Wanted to vent that the new Delta Dental PPO plan CVX changed to in 2017 is the worst dental plan I have ever had. What a complete ripoff and waste of money!! They reimburse weeks after the fact at less than half what they represented they would reimburse.
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Dental insurance is generally a waste of money. It's better to direct pay your dental bills.
Dentistry is not a big deal. Lots of people self insure for it. You can negotiate with most dentists.
I have always chosen the DHMO dental plan. My teeth are in good shape and my wife and I never miss our bi-annual cleanings. Only twice in over 15 years did I need a root canal. I didn’t find my copay for that service to be very high. Absolutely, I would like to have the option of seeing practically any dentist I want, but not at the monthly premium of the Dental PPO. That plan also restricts total costs to a maximum of $2,000. That could be insufficient if anyone needs more than routine dental work. I know someone who needed $16,000 worth of work in his mouth after years of not taking care of his teeth. He has family in Mexico City, so he went there to get all his teeth fixed. It only cost him $2,000 and the work is equal or better than you can get in the US. Need implants rather than bridgework? Go to Mexico City or countries in South America where the dentists graduated from US universities and dental schools.
Did you know that the plan designs we got to choose from during the last open enrollment period were created and requested by someone in Chevron’s Human Resources department?
That person told an insurance broker how “lean” to make those plan designs and the insurance broker sent the plan designs to a few insurance companies in order to get the price each dental carrier (Delta and United HealthGroup/UHG) would charge for identical plan designs.
Unhappy with the plan designs we got to choose from during the last open enrollment period? Go find the one person who can change what we are offered next year: The Chevron exec that owns the US Human Resources function.
Did you know that Chevron told the insurer what they wanted you guys to have and the insurer created your dental plan options the company specified.
Unhappy with the plan design? Go find the one person who can change what we are offered next year: The Chevron exec that owns the US Human Resources function.
@1bpa, if you’re talking about the maximum annual spending allowance on the Dental PPO, I hear you loud and clear. It hasn’t been increased for a very long time, despite inflation. My wife and I take pretty good care of our teeth, so we’ve always gone with the less expensive Dental HMO Plan. Even though one’s choice of dentists are usually limited to professional dental groups within a DHMO, we were always fortunate to have found excellent dentists within these kind of plans. Our current dentist and her office staff are so good that I’ll never switch again. The DHMO covers everything the PPO does for half the monthly premium and doesn’t have a limitation on annual spending allowance.
I started working about 20 years ago and my dental plan allowance is still the same...
The Dental PPO is good if you have a particular dentist you like to use. If it’s for bi-annual cleanings and preventive care, you’d probably be better off with the less expensive Dental HMO coverage. It costs about half the monthly premium and there’s no maximum spend limits per year, only discounted copays for services. I’ve always chosen the DHMO Plan and it has served me well under Dental USA and previously United Concordia.
I used mine this year and had some major work with no problems also cleanings twice a year. Not much different than the old plan. In fact, with the old plan I had to pay more than they estimated a couple of times but that did not happen with the new one. Actually, I paid less than I thought I would, by about half. I am happy with the new plan. YMMV