Advantages of Offering a Dental Benefits Plan to Employees [Part 1]

A Dental insurance or dental benefit plan is viewed upon as a much sought after employee benefit. So financially it makes sense to have a dental benefit plan in place to recruit and retain employees. Moreover, dental health is a very important part of overall employee health and man days lost due to dental problems or dental discomfort of an employee equates to financial loss for the employer.

Unlike most medical conditions, dental maladies and treatments are low risk, predictable and low cost. These factors contribute to offering dental insurance to employees a good option financially. Dental diseases are preventable by maintenance and often involve only maintenance costs like x-rays and examinations. Treatment is rendered cheap due to diagnosis in early stages of the disease. Keeping these financial factors in mind, dental insurance options can also be self funded. History does not show any extremes in costs or utilization of this form of employee benefit.

Selecting the right Dental Insurance Plan

Selecting the right dental plan involves a lot of factors which have to be considered with due care.

Dental insurance plans are basically agreements between the employer and the insurance company. Most plans offered by dental insurance companies allow for part reimbursement of dental treatment expenses. Many plans also discourage certain kind of treatments or allow access to certain of dentists. To consider these points one has to go through the plan very carefully with a toothcomb. For example choosing a dentist is not same as choosing a dentist from “the list”, or if the plan does not cover one kind of treatment, it is wrong to infer that your regular dentist is incompetent.

Many plans do not cover pre existing conditions. Some may not cover implants and so on. Due to these preconditions, the final treatment may be paid for in part only or in insurance parlance you might be reimbursed for LEAT (Lease Expensive Alternative Treatment). Dental insurance plans vary in fixing the UCR (usual, customary, and reasonable) in a certain geographical area. UCR may vary from plan to plan and company to company despite operating in the same area. Therefore fixation of this UCR level would define the liability of the patient. In some plans the patient may have to pay more and in some he may have to pay less depends upon the plan the employer has offered.

……..(Go To PART 2)

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Advantages of Offering a Dental Benefits Plan to Employees [Part 2]

Important factors while finalizing on a Dental Insurance Plan
An employee has to ask himself the following before he finalizes on a plan:

• Would the employees like to retain the freedom of choosing their own dentists?
• Will the mode of treatment be determined by the patient and the dentist?
• What type of routine and preventive dental care is covered? Does the plan cover braces, oral surgery, crowns and bridges, root canals and treatment of periodontal diseases?
• Will the plan cover all diagnostic, preventive and emergency services? Including preventive services viz. sealants & fluoride treatments, which might result in financial savings to the patient in future? Does it provide for full-mouth x-rays?
• What forms of major dental care is covered? Does the plan cover implants, dentures, or treatment for temporomandibular disorders?
• Does the plan allow for specialist referrals? If so, has the dentist be limited to “the” list of specialists to choose form?
• Does the plan provide for emergencies? What are the provisions made for emergency care when the patient is on tour?
• What percentage of monthly premiums goes into actual care and not to administration?

Dental Insurance benefit coverage should be taken into consideration but should not be the deciding factor in choosing the treatment.

Dental Insurance Plan Models

There are numerous dental plans available. Basically they are of two kinds:
Managed care and Fee-for-service.

Managed care dental plans are restricted forms of dental insurance which aim at reducing costs and payouts. They tend to restrict the coverage by limiting the access to care by restrictions (by predefining dentist, specialist, hospital or treatments in form of lists) and restricting level, type and frequency of treatment (usually in form of clauses in the coverage policy).

Fee-for-service dental plans have a freedom of choice options where one can choose their own dentist and the fee is paid as fixed by the dentist.

…… Go to PART 3

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Advantages of Offering a Dental Benefits Plan to Employees [Part 3]

Kinds of Dental Insurance Plans

Managed Care Dental Plans

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans are plans in which the patient has to select a dentist from a list provided to him. These dentists have agreed to discount their fee by contract with the insurance company. Some PPO plans also allow patients treated by dentists outside their list, where the patient is penalized by excess co-payments and higher deductibles. PPO’s are normally less expensive than indemnity plans in their class.

Keep the following in mind while reviewing a PPO Dental Insurance Plan.

