In the present competitive marketplace, most businesses wish they might provide current and potential employees with comprehensive dental care benefits. “Dental plans rank as the next most critical employee benefit, just behind health and retirement.”18 Based on Cathy Smithwick, dental practice leader at Mercer Consulting, dental coverage is the “visible benefit because on average 75% of employees will work with a good dental plan.”19
Dental benefits not just increase employee satisfaction and morale, but they could also decrease the hours lost due to dental issues. Based on Oral Health in America, “employed adults lost a lot more than 164 million hours of work every year due to dental disease or dental visits.”10
A recently available study from NADP demonstrates only 56% of the U.S. population has dental insurance.11 Therefore, inexpensive dental care 補牙預約 solutions are highly coveted by both employers and employees. “To satisfy employee demand, more employers added dental to the benefits menu in recent years. One of many final holdouts, the government, will offer dental benefits to employees in 2006.”20
“Seven out of ten employers (71%) offer dental benefits, often with them whilst the differentiating element in recruiting and retaining employees.”18 The investigation demonstrates the more expensive a company is, the more likely they are to provide dental benefits. “Among firms with at least 10 employees, 56% offered dental coverage in 2003. Just twelve months later, that figure leaped to 67%, based on an annual survey of employer-sponsored health plans by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Dental offerings among large employers (500 employers and up) jumped from 90% to 96% of firms.”20
Unfortunately, many businesses cannot afford to cover all or section of their staff’dental benefits. “Mercer data show dental costs averaged $577 for many employers in employers in 2003 and edged as much as $598 in 2004, a 3.6% increase. Large employers, meanwhile, saw a 5.4% increase from $574 to $605.”20 Based on Evelyn Ireland, Executive Director of NADP, “employers aren’t dropping dental coverage, but they’re squeezing the quantity of money they’re adding to it.”20 In order the cost of providing dental benefits to their employees continues to increase, businesses are passing these price hikes onto employees. “Probably the most obvious method for employers to manage dental costs … is to make employees pay more.”20
Kirk Rothrock, CEO of CompBenefits, believes that lots of businesses are shifting the cost of dental benefits to their employees.20 “The biggest trend we’ve seen over the last three or four years is the move from employer-paid benefits to voluntary benefits,” he says. “Employers assert, ‘I can no longer afford to cover your dental benefits.’ ”20 The State of the Dental Benefits Market, 2005 confirms that “over 70% of the populace is paying at least a portion of the dental premiums” and about 25% are paying for their entire dental premium.16
Many businesses are embracing discount dental plans, an inexpensive option to dental insurance, to defray the expenses of providing their staff with valuable dental benefits. Discount dental plans present flexible, affordable dental benefits that are an easy task to implement and practically effortless to manage. They provide businesses with a perfect way complement their existing benefits and offer a more balanced benefits package. Many businesses are employing discount dental plans to provide dental benefits to individuals that are rarely covered by traditional dental insurance, including retirees, part-timers, seasonal workers and uninsured dependants.
Discount dental plans are much less costly compared to $600 many companies are now paying to cover employees with traditional dental insurance. Furthermore, discount dental plans save businesses valuable company time with convenient dental benefit solutions without any tedious paperwork hassles. By providing employees the freedom to choose their particular plan, businesses are relieved from the burden of picking dental benefits to match the initial, individual needs of the diverse workforce. Discount dental plans allow businesses to award their staff with the peace of mind they deserve and the affordable dental care they desire.