Smile Shoppe offers dental memberships amid rising costs

Dr. Jeff Rhodes, founder of Smile Shoppe Pediatric Dentistry, recently established membership plan Little Heroes Loyalty Plan as an alternative to traditional dental insurance and to address a coverage gap. Nearly one-third of the state’s adults lack dental coverage, and there’s also been a recent increase in the number of uninsured children in Arkansas.

The membership plan is available at all four Smile Shoppe locations in Northwest Arkansas and offers preventive services, discounted treatment options and flexible membership pricing.

Rhodes said traditional insurance has helped many families, but it is structurally difficult as costs continue to rise. Insurance providers have not increased reimbursement in more than 50 years, and it has been $1,000 to $1,500 per person annually since then.

He said many of his colleagues have started dropping insurance because they cannot keep their businesses open, as reimbursement rates have not kept pace with inflation. Also, many families don’t have dental insurance, he said. In Arkansas, 30% of the state’s adults lack dental coverage. There’s also been a recent spike in the number of uninsured children in Arkansas.

“There are people who had Medicaid in the past who no longer qualify for Medicaid,” he said. “There’s an access to care issue for families, and we decided we could come up with a membership plan that would allow families to have known costs for dental care and get the preventive services that they need that are the most important thing.

“If there are issues that need to be dealt with, we’re giving a discount on our normal fees to those families to help them provide that care for their children,” he added. “The cool thing that that does is that takes insurance rules out of the driver’s seat of what’s allowable, what’s not allowable, and puts it in the parent’s hands so they can choose what they feel is best for their child. And I think it creates an opportunity to build a relationship with a family and to provide them with really great preventative care.”

Rhodes said he’s excited to offer the membership plan because it addresses a coverage gap.

“When I look at statistics, about 10% of kids in Northwest Arkansas are not covered by dental insurance or plans,” he said. “There are families out there that need some sort of stability in the costs that they can budget. And so that’s what our plan does.”

He said some families don’t want insurance and pay out of pocket. The membership plan helps these families, too, he said.

COVID-19 IMPACT
Rhodes said during the COVID-19 pandemic, children on Medicaid remained on Medicaid regardless of whether household incomes increased. He noted that Medicaid also offers low reimbursements. However, “most dentists working with children realize that there are kids that need help, and so we help the kids.”

After COVID, policies reverted to pre-COVID times, when household earnings determined whether a family qualified for Medicaid, and could result in a lack of coverage if a household’s earnings exceeded the income threshold.

“They kind of get caught in the gap,” he said. “They make too much to get social assistance, but they don’t make enough to afford lots of fancy things for the kids. So a lot of these kids kind of go without. That’s kind of really where we’ve tried to strategize, ‘Is there an opportunity to do something for these families that are kind of in between?’”

The membership plan resulted from this.

RISING COSTS
Rhodes said he provides health and dental insurance for his employees, and it’s become very expensive to offer this.

“There are probably a lot of smaller companies that just can no longer afford the economics of that,” he said. “And so there may be kind of pressure from both the lower end of the socioeconomic scale and in the upper end as well. Just medical and dental insurance have gotten really expensive.”

Dental insurance differs from medical insurance, which has a deductible and coverage for healthcare needs. Dental insurance has an annual cap that hasn’t changed in 50 years.

“It provides much less care than it did 50 years ago,” he said. Initially, traditional insurance “did open the doors” for families. “But the fact of the matter is there’s economics to it. Large companies are the ones that are purchasing the dental services, and companies like Delta (Dental) and Blue Cross Blue Shield and others are providing those services. And it’s a negotiated thing, and dentists, most of us are small mom-and-pop businesses. We happen to have four practices. Most dentists are solo practitioners.”

He said there are large, multilocation dental service organizations with attorneys who negotiate and “push back, but most of us are just mom and pop … healthcare providers trying to figure out how to keep the practices open and profitable.”

PLAN DETAILS
The Little Heroes Loyalty Plan is available for new and existing patients from infants to 21-year-olds. Smile Shoppe also serves adults with special needs. Patients cannot have dental insurance to participate in the plan.

If patients are happy with their dental insurance, they should maintain it, Rhodes said. “If they’re not happy, they need to consider something like a membership plan. There’s not a cap as to the amount of services … And we just work with kids.”

The membership plan includes two cleanings, two doctor exams, routine X-rays and one emergency exam annually. All this is covered at no additional out-of-pocket cost as long as membership remains active.
He said the plan might be helpful to those who need many services and pay out of pocket beyond a certain limit. Members receive a 20% discount on services such as fillings, sealants, crowns, fluoride treatments, whitening and night guards.

The plan includes a $137 annual sign-up fee, and the annual cost for one person would be $581. If two or more people sign up on the same day, the fee is $97 per person, and the monthly membership fee is $27 per person for families enrolling multiple people. Membership for two people who sign up on the same day would be $842 annually.

ARKANSAS ROOTS
Rhodes was born and raised in Dallas, but his family has roots in Arkansas. His father graduated from the University of Arkansas. His parents moved to Dallas shortly before he was born, but they often visited the area to see family or vacation. He’s lived in Northwest Arkansas since 1990.

He earned a doctor of dental surgery from Baylor College of Dentistry, now Texas A&M University College of Dentistry, and completed pediatric dentistry residency at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American College of Dentists.

“I’ve been practicing in Northwest Arkansas for 36 years,” he said. “When I was in my residency and my specialty training, I practiced in Dallas part time for the guy who was my dentist, who inspired me. Before that, I was a dental assistant in high school, so I’ve been doing dental things for well over 40 years.”

He started Smile Shoppe in 1990 after purchasing the Springdale practice of a dentist who was selling it to become a missionary in Africa. Rhodes built a larger location in Rogers in 2005. Smile Shoppe also has offices in Bentonville and Fayetteville. Across its four locations, Smile Shoppe has seven dentists and a total of 48 staff.

Rhodes is also the founder of BreatheWell Dental Studio and the NWA Tongue Tie Center. The previous focuses on children struggling with swallowing, breathing and sleeping, and the behavioral changes related to these issues. The latter works with infants struggling with nursing.

The recent expansion of his practice into these areas is “enough expansion for me for now,” he said. “I did have dreams of 10 practices. When COVID hit, I decided, you know what, four really happy places to work would be a good deal. So I’m very, very thankful for what we have.”