Dental Health Maintenance Organization

02-08-2010 by admin

Dental Health Maintenance Organization or DHMO is a legal entity, which undertakes the responsibility of providing dental services at a fixed rate. The policy holder has to enroll his name under this organization. DHMO offers preventive and corrective dental care, including orthodontia coverage, at the fixed costs. DHMO plans are administered by the Dental Network, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Advantages of Dental Health Maintenance Organization or DHMO:

It has a regional network of dental providers throughout Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

It is one of the least expensive dental insurance plans.

No waiting period is attached with these plans.

There is zero deductible in this plan.

Features:

If you are in DHMO, you are in a closed panel.

These plans have a limited number of dentists, the policy holder can choose from. Extreme DHMO plans may have only one dentist on the plan.

As the dentists are paid a fixed amount for each patient, he offers preventative maintenance care at little cost to the patient.

Many DHMO does not include cosmetic dental procedures, as it is not recognized as necessary.

Dental coverage includes:

Preventive care including cleanings and X-rays

Services including fillings and extractions

Major surgical services including oral surgery and root canal therapy

Major restorative services including dentures and fixed bridges and crowns

Orthodontia coverage for children and adults

Co-pays cover all in-network dental services

Some plan designs include one co-pay for office visit for basic dental services such as exams, X-rays and simple extractions

No claim forms to file when visiting a network dental provider

How to Use the Benefits:

Online:

Locate and select a TDN primary care dentist

Select Dental – BlueChoice TDN

Select “Considering becoming a member”

Select the appropriate product

Select a dental provider.

By Telephone:

Call TDN customer service at 888-833-8464 with selection.

At the time of service, the policy holder has to show his member ID card

Pay the co-pay for services received

The dentist will submit all the necessary forms

Student dental insurance

01-08-2010 by admin

A student dental insurance plan covers the dental health of the students, students mostly at college or university. Generally it has been noticed that these plans are offered by schools through insurance companies. Even though this plan is aimed at the students of colleges and universities, the students in the private schools or public schools, or the boarding schools require some form of dental coverage. A student dental insurance is less expensive than individual dental coverage or employee or provided dental coverage. The students need to apply for a dental insurance separately from their health insurance plans. There are some schools where the students need to go out of dental insurance if they do not require it. For this reason many students automatically sign up for dental insurance when they register at the school.

The features and offers: Even student dental insurance offers several types of dental coverage schemes. The educational organizations provide the student many choices, which the students have to select from.

A dental insurance scheme will allow the student to select any dental care practitioner according to his preference. Generally, with this plan, he will not need an assessment of his current condition.

On the contrary, a dental student capitation scheme usually requires the students to see a specific dental care professional. In this way, the students are asked to see whether the student health practitioners are available at the University or not. The students have to give a monthly or yearly fee. In most of the institutions, the students can decide if to have this amount added to his tuition fees. These plans mostly focus on preventative dental care including cleanings, checkups, fillings, repair of chipped teeth etc. As students in general don’t require very complicated dental treatments, most of the colleges prefer dental student capitation schemes. Some schools even offer accidental dental coverage.