Supplemental Dental Insurance

Supplemental dental insurance is for people who have inadequate dental cover. This cover is ideal for people who work in small businesses as more often than not small business owners cannot afford to give their employees even basic dental insurance coverage.  A lot of medium to large companies today are not offering full dental insurance to their employees and many employee dental plans cover just expensive procedures.  Some company sponsored dental insurance programs even leave out simple dental procedures such as cleaning and x-rays.

Supplemental dental insurance can really be beneficial since the costs of dental procedures can get very expensive.  This type of plan is usually inexpensive. Another attractive feature of supplemental dental insurance is that individuals can customize the kinds of dental services and procedures they want included in their coverage. 

There are several types of reimbursement plans available.  One such program requires members to pay a certain percentage of their total dental bill.  Another reimbursement program requires plan holders to make a co-payment, while other schemes require plan holders to pay their dental expenses first and then have their bills reimbursed later.

One type of supplemental dental insurance plan is the dental discount plan. With the dental discount plan, insurers are able to negotiate for better prices with dentists by leveraging their large member base. This type of plan is not technically an insurance plan since it will not pay for all your dental bills but will just reduce your expenses.  However the cost savings one can get from a dental discount plan is huge and the investment minimal.

Another type of supplemental dental insurance plan is the preferred provider network plan. With this type of plan the insurer has a list of dentists from which members can choose.  If you elect to have a dentist that is not included in their list, you will be charged a higher fee.  Members can also switch dentists as often as they wish. A variation of this plan is the exclusive provider organization wherein members can only choose from a list of participating dentists. 

There are also student supplemental dental insurance plans, which are normally offered by schools. Universities try to fill in the dental coverage gaps of students who normally lose their insurance coverage from their parent’s plans when they turn 18.  Annual rates for these types of plans can often be added to tuition fees.

Some employers offer their staff optional supplemental dental insurance.  Employees can choose to opt in or out if they wish and are not forced to participate.

Times are changing and many employees nowadays do not get full dental coverage.  Today, employee turnover is high and some companies do not feel the need to provide a full dental insurance plan.  There are also many people now who prefer part-time or freelance work.  Supplemental dental insurance provides underinsured or uninsured people a chance to have access to dental services at greatly reduced costs.

Security Life, Humana One, Symetra Financial, and Covington Care are examples of companies that offer individual supplemental dental insurance plans, while companies such as MetLife and Delta Dental Insurance specialize in group dental health plans.