When California added dental benefits to its managed Medicaid program, it did so through health plans that had contracts with the state. When contracts expired, the state went straight to the dental plans, cutting its premium and increasing benefits. Small employers are more likely than large ones to purchase dental benefits through a health plan. Usually, it's the president of the company who deals with benefits, but that's not the business he's in. If he makes widgets, he wants to worry about widgets.
Larger employers tend to be more discriminating.
Most shy away from dental coverage when offered as an add-on to a health plan because the benefits are usually limited to prevention and some restoration. Often, adding periodontics or orthodontics to the mix is less expensive through a stand-alone dental plan. But our employees are covered in a company dental plan or alternate plans like dental HMOs. We don't include these benefits in medical HMOs because we would be double-paying. As recently as two years ago there were predictions that managed care would view dentistry as a growth opportunity because crowded medical markets were evaporating.