Soaring dental fees prompt review

Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman says she’ll be reviewing the province’s dental fees in the coming months.

Hoffman cited Alberta’s growing cost of dental services, which are now higher than other jurisdictions in Canada.

“The fact that Alberta’s dental fees have risen faster and are now higher than in other provinces is concerning,” Hoffman told the Herald. “We owe it to Albertans to explore ways we can ensure they’re getting good, fair value for the money they spend on dental services.”

In January, the Herald reported that prices in Alberta’s $ 1.5- billion dental industry have surged faster than both inflation and charges elsewhere in the country since 1997, according to an internal survey by the Alberta’s Dental Association and College. That’s when the college stopped publishing a suggested fee guide, used as a benchmark for fees in every other province, because of criticism that the listing was actually working as a schedule of floor prices that discouraged competition among practitioners.

Dental fees have since risen at twice the rate of general inflation in Alberta. The fees rose 93 per cent from 1997 to 2013, compared to a 64 per cent hike countrywide over that same period, according to Statistics Canada.

“This is something I plan to discuss with my ministry leadership in the coming months, but any solution we consider will also involve the Alberta Dental Association and College,” Hoffman said.

The Alberta dental association says the minister has yet to contact them.

“We haven’t received any official statement from the minister so we can’t respond to that,” said spokesperson Elsie Rose.

A typical annual checkup for adults, which includes a recall examination, X- rays, scaling and polishing, costs $ 357.43 on average, according to data for 2015 collected by Alberta Blue Cross, the province’s largest health and dental benefit provider.

By contrast, fee guides in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia set costs of $ 212.30, $ 192 and $ 164.90, respectively, for the same services this year.

“Some of our plan members, especially if they live along the borders, they’ll go into B. C. or Saskatchewan,” said Sharmin Hislop of Alberta Blue Cross. “And we have quite a few who actually travel to Mexico and we do pay those claims, too.”

Richard Plain, an Edmontonbased health economist and a former board member of the Consumers’ Association of Canada’s provincial wing, said a provincial review of the current system is a welcomed step.

“For whatever reason, it seems like competition in the regional, interprovincial sense, hasn’t worked to lower or keep Alberta dental prices in a relatively good standing compared to other provinces,” Plain said.

He said it might be a good idea to revisit the possibility of a fee guide in Alberta.

“The provincial government maybe needs to have a discussion with the competition branch,” said Plain.

“( Maybe) the guidelines performed a useful, social purpose and helped to keep prices down and make the service more affordable.”

But if the province prefers to keep the industry more competitive, Plain said it would benefit consumers if dental clinics publicly advertised their prices.

Without a fee guide, the cost of dental work varies across the province, as each practice can set their own prices. Hislop said many clinics will not list their costs publicly or disclose them over the phone, which makes the process difficult for customers.

“We’d welcome anything that would control the cost,” she said. “It’s huge between dentists. With claims coming in, we see it. It’s a fact that they vary quite a bit. Within one town you could have six dentists with different rates.”