The following items can help employers, benefit advisers, and dentists can better understand dollar-based dental benefits and take action to create dental plans that serve employers, employees and dentists.
Do You Have a Cost-effective Dental Plan?
The following list of questions will help employers and benefit advisers evaluate an existing dental plan.
Dental Plan Evaluation
Dollar-based Dental Benefit Request for Proposal (RFP)
The typical Request for Proposal does not work when considering a dollar-based dental plan. Conventional, procedure-based plans compare the typical cost control tools
Dollar-based Dental RFP
Articles
Where are the Discounts?
This essay, in two parts, discusses the idea of a "deal." Can you really get a deal on dental care with a network dental plan? Part 1 shows how discounted-fee dental plans affect dentists, and Part 2 shows what discounted-fee dental plans do for the employer.
Where are the Discounts? Part 1
Where are the Discounts? Part 2
DR: Pro and Con
Proponents of procedure-based dental plans tend to misrepresent dollar-based dental benefits. This happens for two reasons: first, critics lack experience with dollar-based dental benefits and second, they usually are defending the status quo of procedure-based dental plans. The following three pieces are part of a pro-and-con response to an earlier article. The rebuttal addresses the misrepresentations of the "con" article. Read them all and decide for yourself.
Pro-DR
Con-DR
Rebuttal
HIU article
Here is an article about dollar-based dental benefits from the January, 2005 issue of HIU.
HIU
The Two Markets of Dental Care
Here is an article about the primary market of dentists and patients and the secondary market of employers, employees, and dental plans.
Two Markets of Dental Care
Direct Reimbursement article: Spencer Benefits Reports
Jon Frank has written a fine overview of Direct Reimbursement.
Spencer Reports
