Dental Insurance Guide

You may be asking yourself, what an HMO dental insurance plan is. To start let us define HMO dental coverage. HMO is short for health maintenance organization. How does it work you may ask? When it comes to an HMO dental insurance plan, dentists that are within a specific network must provide dental care for members who have a plan for which they are part of.

There are two specific types of dental plans which you most likely have a few are already covered. These two categories are HMO and PPO. Because these different types of plans work in different ways, it is important for you to understand which type of dental coverage that you currently have or wish to purchase.

With an HMO dental insurance plan there is usually some type of payment or pre-payment upfront from you. As we’ve already discussed you are then allowed to have dental care from a list of providers within a network. What if there are no specific dentists that you wish to use within network? You could get dental services outside of the network, but you will have to pay the entire dentists bill yourself.

So what types of things doesn’t HMO dental plan cover? This would include basic dental services such as cleaning, regular dental exams, as well as even dental x-rays. Many times you will find that there are no out-of-pocket expenses for this plan. But rather, these basic services are provided free of charge to individuals under the HMO insurance plan.

What about dental procedures such as dental crowns, dentures and bridgework? Without dental coverage these would be extremely expensive. But under the HMO dental insurance plan, you will find that many insurance companies will many times up to 70 or 80% for these types of procedures. This means that you would have some expenses.

Are there any downsides to having an HMO dental plan? Several things that may bother you, is the fact that you can only receive services from dentists within the specified network. Because dentists who are a part of the HMO network get paid a set rate for their services, you may find in some cases that the dental service that you receive may not always be as high quality as that from a PPO dental insurance plan.

Are you interested in finding out more information on PPO dental insurance plans? Check out several of our other articles on this subject.