- The DSHS program is WA’s taxpayer’s welfare program for dental care.
- The WA State Basic Health program is basically the same program.
- The DSHS program generally pays 50% or less than the regular cost of care.
- To see many DSHS patients, we’d have to raise our fees significantly to cover poor payments provided by DSHS, which isn’t fair to our regular patients.
- We will continue to provide care for patients in good standing who become eligible for these programs.
- BEWARE, the DSHS program has some significant limitations :
- No orthodontics or braces
- No Crowns
- Limited cleanings
- No posterior root canals for adults
- It’s very difficult to find specialists to treat DSHS patients. This means specialist’s care for things like oral surgery, gum specialists, pedodontics (children’s care), and endodontists (root canals) is difficult or impossible to locate.
- You just have to love these government health care programs… Hopefully they never get around to imposing something like it on everyone.
Bottomline, it’s clinic policy to not accept new DSHS or Basic Health Plan patients.