Nsurance Info
Advantages of Offering a Dental Benefits Plan to Employees (Part 1 of 3)
A Dental insurance or dental benefit plan
is viewed upon as a much sought after employee benefit. So
financially it makes sense to have a dental benefit plan
in place to recruit and retain employees. Moreover, dental
health is a very important part of overall employee health
and man days lost due to dental problems or dental
discomfort of an employee equates to financial loss for
the employer.
Unlike most medical conditions, dental
maladies and treatments are low risk, predictable and low
cost. These factors contribute to offering dental
insurance to employees a good option financially. Dental
diseases are preventable by maintenance and often involve
only maintenance costs like x-rays and examinations.
Treatment is rendered cheap due to
diagnosis in early stages of the disease. Keeping these
financial factors in mind, dental insurance options can
also be self funded. History does not show any extremes in
costs or utilization of this form of employee benefit.
Selecting the right
Dental Insurance Plan
Selecting the right dental plan involves a
lot of factors which have to be considered with due care.
Dental insurance plans are basically
agreements between the employer and the insurance company.
Most plans offered by dental insurance companies allow for
part reimbursement of dental treatment expenses. Many
plans also discourage certain kind of treatments or allow
access to certain of dentists.
To consider these points one has to go
through the plan very carefully with a toothcomb. For
example choosing a dentist is not same as choosing a
dentist from “the list”, or if the plan does not cover one
kind of treatment, it is wrong to infer that your regular
dentist is incompetent.
Many plans do not cover pre existing
conditions. Some may not cover implants and so on. Due to
these preconditions, the final treatment may be paid for
in part only or in insurance parlance you might be
reimbursed for LEAT (Lease Expensive Alternative
Treatment). Dental insurance plans vary in fixing the UCR
(usual, customary, and reasonable) in a certain
geographical area.
UCR may vary from plan to plan and company
to company despite operating in the same area. Therefore
fixation of this UCR level would define the liability of
the patient. In some plans the patient may have to pay
more and in some he may have to pay less depends upon the
plan the employer has offered. ……..(Go To
Part 2)
