In my current environment there's the opaque and not really shared dental "fee guide" by the regulatory body, the actual fees each dentist charges, and then the % of the guide that the insurance pays, so if the insurance company keeps pressure on the governing body they don't really care what any dentist actually charges you.

> I'm not sure why insurance companies aren't better at reining in these kind of abuses.

I think they are working on it. My dentist has cameras shaped roughly like a toothbrush. Before and after performing work, they record images of the affected area. He says insurance likes them to thoroughly document their work to help justify the cost.

Seems to me like capitalism is pretty good at incentivising this stuff.