‘Sterilization Surcharge’ Fee

Monday, December 18, 2006

A recent trend among dental practices has been to add a fee of $5 to $12 for sterilizing their equipment, often called an “OSHA sterilization fee” or “Sterilization Surcharge.

Consumers should be able to assume that a few minimum services are included with the regular advertised price. If you have a bank account, the bank is expected to lock the vault every day, and not roll out a separate “vault security fee.” If you take the bus, you shouldn’t have to worry about the driver charging a “keeping my hands on the wheel” fee in order to arrive safely; these things are supposed to come with the price of admission. And, at least since the early 20th century, sterile equipment has been industry standard for dentists.

This charge belongs in the regular advertised price, since it’s part of the cost of doing business.

Dental bills often are a Byzantine mess of covered and non-covered charges. But this fee usually hits consumers where it hurts—in the co-payment. This is because it is added as an item separate from the standard charges. Some insurance providers have cracked down on the capricious fee, forbidding member dentists from passing overhead expenses to consumers.

Other dental plans allow dentists to sneak the fee through as “not a covered benefit,” and inflate the patient’s out-of-pocket cost.

Naturally, this hidden fee sticks in the craw of unsuspecting consumers. Could this be part of an ingenious plan to generate future “Craw Extraction” fees?

What is your Fee of the Week? E-mail us at the Hotline.