Every visit to the dentist is noted in the bonus booklet. This ensures that patients receive subsidies from their health insurance company.
Learn more here,
Every visit to the dentist is noted in the bonus booklet. This ensures that patients receive subsidies from their health insurance company.
Learn more here,
Every visit to the dentist is noted in the bonus booklet. This ensures that patients receive subsidies from their health insurance company.
Learn more here,
Hardly any visit to the dentist without a bonus booklet
The small brown booklet is in many wallets in this country; once a year it is drawn at the dentist, then there is another stamp and the pages fill up bit by bit. Many people think so of the bonus booklet. But what exactly is the booklet for? What benefits can insured persons receive with it? And what happens if it is lost?
Don’t forget your dentist bonus booklet
The bonus booklet for dental health examinations serves members of the statutory health insurance (GKV) as proof that they have regularly visited a dentist for dental care. Strictly speaking, it is the stamps in the booklet that certify regular visits to the dentist. Anyone who ever needs a dental prosthesis and has regularly kept his bonus booklet over a longer period of time increases the health insurance subsidy. The attending physician notes any bonus claims of the patient in the treatment and cost plan, which is sent afterwards to the responsible health insurance company. The latter then increases its fixed subsidy. This reduces the patient’s own contribution.
Further bonus programs
The bonus booklet for dental health examinations is the best-known bonus programme of the statutory health insurance funds. But it is not the only one. Health insurance companies offer additional bonus programs to promote a healthy lifestyle. The individual services of the health insurance companies also differ in this point…
The bonus booklet does not only help insured persons to save costs. The actual purpose is to maintain the health of the teeth in the best possible way through regular dental check-ups. And in addition to daily dental care, a visit to the dentist is also part of this. This is good for the patient. But also for the health insurance company, which can keep the costs for dental prosthesis services low in this way. For this reason, most insured persons receive the bonus booklet from their dentist as a child. Those who do not yet have the booklet, but would like to participate in the bonus programme, can obtain it on request from their dentist.
How is the bonus booklet managed correctly?
Adults must go to a dental check-up at least once a year. They then have this date entered in their bonus booklet. Important: date, signature and stamp of the dentist. For children from 6 years and adolescents up to 18 years, two appointments per year are mandatory. This is because children and adolescents need a special preventive programme that provides for various individual prophylactic measures (IP programme). These dates are also entered in the bonus booklet. There is no special bonus booklet for children; they receive the same as adults.
Benefits of the bonus program
With the bonus booklet, subsidies for dental prostheses can be claimed. A sick tooth can be replaced by bridges, prostheses or a crown. The statutory health insurances only pay for this service with the standard subsidy of 50 percent. This means that the patient shares the costs for the dental prosthesis with the health insurance company; both pay exactly half.
In order for the health insurance companies to subsidise the dental prosthesis with a bonus, it is necessary that the preventive examinations have taken place regularly over a longer period of time and have been recorded in the booklet. The health insurance funds grant a bonus on the regular subsidy of 20 percent for a bonus booklet that is kept without gaps for five years. Anyone who has attended dental care for at least 10 years at a time even receives a bonus of 30 percent. However, the percentage value refers only to the standard benefit and not to the total costs. A small calculation example illustrates the bonus payment.
An example of bonus payments
No bonus for tooth cleaning
The bonus booklet is only kept for supplementary subsidies for dental prostheses. Professional dental cleaning cannot be subsidised by the insured. In this case, supplementary dental insurance may be useful.
The patient needs a crown for a sick tooth. The treatment costs 300 Euro. The regular subsidy from the health insurance amounts to 150 Euro. If the patient has a five-year bonus booklet, the health insurance increases its contribution by 20 percent, based on the standard benefit of 150 euros in this case. This means that it grants a bonus of 30 euros (20 percent of 150 euros). The health insurance company thus pays 180 euros, while the patient only pays 120 euros. If the patient has kept his bonus booklet for ten years or longer, he receives a 30 percent bonus instead. In the situation described, the health insurance company then pays 45 euros (30 percent of 150 euros). The patient then pays only 105 euros for the treatment.
co-payment for the universal service
The statutory health insurance funds only pay these bonus payments for dental prostheses for basic care. This means that even for more aesthetically pleasing dental prostheses such as implants, only the fixed subsidy for standard care is paid. However, since these treatments are also much more expensive, the patient has to pay a comparatively high contribution. Because the health insurance company only covers its share to the extent that it would do so for the cheapest solution, i.e. for a simple crown, for example.
Forgot your stamp? Have dates added
Insured persons should always pay attention to their bonus booklet. Then they avoid problems with their insurance. For example, it may happen that you have gone to dental care, but have forgotten to have your visit acknowledged in the bonus booklet. This is not a major problem. Insured persons can have the stamp added by their dentist. This is because the dentist usually stores the patient’s visits in his documents.
Even if someone has lost their bonus booklet, this is unattractive, but usually does not lead to the increased entitlement to benefits expiring. If you lose your bonus booklet, your dentist can hand you a new one and have your appointments added together. For this service however a small fee can result.
If the patient wasn’t in precaution.
Another case, on the other hand, is when the insured person did not even attend the annual dental check-up. In this case, the insured person is no longer entitled to additional dental prosthesis benefits. The counting starts anew. For example, anyone who has collected stamps for the bonus booklet for four years and does not go to dental care in the fifth year must start the five years anew.
Reduce costs with the bonus booklet
Anyone who regularly goes to dental health treatment and has this confirmed in the bonus booklet can save costs in the case of a dental prosthesis. The health insurance company increases its fixed subsidy. But this only applies to basic care. The health insurance companies only cover a small part, if at all, of more complex and high-quality repairs to the dentures or professional tooth cleaning. Who would like to provide for these cases, can lock a private tooth addition insurance.