Dental coverage is a valued employee benefit.  In fact, according to MetLife research, one out of every two employees rates dental coverage as an important employee benefit.  However, many small employers find it difficult to provide employees with a dental benefit plan because medical costs are consuming so many dollars.  With that in mind, Alan Vogel, DMD and vice president, MetLife Dental Product Management, suggests that small business employers consider one of several different benefits strategies to help make dental coverage available to their employees. These include consumer-driven plans, voluntary plans, and a dual benefit offering.

Dr. Vogel points to MetLife’s newly introduced Voluntary Dental Benefit Plans for small businesses (those between 10 and 500 employees) as one cost-effective way that employers can expand the breadth of their employee benefits offerings in an effort to attract and retain talented employees.  “Because the MetLife Voluntary Dental Benefit Plans are designed to be predominately or fully funded by employees, they provide important access to oral health care services without negatively impacting an employer’s benefit budget,” says Dr. Vogel.

Highlights of the MetLife Voluntary Dental Benefit Plans include:

• Employee freedom to choose any dentist in or out-of-network. All plans have access to MetLife’s Preferred Dentist Program, a national network of more than 80,000 participating dentist locations (“participating PDP dentists”).

• Negotiated fees accepted by participating PDP dentists that range from 10% to 35% below community average charges.  These negotiated fees apply to covered and non-covered services under any plan, even when the annual maximum is exceeded.

• Flexible plan designs that maximize employee choice and value.

• Materials and educational tools to make enrollment and employee communications easier.  Customized enrollment forms are available for businesses with 10 to 500 employees.

Both employers and employees can take advantage of MetLife’s Web-based benefits portals for administering and managing benefit eligibility and other benefit information.  Through MetLink®, MetLife's Web-based benefits administration tool, employers can easily access employee benefits, eligibility, billing, claims information and reporting for MetLife coverages. MyBenefits, an award-winning benefits portal for employees, is also available. Through MyBenefits, employees can get answers to their most common questions for all their MetLife benefits, learn about their plans and coverage specifics, and check on the status of a claim.  Employees can also locate a participating PDP dentist and elect to receive e-mail alerts for pretreatment estimates and processed claims.

MetLife’s use of integrated technology can help facilitate the dentist/patient relationship since it provides dental offices access to patients’ eligibility, benefits and claim status information in real time. This enables dental providers to discuss pretreatment estimates and payment arrangements during the patient’s appointment, reduces costs for the dentist and improves patient scheduling.

Another benefits strategy that is attracting attention is consumer-driven dental benefits.  By using the consumer driven health approach (CDH) in dental benefits, employers can help maximize employees’ flexibility for obtaining needed oral health services while controlling their own dental benefit costs. With the CDH approach, employees add their own dollars to the employer’s contribution, so employees at greater risk for dental disease can fund their unique needs for dental services. For example, certain patients at greater risk for dental disease may fund for additional exams/cleanings in a year.
 
Dr. Vogel emphasizes that patient education is a critical component to a successful CDH benefits strategy.  “In order for individuals to understand their risk factors for dental disease and appropriate treatment approaches, education needs to be made readily available.  MetLife, through its Dental Advisory Council, has made educating all involved parties a long-standing approach to dental benefits,” says Dr. Vogel.

Another benefits option that small businesses may want to consider to keep their costs low is a dual-benefit offering. This allows the employer to offer employees the choice of two dental benefit plans with a buy-up option for the more expensive plan.   This provides different priced dental plans and options for employees, with a single point of administration for billing and eligibility. 

“MetLife continually seeks opportunities to provide customers with solutions that meet their needs.  There are easy and convenient ways for employers to provide their employees with valued dental benefits," says Dr. Vogel.

To learn more about cost-effective dental benefits strategies, download MetLife’s free report The Role of Consumer-Driven Models in Dental at whymetlife.com/dental.