Understanding Your Dental Plan
Employers offer dental benefits for a variety of reasons, including promotion of oral health and attraction and retention of high-quality employees. Regardless of why a plan is offered, its intent is to assist individuals by paying for a portion of the cost of their dental care.
Almost all dental benefits are the result of a contract between an employer or union and an insurance company. For this reason, concerns about your dental plan should first be directed to your employer or the employee benefits manager/human resource manager.
Limitations in coverage are the result of the financial commitment the employer has agreed to make and the benefits the insurance company will offer in exchange for that commitment.
Treatment decisions must be made by you and your Massachusetts Dental Society dentist. The dental benefits you have should not be the deciding factor in your choice of treatment or in determining the best way to treat your dental needs.
In Massachusetts, under certain conditions, employers are required to offer their employees more than one dental plan. You may have the right to choose between two plans--one that requires you to select a dentist from a list, and one that allows you freedom of choice to select your own dentist, or to keep the dentist you now have.
There is wide variation in the design of dental benefit plans and in the services they include. Your own dental plan is similar to one of these types:
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