Dental: The voluntary benefit that’s not voluntary

To America’s workers, dental insurance is not considered a voluntary product, but rather a core insurance need that must be offered by a current or potential employer. For employees, the value of dental coverage is clear, which makes an employer who can offer that coverage just as valuable.

Dental is easy to understand, and it’s easy to take advantage of the benefits. According to an upcoming research report from LIMRA, dental is the second-most desired voluntary product purchased at the worksite (behind life insurance). Employees have made it clear how much they value dental coverage. In fact, 61 percent of employees view dental benefits as important, ranking second behind medical coverage when insurance benefits are considered (LIMRA, Upcoming research report, 2018.)

In addition, employees understand that dental work without coverage is costly. According to the American Dental Association report, Oral Health and Well-Being in the United States, 59 percent of adults choose to forgo dental care due to cost. What employees without coverage don’t know is that voluntary dental plans can provide up to 100 percent coverage for preventative, basic and major services, depending on the level of coverage purchased.

As an employer, it’s crucial to understand and take advantage of the benefits of voluntary products, specifically dental products, as well as choose the right provider to ensure you’re providing your employers with the highest value insurance for the lowest cost.

Benefits for employers

Dental insurance as a voluntary benefit offers two key benefits for employers.

The first is attracting and retaining top talent. When a company loses an employee and needs to replace them, it faces both direct and indirect costs. In total, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) 2016 Human Capital Benchmarking Report, the average cost-per-hire is $4,129 and the average time it takes to fill a position is 42 days.

To make sure your company isn’t incurring unnecessary recruiting costs, offer a voluntary dental insurance product. As a top benefit for recruitment and retention in the workplace, offering this benefit is a simple and low-cost solution to ensuring employees feel like they aren’t missing necessary insurance coverage by staying with your company.

The second benefit is that employers can offer voluntary dental benefits while incurring little to no cost. Another name for voluntary benefits is employee-paid benefits. While the employer offers the benefit through the workplace, it is an employee’s choice to purchase them and incur that additional fee, which means little time or money will be lost by adding this coverage option.

Find the right partner

Once you understand the value of providing voluntary dental benefit options to your employees, there are several key factors to look for in a voluntary dental benefits provider: 

Multiple plan designs

With the option to customize, an individual can choose the plan design that best fits their individual and family needs. Depending on the provider, plans can be designed to cover up to 100 percent of service costs. While the best plans may fully cover preventative services, it is important to note how much of basic and major dental work is covered by the provider. According to Bankrate.com, only 39 percent of Americans have enough savings to pay an unexpected expense of $1,000. While a routine oral exam may not break the bank if it isn’t covered, a root canal or crown that costs over $1,000 per tooth without coverage might.

National network of dentists

Finding a dentist isn’t always easy, but it can be if the voluntary dental benefits provider offers an online search tool for dentists included in their PPO network. In addition to a search tool, ensure that provider offers a high number of dental access points with the option to choose a new provider within the network at any time. People want options and a dental provider with only one or a few in-network dentists in their area leaves no room to switch providers if they are unhappy.

Portability

An additional benefit of an individual product is the ability for employees to take it with them if they need to change jobs. Since group products are specific to an employer, if an employee decides to leave, they will be left without coverage until they find a new job. Today, many individual voluntary dental benefit plans allow employees to keep coverage if they move jobs, as long as they continue to pay the premiums. This means no need to worry about finding a new in-network dentist if someone finds themselves in between jobs.

Additional benefits

When you think about kids and teeth, what often comes to mind? Braces.

An additional benefit to ensure a voluntary dental benefit provider offers is orthodontia for children. While most plans will not cover it in full, having at least 50 percent paid by the provider will significantly decrease the out-of-pocket costs for a family.

A vision rider can also be an optional benefit offered by a voluntary dental benefit provider. Make sure that if employees opt-in to these benefits, they include low copays for both annual exams and materials such as frames and contact lenses.

Lastly, check to see if the voluntary dental benefits provider allows individuals to rollover a portion of the annual maximum to the next year. To qualify, they may have to meet certain criteria, but this safety net ensures that if something happens, they are taking full advantage of the coverage they have.

Make employees smile 

To America’s workers, dental insurance is shifting from a voluntary benefit to a core insurance need.

As an employer, make sure you are providing coverage that can draw in potential talent and keep current employees healthy and productive, which in the long run, will lead to increased employee satisfaction with their benefits and employer.

David Polen is a director of product and market development at Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company. He can be reached at 803-678-6158 or dpolen@coloniallife.com.