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Carin Hep, the Connecticut-focused assistant vice president of small group and individual broker channel sales for Delta Dental, knows the importance of small businesses.
“Small businesses make up the majority of the businesses in Connecticut, in the country, and our workforce,” Hep said, noting how they are all unique. “Their needs are different than those of large employers. Small businesses tend to have an owner wearing many different hats, responsible for a lot of different areas other than just their area of expertise. Oftentimes that means that they have to manage HR and benefits as well as their business. That’s why a broker or consultant is so important to a small employer looking to offer benefits to their employees.”
The Delta Dental Plans Association is a network of dental insurance companies consisting of 39 independent Delta Dental members operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Hep, whose office covers Connecticut and New Jersey, described vetting carriers and comparing plans as a time-consuming task that is often far outside of the aspects of a business that an owner likely wants to focus on. Yet offering the right benefits package can touch on many aspects of a business.
“Right now, there’s a competition for talent,” Hep noted. “It’s fierce. It’s ongoing. It may not have been a byproduct of the pandemic, but I think that really ramped it up, so employers are struggling not only to retain talent but to attract talent. Benefits is one area where small employers can focus to really create a package that is attractive for both their existing and their potential new hires.”
According to Hep, an increasing number of employers are now offering dental and vision bundled together, particularly when voluntary offerings allow employees to cover health costs with pre-tax dollars. She pointed to statistics showing these models tend to increase the use of benefits by employees which has important implications for the health of the workforce.
“The tie-in between your oral health and your overall health is proven. Dentists can detect over 120 diseases or conditions in the mouth. An optometrist can detect over 200 conditions just by looking in your eye,” Hep said.
Employees who might be hesitant to go to their primary care doctors covered by standard insurance can have conditions caught early through dental and vision visits, according to Hep, who added that can have a major impact on an employee’s overall health.
“It’s early detection, early intervention which leads to better outcomes and less spend for chronic conditions. When a small business owner is offering a dental or vision benefit to their employees there’s a great ROI,” she said.
Hep noted that healthier employees are not only less likely to take sick time, but less likely to be distracted on the job by tooth pain or need to take steps to deal with vision issues that could be easily handled with a pair of glasses. Employees with those needs met can also have a positive impact on the bottom line when it comes to primary insurance as well.
“The impact that dental and vision benefits can have on your medical utilization is substantial. Think about the number of lost work hours, it’s over 164 million a year due to dental emergencies. You can mitigate those visits and have more productivity out of your employees if they’re not worrying about their oral healthcare,” said Hep.
She also noted that 89% of the population has a vision correction need, requiring glasses or contact lenses – a number which is likely to expand in coming years due to the effects of monitors and blue light causing eye strain in more and more roles.
Hep allowed that despite the value dental and vision coverage can provide for small businesses, the complexities of navigating the system can be discouraging to overburdened business owners, and touted the unique corporate structure of Delta Dental as one which they may find particularly attractive.
“Our networks are our own and we have the relationships with the providers,” Hep said, noting that Delta Dental does not “lease” networks from other insurance companies, rather maintaining a nationwide association of 39 smaller Delta Dental companies that can focus on their local regions.
“We are credentialing the providers to make sure that we want them in our networks,” she said. “For our members, it’s really important that they know that their dentist has been credentialed.”
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