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DINA Offers Employers New Ways to Serve Employee Needs In the past 10 years,as the labor market has tightened, more companies have seen a need to improve their benefit programs. As their employees' dental cost increased, the demand for dental coverage as a benefit increased as well. A good dental plan can be a factor in recruiting and retaining employees. Donald LeBlanc, president of Dental Insurance Administrators Inc. (DINA) says, "accordingto industry experts, dental insurance is one of the fastest growing employee benefits in the United States." Onereason for this growth is that dental benefits are now taken more seriously thanit once was. The client is more knowledgeable than ever before and therefore more demanding. Since the products on the market are muchmore sophisticated, they must be sold with greater expertise. That does not meanthe client needs a degree in dental science to understand dental insurance, but the agent or the company who sells the plan should explain the various categories of treatment such as periodontics, endodontics, orthodontics, as well as reviewing the common exclusions and limitations thatapply to most plans. Dental insurance hastraditionally been written on a group basis requiring an employee-premium paid by the employer and employee participation. This method of writing dental coverage has historically resulted in tremendouscost to the employers in addition to other health insurance benefits and contributed to the "skyrocketing" national health expenditures. Because of these spiralling costs, employers are anxious, almost desperateto cut health costs and are continually looking for ways to help contain these costs.To assist in solving these problems, we have seen the rapid growthof preferred provider organizations (PPOs) encompassing doctors, dentists and hospitals who have all been willing to reducefees and still offer quality care with a stable volume of business. We have also seen a dramatic increase in enrollments in health maintenance organizations (HMOs). As the nation's population ages, our health problems also increase including dental care. Considerthese statistics from the American DentalAssociation and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare: * More than 100 million man hours of production were lost during a one-year period because of absence for dental sickness. * 20 million Americans have lost half theirnatural teeth. Another 25 million have lost all their teeth. * 50 percent ofour children do not have their mouths professionally examined by a dentist before their 15th birthday. * 50 percent of our young adult population has gum disease. Almost all suffer from some form of tooth decay and will lose some or all their naturalteeth. LeBlanc says "allof these problems have greatly affected the dental insurance industry, especially pre-paid dental which is the type of plan DINA offers."Ten years ago the pre-paid dental industry was justforming. It grew out of two conflicting needs: to increase the number of employee benefit options in the marketplace and to help control benefit cost for employers. Pre-paid dental plans are virtually in every state across the country andcontinue to grow rapidly. "Our peoplein Louisiana are no different from those in other states. We want to keep our cost down, but still be affordable, quality care." Dental InsuranceAdministrators is one of Louisiana's earliest dental plans that began in the late 1970s, known thenas Dental Health Plan. DHP was acquired by the present principals of DINA, and the DINA name was adopted in 1987. DINA offers a fully insured pre-paid dental plan, insured by Guaranty Assurance Company, a company that was chartered in Louisiana in 1935. "To my knowledge weare the only locally owned plan of this type that complies with all state insurance regulations," LeBlanc says. Over the past few years, the company hasexperienced tremendous growth. DINA's participating dentists now number more than 150 statewide as compared to less than 50 a few years ago. The contributing factoris that more and more people are realizing they can have quality dental care at affordable prices. DINA has authorized payrolldeduction for state employees as well as solicitation privileges in numerous schoolparishes, hospitals, city parish governments and many commercial accounts. The flagship of the product portfolio is thebasic plan that offers more than 170 dental procedures with 34 of these procedures at no charge to the client at the time service is rendered.For example, office visits, exams, X-rays and cleaning (two per year) are provided at no charge. All otherprocedures are considerably reduced, including the orthodontic benefit. There are no deductibles,no claim forms, no annual maximums, no pre-existing condition exclusion unless treatment is in progressand cosmetic dental procedures are included. DINA does not require clients to sign a 36-month contract. DINA hasnever had a rate increase and does not anticipate one. Monthly rates are for a single person, with one dependent and for two or moredependents. Payment methods are payroll deduction, monthly bank draft and monthly billing. There are no age limits and eligible dependents are spouse, unmarriedchildren under 19 years of ageand those that are full-time students up to 24 years of age. Because of DINA's administrative capabilities and plan flexibility, the company can enroll an individual or groups with hundreds or thousands of employees. A very important aspect of the company's group plans are theydo not have participation requirements regardless of the group size. The company also works with other dental marketing firmsacross the country to service Louisiana employees on national accounts. In additionto the basic plan, the company is in the process of developing new and exciting plans to add to the product portfolio. These new plans and a uniformmarketing system will be introduced in 1991. Dr. EdwardQuimby, a Baton Rouge dentist and a provider for the plan since its inception, says, "I have been a participating dentist for DINA sincethe plan was started. It's a quality plan that offers quality service." Quimby also says, "TheDINA plan offers a sector of the public affordable dental care that they otherwise would not have." LeBlanc says, "anyone interested in receivinginformation on our plans may call our office." In Baton Rouge call 291-3172, or elsewhere in Louisianacall 1-800-960-5994. Or write to Dental Insurance Administrators, P.O. Box 40017, Baton Rouge, La., 70835-0017. PHOTO : Benefits On Demand: Anna LeBeau, Lela Gautreaux,Debbie Ard, Mikelyn Marcomb and Renee Allenanswer questions and explain employee dental insurance benefits.
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