Discount Dental Plans

A discount dental plan is not considered Dental Insurance, but it is a very common type of dental plan. Any company that offers a discount dental plan must disclose that they are not offering a dental health insurance policy. Unlike a dental insurance policy, you will not have set co-payments or coinsurance amounts under a discount dental plan. The payments that you make for this type of dental plan are considered a membership fee. As a member of a discount dental plan, you will be able to receive dental services from a specific list of dentists at a discounted rate.

Under a discount dental plan, payments for rendered services are made directly to the dentist and no claims are filed with the company that manages that discount dental plan. Basically, the dentists that participate and accept members of the discount plan agree to provide services at a discounted rate. They agree to these discounted rates in exchange for the referrals that come to them from the discount dental plan company.

Members of a discount dental plan are only entitled to discounts if they use a dentist that is listed in the directory of participating dentists provided by the insurance company. The list of participating dentists is usually more extensive than the list of participating dentists under an HMO dental plan and comparable to a list of dentists under a PPO dental plan.

Discount dental plans may offer benefits that are not available under dental insurance policies. These may include no annual limit on benefits, no exclusions and a lower monthly payment. Membership in a discount dental plan is usually made through an annual payment, but some discount plans accept monthly payment arrangements.

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