Beginning April 1, 2005 Blue Cross of California will offer a dental discount program called SmileNet. This is NOT a dental insurance plan. Rather, for a low monthly payment ($80 per year for an individual and $120 per year for a family plus a one-time $20 administration fee) people who enroll in this program can receive services from over 12,000 dentists in the Blue Cross Dental PPO network at the Blue Cross-negotiated rates. Members can get services when they want, as often as they want. There are no deductibles, no underwriting, no claims and no waiting periods. The value of this dental discount plan is that dentists will charge less for their services. Small groups can also offer the SmileNet Dental Discount program to their employees. The small group plan costs $7 per month for a single membership and $10 per month for a family. There is no administration fee for the group dental discount plan. One way for a consumer to evaluate whether this dental discount plan is a wise financial decision is to compare the annual cost of the discount plan with anticipated dental expenses for the year. So, if someone expects to only get his/her teeth cleaned twice a year and the retail cost of this is $100 each or $200 for two annual teeth cleanings then compare this to the discounted cost for the cleanings and add in the $80 - $100 annual payment for the SmileNet dental discount program. Unfortunately, Blue Cross has not disclosed the discounted price for each dental service. I think that knowing the actual amount for each dental service is important information. This plan may be a good choice for someone who is facing huge dental bills. Virtually all dental plans have 12 month waiting periods for major dental work and they usually only pay 50 percent of the cost to a maximum of $1,000 per calendar year. A good Dental PPO plan costs about $40 per month, or $480 per year. So, someone who needs a lot of dental work may actually save more than the approximately $100 per year fee for the SmileNet Dental Discount Program. |
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California Health Insurance |
Group Health Insurance in California |
Health Savings Accounts | |
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