Competing for the Dental Benefits Consumer
Yuliya Esipov, Associate Research Director, Workplace Benefits Research, LIMRA and LOMA
February 2024
I recently moved to a new town — not to mention a new state — and had to go through a painstaking exercise of finding a new dentist. I had been loyal to my local dentists for 15 years. I would go quite a distance — if it were feasible — to continue with that dental practice.
According to LIMRA’s 2022 Workforce Benefits Employer Benchmarking Study, 67 percent of employers (with 100 and more employees) currently offer dental insurance to their full-time employees. I am one of the fortunate individuals who have access to dental benefits at work. In addition, I consider myself part of the large group of U.S. employees (64 percent) who, according to LIMRA’s May 2022 BEAT Study, believe they understand dental insurance very well or extremely well. Armed with that presumed knowledge, I focused on finding an in-network dental office. In the absence of any friends in the area who could provide recommendations, I logged into my phone’s dental portal app to check if there were any reviews available to help me fine-tune my search.
Just five years ago, this process was hard to imagine, yet here I was, utilizing one of the many recent technological innovations aimed at elevating my consumer experience. Finding an in-network dental provider for cost-saving purposes only partially met my needs. ...
Ready to learn more? Click here to read the rest of the article.
Haven't subscribed to MarketFacts yet? Click here to subscribe now.