Supplemental Dental Insurance – The Concept
Supplemental dental insurance is a concept not many are aware of. The assumption is that if you are employed, dental care and treatment is part of your medical coverage. This is only partially true.
Most health insurance plans only cover preventive care such as annual cleaning or prophylactics, and maybe x-rays. If you have major dental condition, or one that is building up, and you need diagnostic tests done, your health insurance probably does not cover these.
This is why supplemental dental insurance is a must have expense in your budget. The costs of dental treatment without insurance can be staggering. The reason why dental insurance coverage in a health plan is only minimal is because the assumption is dental problems are preventable with proper dental hygiene.
Thus, supplemental dental insurance can cover the costs of crowns and bridges, endodontics which is a disease related to the root of the teeth or something to do with the dental pulp, and periodontics, which is a condition wherein your gums are not healthy and causing you pain or prone to infection.
A good supplemental dental insurance plan will be relatively cheap, and you can find an insurance company that offers this policy quite easily. Some insurance companies allow group plans for a supplemental dental insurance. This means if you can convince your company to arrange for something like this, you can just be charged out of your pay every month.
You could also negotiate with the insurance carrier for a supplemental dental insurance wherein you get to choose your dentist. This plan is termed “open panel.” Your other option, and this is the more common feature in a supplemental dental insurance plan, is a “closed panel.” In this case, you will be required to choose a dentist from a pre-selected list.
There are two kinds of closed panel supplemental dental insurance plans. The first closed panel is termed the Preferred Provider Organization (PPO). Here if you choose a dentist from your plan’s list, you get to pay a lower premium.
In the second closed panel type, which is termed Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO), you are restricted in your choice and can only get a dentist from a list supplied by the participating dentist. In this case, the dentist you select will give you a list of providers, and your choice is limited to this alone.
There is consideration given though if you find yourself in an emergency situation and you are far from your provider. However, for the supplemental dental insurance to be considered in this scenario, you must get approval first from the insurance carrier. This is because insurance companies to do generally allow this.
There is also a slight difference in payment schemes with the supplemental dental insurance plans. This is because there are some policies that require you to pay the dentist a percentage of his fee up front. If this kind of scheme is not one you are interested in, there is another way of handling payments. You can pay your dentist after treatment, and then claim for insurance after.
Regardless of the payment schemes, supplemental dental insurance is a good investment in your health care package.
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