Did you know that Medicare does not cover routine preventative dental care or more expensive dental services, such as crowns?
Your clients may not understand this coverage gap, exposing them to potentially high out-of-pocket costs or even health risks. But you can help.
Medicare BackOffice® offers private dental plans and Medicare Advantage plans that include dental coverage. As a Medicare BackOffice partner, you can tell your clients that you have a resource to help them find dental coverage.
We’ve made it easy for you to show your value as an advisor who understands the pressing issues of rising health care costs — including dental costs — to their financial futures. We created an easy-to-understand infographic for you to email or show to your clients. It explains how Medicare doesn’t cover dental costs, and it reveals new data by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) — of people on Medicare, almost two-thirds (65%), or nearly 37 million people, do not carry dental coverage. And it shows how costly a lack of dental coverage can be to their finances and to their health if they skip dental care. At the bottom, the infographic includes the Medicare BackOffice phone number for easy reference, should they want to explore dental plans.
It’s Worth a Look
Your clients may think that dental coverage is too expensive or too difficult to obtain. This may be because they’ve only gotten a quote from one company, or they’ve heard about waiting periods. Dental insurance, even for younger patients, is often not seen as a necessity or a good buy — until an expensive procedure is needed. Because Medicare BackOffice offers dental plans from multiple carriers, the Licensed Insurance Agents can compare different plans, explain the plan differences and likely can find one that will fit in their budget.
Like many private plans for working-age adults, dental coverage for older Americans tends to cover most lower-cost preventative services but is not as generous for more expensive services, and is often subject to annual dollar caps on covered service. Older patients acquiring new plans often have a waiting period of a year or so before they can access benefits.
Your clients should at least look into the coverage to see if it’s affordable for them. As the infographic shows, dental insurance may really protect them from financial burdens.
You can find the infographic under the Medicare BackOffice website’s “Resources” tab, in the “Library.”
Or, you can refer clients directly to Medicare BackOffice at any time by providing our phone number, filling out this referral form for us to call them, or having them fill out this self-referral form.
