Dental Plans

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Group or voluntary dental coverage is as important as medical coverage to employees. With carriers such as Delta, Met Life, and Aetna, there are many plan options from which to choose. Hanratty & Associates consultants are available to help guide you in making a smart choice for your benefits plan.

Providing a dental plan to employees helps them maintain ongoing, preventative oral health. With regular dental visits plan participants are likely to prevent cavities and gum disease-one major element to all types of dental plans-which helps to keep the cost of dental insurance low as compared to medical insurance coverage.

The basic dental plan types include indemnity plans, DHMOs, PPOs, and direct reimbursement plans.

Indemnity plans pay the dental office or dentist on a traditional fee-for-service basis. A monthly premium is paid to the insurance company, which reimburses the dentist. The carrier usually pays a larger percentage of the fee as compared to what the participant pays.

A Dental Health Maintenance Organization (DHMO) is similar to a medical HMO. The dentist or dental office receives a fixed monthly fee based on the number of participants assigned to the office. Client co-payments may be required with each visit.

Another type of dental plan is the Preferred Provider Organization (PPO). Under this plan, a group receives dental care from a network of dentists, who agree to provide services at a discounted rate to the participants in this group as long as they stay within the network.

The direct reimbursement plan is a self-funded benefit plan in which the employer pays for dental care with its own funds rather than paying premiums to the insurance carrier.