Dental Insurance Types
Choose the Best Type by Understanding Your Options
Dental insurance types can be categorized into two basic categories: the indemnity plans and the managed care plans. Both offer dental coverage but only at different levels, different fees, different claims or reimbursement processes, and through different means.
The costs of dental health care nowadays are rising, and dental insurance has become widely demanded. But if you are interested in obtaining dental coverage, make sure you consider all available options you have so you can choose the most ideal dental insurance types that fit your needs.
Aside from dental indemnity plans, there are managed care plans, which come in three types, namely PPO plans or Preferred Provider Organization, HMO plans or Health Maintenance Organization, and POS or Point of Service plans.
Managed Care Plans - Popular Dental Coverage Types of the Present
Types of popular dental insurance plans include:
- PPO Dental Plans
- HMO Dental PIans
- POS Dental PIans
- Direct Reimbursement Plans
1. PPO Dental Plans
The PPO dental plan is one of the dental insurance types that are making its rounds around the dental community in recent times. PPO dental plans are now becoming one of the most popular dental insurance types because of the combination of flexibility and affordability it offers. In PPOs, you are allowed to choose your preferred dental care provider. The program has a network of dentists that you can choose from, but you can still choose a dentist who does not belong to that network. The difference is that you get bigger coverage when you go to a dentist who is part of the PPO network.
2. HMO Dental Plans
The HMO dental plan is an alternative to PPO dental plans. This is also one of the most common dental insurance types availed of by a lot of patients. The same concept of the network of dentists as in PPOs apply to HMOs as well, only that members of the HMO program can only choose a dentist within that network. This is a stricter form of PPO dental plan; it does not provide any amount of coverage for services rendered by a dentist who does not belong to the HMO network.
Take note, however, that most PPO dental networks offer greater choices than HMO networks.
3. POS Dental Plans
The Point of Service dental plan works just like Preferred Provider Organization dental plans; they allow freedom of choice in the dentists you go to, and offer bigger savings when you choose a dentist that is within the program network. In this plan, however, you would have to declare your choice of a dentist upon enrollment. There are, however, some provisions for switching to another dentist depending on the contract of your POS dental plan.
4. Direct Reimbursement Plans
On the other hand, Direct Reimbursement plans are dental plans that make you choose a dentist and a treatment plan. In this plan, you have to pay for your dental treatment in full, then use the receipt for reimbursement. This is a common option used by most employers because this eliminates the need for deductibles listing and a load of paperwork. However, since reimbursements usually do not come with any limit, this plan can be a costly undertaking for small businesses and is only ideal for the bigger companies.
Dental Indemnity Plans – Flexible Dental Insurance
Dental indemnity plans are ideal choices for patients looking for the most flexible dental plans. This plan works like a membership program. By obtaining a dental indemnity plan and paying for membership fees monthly, you become a member of an organization or a program that will reimburse you for your dental costs.
This means that you would have to pay for all your dental expenses, in full, every time you go in for a treatment. Then, you have to process a claim for reimbursement, and the indemnity program will reimburse you for what you spent.
The amount reimbursed to you may vary based on a UCR fee schedule, a table that determines the amount to be reimbursed for the different types of dental treatments. One important feature of dental indemnity plans is the freedom it offers to patients to choose their own dentists with absolutely no rules or filtering procedures. You can go to any dentist and get reimbursed for your dental costs.
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