Keep in Mind Recent Dental Plan Benefit Changes
Share these changes with your participants.
As participants start to use their dental benefits in the new year, you may get some questions. To help, we want to remind you of the recent changes to dental benefits.
Beginning in 2014, charges for pediatric dental services (excluding orthodontics) for individuals under age 19 no longer count toward the annual maximum benefit. Frequency limits, such as those for preventive care, deductibles and coinsurances, still apply.
And don’t forget these other dental plan changes:*
- Basic/minor restorative and major/restorative services apply to the annual deductible (preventive and diagnostic services still do not)
- Participants are eligible for one covered bitewing x-ray per year
- Diagnostic casts and bacteriologic cultures are covered at the basic/minor restorative benefit level
- Replacement crowns, inlays and onlays, dentures and bridges are covered every seven years**
- Implants are covered at the major/restorative benefit level once every seven years**
For a full list of covered services, see your summary plan description (SPD). For questions about dental plan benefits, participants should contact the Member Contact Center at 1.866.673.2299 or at contactcenter@nreca.coop.
*The dental plan changes in the bulleted list were effective in 2013.
**The plan doesn’t provide benefits to replace or treat areas where there were congenitally missing teeth or teeth that were missing at the time the participant began coverage under the plan.