Editorial policy

What counts as a source

Fees come from the dental fee schedules published by state Medicaid programs, read in the official file and recorded with its address and effective date. The ratios that turn a Medicaid fee into a typical charge come from the American Dental Association Health Policy Institute's public workbook. Price changes come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, plan rules from the documents of a public exchange, credit rates from the Federal Reserve and credit rules from Regulation Z. Clinic, lender and insurer articles are read to know what people ask, never as a source of a number.

How a price reaches a page

No price is typed into the text. A script reads each schedule and writes the fees by code; the pages compute every figure from those files when the site is built. A procedure whose codes are not all in a state's schedule is not priced there. Commercial fee databases sold under license are not used or copied.

Health pages

The site describes prices and how plans pay, never which treatment a person needs. It does not compare the medical merits of an implant, a bridge or a denture, and it says so on the pages where the question arises. Anything about your mouth is a question for a dentist.

What is to come is labeled

A fee schedule announced but not yet in force, or a plan change for next year, is shown as to come, with its date, never as the current rule. A figure we cannot trace to an official or public document is not published.

Independence

Radif Partners receives nothing from dentists, dental chains, insurers, discount plans, lenders or lead buyers and links to none of them. There is no advertising today; if some is added it will be labeled, limited to three places a page, and never placed above a calculator.

Review and corrections

The site is reviewed at least every 12 months, and when a state publishes a new schedule, the ADA publishes new ratios or the price index moves. A reported error is checked against the source and, once fixed, moves the date shown on the page. Write through the contact page; the steps are on the method page.