including outrageous hygienist fees.”

“Dentists should be required to discuss prices up front and publicly list their standard prices in comparison to the fee guide,” Swann said in a news release.

Swann also said it will take a year or more to determine if the guide will be able to drive down dental bills.

The complete guide is being made available on the college’s public website. An easy-to-use abridged version is also planned.