Voluntary Dental and Eye Care Benefits Are Rapidly Gaining Favor

Five Tips for Designing and Selling Plans

by Karen Gustin, LLIF

With soaring employee benefit costs, voluntary dental and eye care plans are becoming popular, particularly with employers on the West Coast. Voluntary plans allow employers to provide access to quality dental and eye care benefits.

With the growing interest in voluntary plans, you have an excellent opportunity to enhance relationships by recommending options to meet employersÕ needs. Consider the following recommendations for designing and selling voluntary plans to employers:

1. Evaluate Employees' Health Needs

To recommend the right mix of voluntary dental and eye care options, you need a thorough understanding of employee demographics and the benefits they need.

Examine perceptions and utilization of current benefit plans:

¥ Which features are used most and by which age groups?

¥ How many employees exceed their annual maximum?

¥ What is the percentage of employee turnover?

¥ Are dental and eye care benefits important for employee recruitment and retention?

Review oral health history:

¥ Do employees generally take good care of their teeth, with one or two dental visits each year for checkups and restorations?

¥ How much do employees spend for basic or major dental services?

Identify eye care needs:

¥ How many on-the-job injuries do employees experience?

¥ How many employees use computers and for how many hours a day?

¥ Are many experiencing eyestrain?

¥ Do most employees wear glasses or contacts?

¥ Evaluate employee demographics.

¥ What is the average age of the employee population?

¥ What percentage of employees selects single versus family coverage?

¥ What are the top 10 dental or eye care needs of employees and their dependents?

This information is essential to designing the best solutions for dental and eye care benefits.

2. Find Experienced Insurance Partners

Few insurance carriers have the extensive experience that is needed to support voluntary dental and eye care products. Due to the complexity of voluntary plans, itÕs critical to select a carrier with an excellent reputation for voluntary benefits and one that can provide accurate information, honest advice, and has plans to fit employersÕ needs. Otherwise, the plan may not be the right fit.

Before submitting a benefits proposal, evaluate the following:

¥ The carriers' claims processing and customer service.

¥ Flexibility in plan design.

¥ Reputation with other employers.

¥ Size of provider network.

¥ Business philosophy.

¥ Plans that can be customized to employers' changing needs.

¥ Experience in working with employer groups similar in size to your client's group.

Read the fine print. As you review plan options, take time to compare coverage levels, features, participant qualifications, and disclaimers listed in the proposal or contract. Some carriers price plans unusually low the first year just to gain new business. But, at renewal time, they may increase rates to cover losses from the first year.

Carriers that are successful with voluntary plans have actuaries that are experienced in pricing plans, so premium costs remain consistent. If plans aren't priced correctly and premiums have to be adjusted significantly each year, employees will quickly become disenchanted with their voluntary benefits and will switch to alternate coverage options.

When it comes to combined benefits or individual plans, which are best? It may seem appealing to have one carrier for several plans. Especially with the idea of consolidated paperwork and billing, it just sounds easier. But, if your client contracts with a single carrier for medical, disability, dental or eye care insurance, what happens if there are problems with one of the plans? Depending on how the plans are written, it may be necessary to renegotiate or re-bid all of them, which could create many unforeseen headaches.

3. Promote Oral and Vision Wellness

More than 70% of employers are adopting employee health and disease management programs and at least 40% are promoting healthy behavior choices, according to a report by The National Business Group on Health.

You should help employers understand the wellness value of dental and eye care benefits, especially since the productivity and performance of the businesses is affected by employee absence for medical issues. Health professionals say having regular dental and eye care examinations is an excellent disease management tool since it is possible to detect many medical concerns and diseases in the early stages during regular checkups.

When employees aren't healthy, employers experience increased health costs and lost employee productivity due to absenteeism. Health professionals have identified at least 120 medical conditions that can be detected during routine dental checkups, including diabetes, thyroid problems, skin diseases, mental illness, leukemia, cancer, and hardening of the arteries. Bleeding gums, etched enamel, and other tissue changes in the mouth are often the first clues to serious health problems.