• What is the percentage of the premium used for administration?
• Will the discount influence patients to change their regular dentist? Will the amount of the discount the dentist ahs to offer affect the number of treatment options for the patient?
• What is the liability of the employer in the event of the plan influencing dentist selection or treatment?
• What are the criteria of selection of dentists for the plan? Does it have adequate number of dentists under contract? What is the geographic distribution of dentists? Does the PPO dental insurance plan provide for specialist referrals? If so, are the dentists limited to a specialist on the “list” only?
• How does the plan provide for emergency treatment? If so then how does the plan provide for emergencies outside the geographical area?

Dental Health Maintenance Organization (DHMO) or Capitation plans are designed in such a way that the patient does not have any financial payout when he goes for treatment. These plans pay the dentists on their “list” a fixed amount of money monthly per enrolled family or individual, regardless of visits. In return, the dentists provides specific types of treatment to the patients who visit him at no charge, any other types of treatments require co-payment. This way, the DHMO is rewarding dentists to keep patients in good health, thereby keeping the costs low. This kind of plan is one of the least expensive.

Factors to consider while reviewing a DHMO plan.

• What is the percentage of the premium used for administration?
• Does the employer have access to enough information for him to determine the level and amount of treatment rendered to each of the employees?
• What is the utilization percentage for patients in this plan?
• Average waiting period for an initial appointment and average period between appointments has to be given due consideration.
• What is the dentist/patient ratio for the DHMO plan?
• What is the criterion of dentist selection in the program? What is the geographic distribution of dentists?
• What percentage of dentists is selected for from those who applied to participate?
• How many dentists withdrew from the program in the recent past?
• What is the rate of compensation for the dentists? Is it sufficient compensation for the needs of the covered patient population?
• What are the provisions made for dentists in the event of unforeseen utilization?
• What are the benefits for patients needing a specialist's care?
• How are specialists selected and compensated? Does the plan have adequate specialists?
• Does the program provide for any emergency treatment?
• If so, is it available outside the geographical area?

Fee-for-Service Dental Plans

Direct Reimbursement (DR) plan is a self-funded dental insurance benefit plan which reimburses patients on actual spent on dental care. It is not based on the type of treatment received. The patient has complete freedom in choosing the dentist. The employers are liable to pay a percentage of actual treatment cost, but they do not have to pay monthly premiums for employees who do not need the benefit. Moreover the employer is free of any responsibility to take decisions on mode of treatment due to previous plan selection or sponsorships. Direct Reimbursement Dental Insurance Plan is American Dental Association’s preferred method of dental coverage.

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A Little More About Body Temperature

As you've learned, your body temperature is really an internal clock that keeps us awake and sleeping at certain times. It's also extremely important to understand that the rise and drop of body temperature is a hint for our body to produce the feelings of being awake or being tired. Whenever your body temperature begins to fall, you will feel tired, lethargic, and drowsier. Whenever your body temperature rises, you will feel more energetic, alert, and be able to focus better.


Don't mistake the fall of body temperature at certain times during the day as the need to sleep. Your body temperature may rise and drop several times in the day as a response to the activities you're doing at the time.

Whenever you put big physical demands on your body your body temperature will rise above the norm. As a response to any intensive physical activity, the body temperature drops for a while as soon as you stop the activity.

For example, if you work an 8 hour shift at a job that requires intense activity, one might feel totally drained and ready to fall asleep when you come home at around 4 PM. What you'll actually find is that this feeling of tiredness is not a sincere desire to sleep, but rather a response from your body due to the drop of body temperature.

If you resist sleeping at this moment and provide a “wind-down” period for your body after this period, body temperature will return to a normal and you will feel alert again.

In the Powerful Sleep plan I would suggest that you nap for 10-45 minutes during your day to physically recharge yourself, it's ideal to take this nap when you experience this body temperature drop as it will help you sleep. Always limit your naps to 45 minutes to avoid entering deep sleep.

After you wake up from your power nap it's normal to feel lethargic or drowsy, this is because your melatonin levels are higher. Get as much high intensity light as possible the moment you wake up, and make sure to MOVE your body to get your body temperature up and running again.

If you currently live a very sedentary lifestyle, your body temperature will drop very often when you're sitting around on your butt or watching TV, so if you feel tired during the day understand it’s not because you need more sleep. It's because you need LESS SLEEP and MORE MOVEMENT!

