WAC 182-535-1400. Payment for dental-related services

(1) The agency considers that a provider who furnishes covered dental services to an eligible client has accepted the agency's rules and fees. (2) Participating providers must bill the agency their usual and customary fees. (3) Payment for dental services is based on the agency's schedule of maximum allowances. Fees listed in the agency's fee schedule are the maximum allowable fees. (4) The agency pays the provider the lesser of the billed charge (usual and customary fee) or the agency's maximum allowable fee. (5) The agency pays dental general anesthesia services for eligible clients as follows: (a) Fifteen-minute increments are billed as one unit of time. When a dental procedure requires multiple fifteen-minute units and there is a remainder (less than fifteen minutes), the remainder is considered one unit. (b) When billing for anesthesia, the provider must show the actual beginning and ending times in the client's medical record. Anesthesia time begins when the provider starts to physically prepare the client for the induction of anesthesia in the operating room area (or its equivalent), and ends when the provider is no longer in constant attendance (i.e., when the client can be safely placed under postoperative supervision). (6) The agency pays "by report" on a case-by-case basis, for a covered service that does not have a set fee. (7) Participating providers must bill a client according to WAC 182-502-0160 , unless otherwise specified in this chapter. (8) If the client's eligibility for dental services ends before the conclusion of the dental treatment, payment for any remaining treatment is the client's responsibility. The exceptions to this are complete dentures and resin partial dentures as described in WAC 182-535-1090 .