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When it comes to employee benefits, dental insurance long has posed a variety of challenges to companies and employees alike. But a new look at dental benefits is giving rise to what some see as a strong alternative called direct reimbursement.
Direct reimbursement means that the employer becomes the dental insurer. At first glance, this might seem like a risky proposition, but supporters say a closer look shows that the benefits to everyone outweigh the risks.
"It has been very successful for us," said Chip Toth, operations manager of Lee's Summit-based JCI Industries, an industrial distributor and repair site. "We had used an HMO for a dental plan. The nice thing about this plan is you really don't have any rules. Other plans are so complicated and have heavy restrictions, whereas (direct reimbursement) is across the board."
JCI is in the first year of offering direct reimbursement as its dental benefit. "We anticipate that it may cost the company just a little more than we actually take in for the first year since many employees are having work done that they didn't have under the old plan," Toth said. "But we expect that it will ultimately cost the company...