Pharmacists association warns of fraudulent ‘dental insurance’ cards

AMMAN — Treasury Secretary of the Jordan Pharmacists Association (JAP) Zaid Kilani said that the “dental insurance” cards issued by some insurance companies violate the association’s law and are not licensed by any legitimate authority.

In remarks to The Jordan Times, Kilani stressed that these cards, which offer dental care services at “insanely reduced prices”, have been denied licensing by both the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, and the JPA.

“This scam does not only affect dentists' work, but also the work of legitimate insurance companies. The pseudo-companies that sell these cards and delude citizens that they are legitimate insurance companies are the only beneficiaries from this,” said Kilani.

He added: “If the dentist is in on the scam, he will also reduce the quality of treatment and products to match the discounted rate. However, most pharmacists were tricked by these companies as well by being promised an amount of money in exchange for discounted rates and then they were scammed.”

Approximately 150 dentists have dealt with these companies so far, and most of them have confirmed the end of their relationship with them, he said.

The JPA stressed that “serious legal action will be taken against dentists that have not ceased to engage with these companies”.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, awareness text messages will be sent to citizens based on the regions where the discount cards are most popular. 

Kilani pointed out that these companies copy the brochures of any legitimate insurance company and replace the original dentist names with the names of the dentists that it made discount deals with.

“Most of these companies list the names of dentists without obtaining their approval, and this matter places the dentist in an awkward position in front of the association and the law,” said Kilani.

He noted that the association took a decision to transfer all involved dentists to an investigation council where their relationship with these companies would be figured out.

Kilani stressed that the association will be “firm in applying its laws to any dentists who lied about their relationship with these companies”.

The association provides dentists with treatments’ lowest and highest price limits, prohibiting its members from violating these limits.

The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply and the JPA stressed the need to purchase medical insurance documents from licensed insurance companies or licensed support insurance service providers a few weeks ago.