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Dental Insurance
Looking for
Group Dental Insurance?
Here are
some important facts you should know when deciding on dental insurance
for you and your family. Dental insurance plans usually are
described as either indemnity (fee-for-service) or managed care.
Indemnity and managed care plans differ in their basic approach. Put
broadly, the major differences concern choice of providers,
out-of-pocket costs for covered services, and how bills are paid.
Usually, indemnity plans offer more choice of dentists than managed
care plans. Indemnity plans pay their share of the costs of a service
only after they receive a bill. Managed care plans have agreements
with certain dentists to give a range of services to plan members at
reduced cost. In general, you will have less paperwork and lower
out-of-pocket costs if you select a managed care-type plan and a
broader choice of dentists if you select an indemnity-type plan.
Managed
care plans are Dental PPOs, POSs, and Dental HMOs (DHMOs).
A Dental PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) provides dental care to
its members through a network of dentists who offer discounted fees to
its plan members. You can typically use dentists out of the PPO's
network, but you will only be reimbursed the discounted fee for the
services rendered - you will need to pay any additional amount
yourself.
A DHMO (Dental Health Maintenance Organization) provides you dental
services through a network of providers in exchange for some form of
prepayment. If you use a dentist out of the established network of
providers, you may be responsible for paying the entire bill.
A Dental POS (Point of Service) plan allows a member to use either a
DHMO network dentist or to seek care from a dentist not in the HMO
network. Members choose in-network care or out-of-network care at the
time they make their dental appointment and usually incur higher
out-of-pocket costs for out-of-network care.
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