What is better for your family, a dental plan, or dental insurance? Both are potential options that will help make dental healthcare more affordable for you, and your family. You can purchase either a dental plan or dental insurance as an individual, (if your employer doesn’t offer it to you as a benefit of your job). It is important for consumers to understand the differences between a dental plan and dental insurance, in order to really know which is best for their family to have.
Dental insurance comes as one of three different types. Those types are an HMO dental plan, a PPO dental plan, and dental indemnity insurance. Each of these three types of dental insurance comes with it’s own advantages and disadvantages.
HMO dental insurance policies will require you to select a dentist that is contracted to be a part of the insurance company’s provider network. It is financially advantageous for you, and your family, to stay within the network, because dental care that comes from those providers will be covered by your dental insurance company. Another advantage of an HMO is that your premiums will be less expensive than if you went with a PPO. The disadvantage is that you will most likely have to pay out of pocket for dental care that comes from a dentist or specialist that isn’t part of the network. Another disadvantage is that you may have problems dealing with the paperwork that is required as a result of a referral.
PPO dental insurance plans do not require you to stay within a network. The advantage is that you can keep seeing the dentist that your family already is seeing, and the PPO dental insurance will cover the cost of the care you receive. The disadvantage of a PPO is that there is a ton of paperwork that you must file every time you see a dentist or specialist. You will be paying the entire bill initially, and then waiting for the insurance company to reimburse you.
Dental indemnity insurance allows you to see the dentist you want, but requires you to pay that dentist directly. Afterwards, you must fill out forms and send the claim to your insurance company. The difference between dental indemnity insurance and a PPO is that dental indemnity insurance has a standard fee guide. This essentially puts a cap on how much your insurance company will pay for each specific procedure your require. The rest you have to pay for out of your own pocket.
Dental plans usually cost less per month than dental insurance will. Sometimes, you can combine a dental plan with your existing dental insurance. Dentists and oral care professionals who are connected with a dental plan have agreed to provide their service for a greatly reduced rate. This means people who use the dental plan can save between 15% and 60% on dental care services.
Unlike dental insurance, you don’t have to wait three months before the dental plan kicks in. Another difference between dental plans and dental insurance is that no one will be turned down for a dental plan. A potential disadvantage is that you may not live nearby any dentists who have agreed to connect with your dental plan, or your current dentist might not be a part of the plan.
Image by Mike Burns on Flickr