The Value of Adding Dental and Vision to Your Health Plan

Employers looking for an easy, affordable way to add value to their employee benefits packages should consider adding dental and vision benefits to their group health plans.

According to Willis Towers Watson’s 2019/2020 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey, 42% of employees would sacrifice additional pay each month for a more expansive health benefit plan, a sharp increase from 27% in 2013.

Dental and vision care are an important component in maintaining good health and adding this type of coverage to your benefits package is a good way to provide better overall health benefits. For instance, an oral exam can uncover signs of heart disease and a vision exam can detect signs of diabetes.
 
Although small businesses are not required to offer group dental and vision insurance plans, many small employers are finding these types of coverage fit nicely into their budget. Dental and vision care are very low cost but valuable benefits.
 
Types of Dental and Vision Insurance Plans
If you’re interested in adding dental insurance to your group health plan, you may be offered one of these plan types:

• Preferred Provider Organization (PPO): Employees will have lower out-of-pocket costs if they visit a dentist in network.
• Health Maintenance Organization (HMO): Employees’ costs only will be covered if they get services from the one dentist or facility listed on the plan. Some care or products might be fully paid for by insurance.
• Fee-for-Service (indemnity Plan): Employees usually have a large choice of dentists. Insurance pays a set amount of the costs and the employees may have to pay the rest of the dentists’ fees.           
• Discount Plans: There’s no network. Employees pay for all costs on their own, but receive discounts on services and products.

 
In comparison, there are two main vision plan types:

• Optional Rider Vision Insurance: Employers pay a small monthly fee, which gives employees access to services for a set cost.
• Ancillary Vision Plan: Employees get discounts on all vision-related expenses. For example, employees pay 30% for regular checkups, while the insurance company pays the remaining 70%.

Dental and vision are popular add-ons to Allied National’s Funding Advantage plans, providing comprehensive care and lower rates than employees could purchase on their own. For instance, our Dental Design plan provides 100% preventive care benefits with no deductible and an option to include orthodontia benefits. Allied’s Vision Care Option has a choice of three levels of coverage and exams, lenses, frames and contacts are covered.

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Allied National

Founded in 1970, Allied is one of the nation's oldest and most experienced third-party administrators. Allied National is a 90 Degree Benefits Company, a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama. As the small group benefit experts, Allied works with small business employers to provide unique and affordable group health benefits.