The Benefits of Bundling Medical and Dental Plans

by Derek S. Bridges

In February of this year, 12-year-old Deamonte Driver of Maryland died of complications from a brain infection caused by a tooth abscess. His family did not have dental insurance.

No other story quite delivers the message of the urgency for affordable, quality dental benefits than the avoidable death of Deamonte Driver. Access to reasonably priced dental insurance could have made a tremendous difference to the Driver family, ultimately saving Deamonte's life.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), one-third of all Americans have untreated tooth decay and 48% have gingivitis, which can quickly develop into periodontal disease. These startling figures bring to the forefront the need for proper dental coverage.

A lack of proper insurance can be devastating to employees and their families and can have a direct affect on job performance and employer costs. Employed adults lose more than 164 million work hours a year due to dental disease, according to a Surgeon General's report.

Job productivity improves when employees have choices for affordable dental benefit plans. People with strong preventive and diagnostic dental benefits are more likely to visit a dentist on a regular basis. Establishing a regular dental regimen ensures improved employee health, thus increasing productivity due to less time taken away work.

Dental benefits rank third among all employer-provided health benefits. As part of a comprehensive health benefits package, they play an important role as an instrument for recruiting and retaining quality employees.

Providing adequate health insurance allows employees to get the care they need before an illness becomes disabling, protecting their emotional and financial well-being. Unfortunately, a large number of working Americans have no health insurance at all.

The Department of Health & Human Services' 2005 Population Study reports that among American workers, the uninsured are more likely to work in small companies. Ninety-nine percent of companies with more than 200 employees offer coverage compared to only 52% of companies with fewer than 10 employees. Those with fewer than 100 workers are the source of 46% of the uninsured employees and their children.

An emerging trend in the healthcare industry is having cost-effective benefit choices through alternative product combinations. One such program bundles dental and medical benefit plans as a valuable option to stand-alone products. Since, according to a LIMRA study, about 70% of employers prefer to add additional products from their existing insurance company benefits, bundling can be very attractive to employers.

The Value of Multiple Lines of Coverage

It's more important than ever to offer employers flexibility and affordability through product innovations and plan designs. The advantages of integrating dental and medical plans into a total benefits solution are clear:

¥ Pro-active solutions

¥ Early disease detection

¥ Disease management

¥ Portability of plans

¥ Discounted premiums

¥ Decreased claim costs

With this holistic approach, the mouth is only one component of the equation that directly affects the body and predicts the wellness of the other parts. This is why it is so imperative to offer innovative plans that keep the whole body wellness correlation in mind.

Additionally, other products are available to supplement these plans, including vision, behavioral health and EAPs, plus life and disability. These complementary products present the opportunity for overall good health and more productive employees, as well as lower rates and reduced claims due to routine preventive care. When dentists and doctors work together on this course of health maintenance and prevention, they not only improve patient care but also help ensure a better quality of life.

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Derek S. Bridges is president of Dental & Vision for Blue Cross of California. He can be reached at derek.bridges@wellpoint.com.