The Top 3 Things Employers are Demanding in Dental Plans This Year
As employers look to provide their employees with quality health and dental insurance, understanding what it is they’re looking for can help dental practices better care for and retain patients. In a market where employers and patients are increasingly taking a more consumer-focused approach to health care benefits, dental plans are evolving to meet their needs.
What are they looking for? Choice, incentive, and convenience.
Choice
Employers are the decision makers when it comes to health coverage and they’re looking for the best options they can provide to their employees. While they’re thinking about cost designs and plan designs that save them money in the long run, they’re also prioritizing choice. Employers want to give their employees multiple options for plan designs so that people can choose where to spend their money across different levels of benefits. The reality is that patients aren’t the ones choosing the details of their own health care plans – their employers are. But by offering a set list of options, employers can allow their employees more flexibility to prioritize their health care needs and make decisions within a set benefits structure of the employer’s choosing.
Incentive
Earlier this year, we noted that a rise in consumerism was an industry trend dental providers could expect to see in 2021. More and more, patients want a dental plan that allows them the flexibility to choose their providers through their own research, much like the way they approach purchasing any product. Patients are looking at online reviews and comparing providers to one another. And if they are satisfied with one choice, this generation of patients is more willing to move around until they find a provider that they like.
That’s why the industry has been seeing a shift towards incentive plan designs. Employers can give their employees the freedom to choose whatever provider they want, but within a set cost structure that incentivizes them to choose in-network providers. So if they go to a certain provider, they can contain costs and maintain a certain level of benefits.
Convenience
Along with this shift in consumerism, patients are also looking for flexibility and convenience. They want to make informed decisions, on their own time, in their own way – which is increasingly online. Things like online booking for example, or online portals that make it easy for patients to review their options for choosing a provider, or to see reviews and services that each provider can offer, is important to patients – which means it’s important to employers – which means it’s important for plan design.
In the end, the dentists that understand these needs and can meet today’s consumer where they are will be better positioned to maintain a practice filled with loyal and happy patients.
To learn more about plan design watch the Pearls of Wisdom episode featuring a conversation between Erik Montlack, Vice President of Sales and Client Services at Delta Dental of Massachusetts and Dennis Leonard, President and CEO of Delta Dental of Massachusetts.