Some plans include limited coverage for hospital room and board expenses related to dental procedures, such as removal of impacted wisdom teeth, performed in a hospital. Direct reimbursement is a noninsured dental program in which an employer agrees to pay for a specified percentage or amount of receipted dental expenses. It has been used by smaller employers as a way of avoiding both the costs associated with an insured plan and the administrative complexity that often accompanies insurance company programs. Dental services are often divided into different coverage levels. Level I services include semiannual examinations, semiannual cleaning, x-rays and diagnosis.
Most plans cover at least preventive and diagnostic care.
In order to emphasize prevention, many plans cover the Level I services at higher reimbursement levels than Level II or III services. Like dental care, vision care is a relatively new employee benefit, offered by employers that can afford to expand their employee benefits plans to include additional fringe benefits previously considered budgetable. Vision care is most often covered on a scheduled basis that pays a fixed dollar amount for examinations, lenses and frames. Vision care is almost universally noncontributory due to the potential for biased selection. Many plans do not cover contraceptive prescription drugs, for example, or nicotine chewing gum prescribed for smokers who are typing to quit.