What Kind of Dental Plans Are Available?

If you are in the market today for a dental insurance or dental plan of some sort, you may be wondering precisely what kind of dental plans are available. Through this article, you will be provided with a general overview what kind of dental plans are available.

Dental PPO

A dental PPO is a dental preferred provider organization. Through a dental PPO a consumer is able to obtain dental services for no charge or for reduced costs from a listing of preferred providers. The preferred providers are those dentists that have signed up to be part of the dental PPO network.

Many consumers are selecting a dental PPO in order to save money on the costs associated with their dental plan coverage. The drawback to a dental PPO is found in the fact that a consumer lacks significant freedom in picking and choosing a dentist. For example, if you have a current dentist and join a dental PPO, and if your dentist is not a part of the dental PPO network, you will have to select a new dentist from the list provided by the dental PPO.

Dental HMO

A dental HMO is a dental health maintenance organization. A dental HMO is rather like a dental PPO. Through a dental HMO, a consumer is part of a plan that allows them to obtain dental services from a set of pre-approved dentists. In most instances, a consumer can obtain treatments of different types from non-participating dentists. However, in such instances, a consumer will end up paying more money for services from these other dentists.

Dental Indemnity Plan

When you are wondering what kind of dental plans are available, you likely will come across a dental indemnity plan. A dental indemnity plan is a fancy title for more traditional dental insurance. This is the type of insurance where you can obtain dental care where you like and your insurance company will pay all or part of the bill.

"Direct Reimbursement"

While direct reimbursement has a definite meaning, it is being misconstrued in the dental insurance arena today. In point of fact, direct reimbursement is a type of dental indemnity insurance option through which the consumer or patient pays the costs of dental insurance care in the first instance and then obtains a direct reimbursement from the dental insurance company by submitting a claim form for reimbursement to the dental insurance provider.

There are some "informational materials" that are being utilized that use the term "direct reimbursement to refer to obtaining dental care and then submitting the bill to a person's employer. In point of fact, the correct termonology for this type of situation is an employee based dental self insurance plan. While the employer is reimbursing the employee for dental care, reimbursement in and of itself is not a type of dental insurance policy or plan. It is a method of claim delivery.

Fewer and fewer people are using these types of dental plans in this day and age due to the ever rising costs associated with these products.