Eye problems are the second most prevalent health concern in the United States, affecting more than 120 million people. Blindness or low vision affects 3.3 million people 40 and older, or one in 28 people. Vision loss is among the top 10 most frequent causes of disability. With the aging workforce in the United States, cases of major eye diseases are on the rise. About 5.5 million Americans will experience blindness or low vision by 2020, according to the National Eye Institute. Many new cases of blindness are curable or preventable through detection and treatment, which could result in more than $1 billion in medical savings a year.

More than 2,000 eye injuries occur in the workplace every day. Employers are paying in excess of $500 million a year for medical bills and workersÕ compensation claims related to these injuries. Health and safety experts report that 90% of these injuries could have been prevented or the severity could have been lessened if employees had worn the right eye protection.

More than 100 million Americans use computers daily at work and more than 70% have reported some form of eye- or vision-related health problems. Nearly 90% of people who work with computers more than three hours daily have eyestrain, blurred vision, headaches or dry and irritated eyes. Eye stress caused by computer use is at an all-time high. Nearsighted people who are intensive computer users have the greatest risk of developing glaucoma, which can lead to blindness.

Four primary eye diseases are linked to vision loss or blindness: age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts, and diabetic retinopathy. These diseases are considered silent stealers of health because they usually come on slowly. Such eye diseases will become a concern for employers as older employees stay longer in the workforce. Comprehensive eye care benefits can help prevent and detect vision problems in older workers and help employers avoid most of the costly major medical claims associated with treating them. The eye care carriers offer more than just an examination for eyeglasses or contacts. Their plans provide critical wellness care and assistance in disease management.

4. Dental & Eye Care Are Valuable For Recruitment and Retention

You have a significant opportunity to help employers understand how valuable annual examinations can be in detecting medical concerns in the early stages and evaluating vision health. When it comes to recruiting and retaining quality employees in a competitive market, employers that have dental and eye care insurance say these coverages are critical components of an employee benefits package.

5. Communicate To Increase Employee Awareness

Employees prefer a variety of benefit choices, but they want to have these options thoroughly explained so they can select the right plans. Employers should educate employees about their benefits throughout the year, especially since employee participation in voluntary plans is critical to their long-term success. If they donÕt understand the plans or the features donÕt meet their needs, they wonÕt enroll in this benefit option.

Use a variety of methods to communicate benefits information to employees. Remember that no size fits all. Target the messages according to demographic groups. Face-to-face meetings and newsletters are best for some, while electronic presentations via e-mail or online are best for others.

Provide information that is easy to understand and avoid insurance jargon or acronyms. Create charts and other visual aids showing how costs are spread out over the year, annual savings, and the value of having employees invest in their own health needs.

After the information is distributed, review employees' responses and their questions to determine what messages may need clarification and what additional details employees may need. Distribute new information, as needed, to reduce confusion or reinforce key points.

Voluntary dental and eye care benefits are in high demand by employers and employees. You have an excellent opportunity to grow their business, especially by focusing on the wellness and medical value of dental and eye care benefits. Communicate how these plans enhance employee performance, productivity, recruitment, and retention. Since not all plans and insurance carriers are the same, it's important to work with the right partners to provide benefits that will match expectations.

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Karen M. Gustin, LLIF, is vice president of Group Marketing And Managed Care for Ameritas Group Dental and Eye Care in Lincoln, Neb. Gustin began her career at Ameritas in 1983. Twelve years later, she was appointed to assistant vice president of Marketing and Managed Care. In 2001, Ms. Gustin was promoted to her current position, with responsibilities for group communication, advertising, product development, market research, training, and PPO functions. Ms. Gustin is involved with the National Association of Dental Plans, serving on the board, the foundation board, and chairing the Statistical Task Force. For assistance in understanding dental and eye care plans or comparing coverage options, contact the Ameritas Group Marketing Department at 800-776-9446.