Dental Benefits From the BEU and MTA
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All our health insurance plans cover dental for children. For HPHC, the dentists in their network are listed in the benefits book. For BCBS, you have to request the list. On either plan, if you use a Harvard Vanguard doctor as your primary care physician, you need to use a Harvard Vanguard dentist. For other dentists, you can also ask your dentist if s/he accepts your plan (for children).
There are three union-based plans for adults:
1. MTA Dental Insurance offered by Boston Mutual through Best Benefits.
Like all voluntary (i.e. not employer-based) insurance is expensive and often not cost effective (even many employer-based plans aren't really cost effective either, but maybe Dave will talk about that as well). This covers most dentists and the open enrollment period is about to begin.
To get more information on this click on mtabenefits.com/ben_well_bbi.cfm or call 800-933-5024.
2. The BEU Dental Discount Program offered through Universal Dental
This is a card that gives you discounts at participating dentists (along with free exams). It's not group insurance, but it seems many people are happy with it - especially if their dentist is on the list or they don't care who they go to. This is significantly less expensive than option #1, but has less benefits (although a larger maximum benefit) and a smaller pool of dentists. BEU Members get a 15% discount on the annual rate (after paying a one-time $20.00 initiation fee.
For more information, click on www.universaldentalplan.com or call 800-894-8984.
3. MTA Dental Discount program offered by Employee Securities
This is a similar program as #2 above.
To get more information on this, click mtabenefits.com/ben_well_esi.cfm or call 800-638-1134 x 322.
One other thing to keep in mind is to use the Pre-tax Medical plan (also known as MedCAP or Section 125). This will allow you to pay for dental care in pretax dollars (a significant cost reduction) by putting aside a certain amount of of each paycheck, and then getting reimbursed using these funds.
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