Until recently, dental coverage was on the decline as a employer-paid benefit. But a large percentage of employers have reconsidered. Here’s why:

Employers have discovered that they’re bound to pay one way or another. It’s often better off to deal with the predictable costs of offering coverage, rather than the hidden costs of not offering it.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the trend was for employers to eliminate dental (and vision) coverage as a way to offset the rising cost of primary health plans. Employees were encouraged to use medical flex accounts to offset the cost.

Two problems: Employers still paid the cost through lost productivity – an employee scrambling to find a dentist for himself/herself or a dependent is an unproductive employee that day.  And apart from routine yearly checkups, dental costs are notoriously hard to predict when employees budget their FSA contributions for the year.

Familiar ideas

The good news: Many of the strategies that help control traditional healthcare costs also seem to work for containing dental costs. These two familiar approaches are gaining popularity, according to the Segal Company’s 2008 Survey of Dental Benefits:

• DPOs and DMOs. Similar to PPOs and HMOs, these are managed care plans for dental bennies. As with an their primary health plan counterparts, the idea is to make sure employees are steered to the most cost-efficient level of care for their medical needs, and
• Self-insurance. This approach significantly lowers overhead and stop-loss coverage for catastrophic dental claims is often more affordable than for other types of claims. Another option: You can lease an insurance company’s dental plan.

The survey finds that 85% of companies either offer dental coverage – or are considering it. If it’s not in the budget to offer a fully or partially company-paid plan, voluntary plans remain a popular option. In the end, the most expensive option is to leave employees to fend for themselves.