The most common voluntary (employee paid) dental plan currently offered by employers is an indemnity or reimbursement type of plan, popular because employees can go to any dentist and receive cash benefits, paid directly to the employee or to their dentist if the dental office bills the insurance company.  For a low monthly premium these plans do help pay for dental visits, but you can do so much better.  The down side of a go-to-any-dentist plan is that you are paying retail prices for your dental services and since the majority of dentists in America now participate in one or several dental networks it is very likely that the dentist you visit is also making his services available at a substantial discount.  For an example, let's consider an individual who has two routine dentist visits per year.  The usual, customary and reasonable (UCR), or average, dentist charges for a checkup (2/yr) are around $57, $101 for a cleaning (2/yr), and $141 for full mouth x-rays (1/yr), so the average retail charges for a year of routine dental services are $450.  A typical go-to-any-dentist plan costs around $12.50/month ($150/year) and reimburses $75 for each cleaning and $25 for x-rays, giving a $175 benefit.  Your net cost for the year is $425, you saved $25 and had a good budgeting tool.

Now let's look at what you could be paying if your dentist participates in a dental network.  If your dentist is in the Aetna network you can buy an Aetna Dental Access plan for $105/year, your out of pocket costs for your visits will be $224 for a total cost of $329, so your annual savings will be $121.  Is your dentist in the Cigna network?  Buy the Cigna Preferred Network Access plan for $105/year and your out of pocket will only be $183, a total cost for the year of $288, or a savings of $162.  If your dentist is in the Humana Dental network you could buy a preventive plus plan for $14/month and your visits would be covered in full, a total cost of $168/year or a savings of $282.

Remember the golden rule of American consumerism, never pay retail.

By Ronald Haines, ronald@hcibenefits.com