Dental insurance was unheard of until about fifty years. Prior to that, dentists were nothing more than people who pulled a tooth or filled a cavity. Preventive dentistry was only a blip on the radar and it actually took a now famous toothpaste to change the way people even looked at dental care.
Over the next few decades dental insurance changed greatly. Indemnity plans were all but eradicated from the system and replaced with HMOs and PPOs just like regular health insurance. Of course, most people don’t even know what they have until they run into a problem trying to book an appointment with a new dentist who only takes PPO plans.
Soon the dental insurance plans changed from these 80/20 plans to HMOs and PPOs, just like health insurance. The HMOs meant that patients needed to stay in network and get referrals for any type of work that required specialized care – root canals, caps, etc. PPOs were more expensive but they let you go to any dentist you chose, for any reason, at any time, as long as they accepted that insurance.
Coverages remained similar for both types of insurance as did the co-pays and deductibles. For instance, routine xrays in an HMO and a PPO were usually handled the same way. Many people don’t even realize they are using an HMO plan until they try to change dentists or have a problem and learn they need to go to a specialist.
Typically, the HMOs are less expensive for the plan itself. Since any type of insurance can be expensive, many people do choose the HMO when given the choice. Almost all employers who elect to provide this coverage to their employees will choose a group HMO plan.
One option that is becoming very popular is the dental discount plans. These are very similar to dental insurance and many people even buy these discount plans thinking they are buying real insurance. The differences between the two are transparent – using the services is the same as using insurance.
A major difference between insurance and a discount plan is that the dentist only receives payments from the patient. In other words, when you buy a discount plan you have a schedule of services that are covered, and amounts you will need to pay. This might sound like insurance, but these amounts are all the dentist receives. The company does not pay him anything.
Many people buy one of these discount plans to use in addition to their regular insurance sometimes just to get their teeth whitened or to get veneers that are covered.
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