Dental: Lots of Benefits for Little Money

While nearly all large employers (500+ employees) offer dental benefits, only 45 percent of employers overall offer this valuable coverage. If you don’t offer dental coverage, here are some reasons to consider it.

Every employer wants a healthy, stable workforce. To reach that goal, you may want to look beyond medical insurance to dental coverage. As it turns out, good dentistry is good medicine.

Dental coverage costs no more than 10 percent of the cost of medical coverage, and annual increases are much smaller — usually falling in the single digits. Even nicer, employees who have access to dental coverage tend to use it. Yet only 45 percent of large and small employers offer dental coverage.

A study by Aetna Insurance Co. and Columbia University College of Dental Medicine found that people who received regular periodontal (gum) care had fewer problems with diabetes, strokes and coronary artery disease.

If you need more reasons to consider offering some form of dental coverage, evidence clearly shows that oral cancer, bulimia and other conditions, such as lung disease and low birth weight, are linked to oral health and are often first detected at the dental office. And the American Dental Association says more than 90 percent of medical illnesses, including cancer and HIV, show in the mouth. That means regular dental visits can lead to an earlier diagnosis of disease and perhaps a decrease in treatment costs. For these reasons, employers should be as concerned with their employees’ dental health as with their medical health.

Coverage options

Employers can cover dental benefits in one of four ways:

• Dental indemnity (insurance) plans transfer financial risk from the employer to a third-party insurer. The employer pays a specified premium and the insurer reimburses dental providers on a fee-for-service basis. Dental insurance requires regular premium payments and carries annual spending caps. Generally, it covers 100 percent of the cost of preventive services after a deductible is met. HMO and PPO versions are available.
• Direct reimbursement plans are self-funded plans in which the employer pays for dental care. The employee pays up front and then presents the receipt for reimbursement. This form of benefit is usually capped at $500-$1,500 annually. Employers can administer these plans in-house or hire a third-party administrator to handle paperwork.
• Voluntary group plans allow an employer to arrange group rates for employees. Those employees who want coverage pay the full cost, usually through payroll deduction. With the addition of a premium conversion cafeteria plan, employees can enjoy a 25-40 percent tax savings on their contributions toward the premium.
• Discount dental plans offer discounted services from a group of dentists who have agreed to provide discounts. The patient pays the dentist's bill. These programs are not insurance plans.

The coverage

Dental plans usually cover seven areas of care, although they may not all be covered during the early months of the policy and some may be offered as riders. They are:

• Preventive care, including cleaning and routine office visits
• Restorative care, including fillings and crowns
• Root canals
• Oral surgery, including tooth removal
• Orthodontics, including retainers and braces
• Periodontics, or care of gums and surrounding tissues, including scaling and care for serious infections
• Prosthodonics, or dentures and bridges

A popular benefit

A study by Delta Dental underwriters indicated that employees with dental benefits that cover preventive care use more diagnostic and preventive services than people who are uninsured for those services.

That does more than help to stave off medical ailments; it is good news for dental costs too. In a study involving millions of Californians, Delta found that claims for fillings, oral surgery, crown and cast procedures, and partial or full dentures dropped when people took advantage of preventive care coverage.

A growing interest

Benefits that cover the cost of orthodontic work are becoming more popular as the emphasis on appearance grows. Employees perceive orthodontic coverage to have high value, even though a very low percentage of workers actually use it.

Traditionally, orthodontic coverage has excluded adults, but that began changing in the mid 1990s as demand for adult orthodontia began to grow. Adult interest took another leap with the introduction in 1999 of the Invisalign. Because Invisalign’s clear plastic snap-in retainers are more expensive than conventional tooth straightening hardware, insurers began raising coverage caps. Still, orthodontic coverage increases the price of dental benefits by only about 8 percent.

For more information on your options for covering dental care, please contact us.

Emergency Contact Info

Ask your employees every quarter to update a listing of cell phone, personal E-mail and emergency contact information.

In the event of an emergency, Human Resources will know who to contact if something happens to an employee at work.

Be prepared before an emergency happens!