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A GARDEN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

You can have the most elaborated back yard from the entire neighborhood, but if it isn’t functional you have built it in vain. We all want to have beautiful and flourishing gardens, but when we have a family, we must also take into consideration the needs of the other members of it. Divide the space of your yard in two or three visual spaces, one for play and relaxation, one for gardening and maybe one for pets.
An open space, covered by lawn is ideal for your children. Here you can install a table for open air lunches or for a romantic summer evening dinner.
Do you have a fireplace? Keep a portion of your garden especially for depositing fire woods, but make sure it is at a considerable distance from the house or animals that can cause damage.
How about pets? You can build for these little members of your family special spaces, in which they can play and exercise. Before you plant bushes and ornamental plants, surround the pet space. Cats and dogs tend to be attracted exactly by the things we try to keep them away from.
Keep the by-passers’ eyes away from your personal life. Before planning the scenery, you must have in sight a place for the garbage cans. It wouldn’t be very nice to have a wonderful garden right next to the garbage cans. These can be efficiently hidden in some kind of surrounded space, decorated on the sides with life fence.

Functionality is an important factor in your garden, so you have to think about children, little pets and family assets before you plant anything. Save a portion of the yard especially for you, in which you can plant whatever you want and leave for the others some space to breathe freely. You will find it more satisfying this way, once the whole family is happy with your garden and they might even bring their personal ideas for it. It is important that personal space is respected and that is why the garden must not be very wide, taking up all available space. Build from time to time a pathway or some benches where you can just relax and admire your work.

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A FIREPLACE IN YOUR APARTMENT

We sometimes think that we cannot realize everything we want in such a limited space, referring to an apartment, might it be a block apartment or a villa apartment. But either way we can adapt the already existent dimensions or we will think in such a manner that we will create the space we need to bring in a new piece of furniture that we really want or maybe make some mounted bookshelves on one wall of the room.

You can even place a fireplace, an object that usually takes up a lot of space and requires unwanted modifications.

A fireplace can be placed in a corner of a room and it could be, for design’s sake, linked with some mounted bookshelves that can total a real bookcase.

Depending on the dimensions of our room, we will make a design sketch for the wanted fireplace and for the bookshelves made out of wood or wood-like materials that will be chosen accordingly to the objects that are already situated in the room or accordingly to the material the fireplace will be build from (I mean the material the fireplace has on the surface, not the one it is actually made of).

If we have a tall room then we can build a tall fireplace. In the case it will grow a lot up or on the contrary, grow horizontally quite a bit, we will have to keep in mind ventilation. In an apartment we might have to use the common ventilation system unless we are on the top floor. To deal with this aspect you will have to bring a specialist and let him do the calculations and plans needed.

We can think of the fireplace creatively. Why not designing it as a multitude of stairs that will serve as support for different object we can find around the room? Or we can create spaces to store fire wood that will have just a decorative purpose in a block apartment where the fire can be made using gas. But they will bring the rustic image closer to you and will provide the room with infinite connotations.

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A NIGHT OF SPECIAL EFFECTS

Valentine’s Day isn’t all about giving presents, kisses and making love declarations. In order to be somewhat more effective there has to be created a romantic atmosphere everywhere the lovers will go. And especially when the evening comes and a romantic dinner just has to take place. You have to prepare early and let your imagination go wild. And this is all so you two will be able to express freely on Valentine’s Day.

What is the thing you need the most to create the desired effects?

Candles … Lots of them … Of different colors and dimensions … The predominant color has to be red, the color that is considered to be the color of love. They can be placed anywhere in the room: near the windows so their light would seem to come from out there somewhere, on the nightstands, on the desk and in every other corner of your room.

It’s going to be a long dinner and a long evening, so the candles will have to burn a long time. Pick candles in small bowls or if you choose bigger bowls you can let them burn without any worries: they will burn but nothing else will catch fire around them.

If you can’t agree with candles, pick then some scarves to throw over the light sources. They have to be colored, preferably red, but they can also come in the color you both like. Keep in mind that the material they are made of must not have plastic fibers in it so that it won’t heat and you can eat your dinner without having to worry about them. If scarves are chosen, the light will be softer and the room invaded with many effects.

Don’t forget the aromatherapy bowls and the perfumed sticks. Your loved one will appreciate if you will use his or hers favorite scent. If you like more the perfume of fresh flowers, pick a discreet bouquet of your favorite ones and place them somewhere around.

Keep in mind that dinner must be something you both like and has to last longer. So, pick different food types and a desert that seems appropriate. The desert would have to have some hearts or cupids design on it if possible. If you don’t cook, order food early and make sure it gets delivered right on time.

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