Group Dental Insurance Plans

By offering group dental insurance, you can lower the dental expenses for your employees while allowing them to enjoy the benefits as regular dental cleanings and checkups. Here are the three main types of group dental plans:

• Preferred Provider (PPO) – A dental PPO works the same way that it does for medical insurance. Basically, you choose from a group of dentists that are part of a network of providers. As long as you get your dental care through a member of that network, you enjoy the maximum benefit and coverage provided by the insurance. With a PPO, you can also opt to go to a dentist that is not in the network, but you will have to pay a higher portion of the cost.
• Dental HMO – HMO, stands for health maintenance organization. With an HMO, you need to pick a primary dentist in the network in order to receive any dental coverage. HMOs can sometimes be a good way offset the costs of more expensive procedures since in-network services are generally most cost-effective.
• Indemnity Plans – Indemnity plans, sometimes called fee-for-service plans, are a good option if you want to stay with a particular dentist who is not part of a network. Indemnity plans will sometimes use a reimbursement process by which the patient pays the total cost out of pocket and later gets a percentage paid back to them by the dental insurance. Indemnity plans are often more expensive.