The Colorado Dental Program Act of 1997 offers dental assistance to children under twenty-one years of age who are not insured under a dental plan and are not eligible for Medicaid program covering preventive, emergency, diagnostic, and limited restorative dental care.
The Colorado Dental Program operates under the following parameters.
Dental assistance program for children
Children's dental plan cash fund
Dental advisory committee
Donated dental services
Fluoridation of community water supplies
The scope of the Colorado Dental Program could be summarized as:
- A prime benefit of this plan is that since they are ‘self-funded', employers can customize these plans to suit their own and their employees' mutual requirements
- This plan routinely coordinates donated dental services for disabled children and adults
- This plan assists communities with a grant program to attain appropriate levels of fluoride in drinking water provided by community water systems as a means of primary prevention of dental decay.
On the other hand the Colorado Dental Association is intensively promoting a dental plan that could increase payments to dentists and help employers save some money while cutting out the insurers. This plan, known as "direct reimbursement," was in dormant existence for years but with the Colorado Dental Association's initiative for a lower-cost plan the market is in the grip of excitement.
With most direct reimbursement plans, employees are allowed to consult any dentist they want to and are reimbursed a part of their expenses by the employer. All procedures, except for cosmetic ones, are covered under the plan and no insurance company is involved in the deal. According to the plan the reimbursement takes place in stages that are decided by the employers as per their convenience. For instance an employer may pay the entire cost for the first $ 200 of the expenses. Thereafter the employer may pay half of the expenses up to $1,500 or alternately select more tiers by paying up the entire cost of the first $ 200, then 70 % of the next $ 600 and 60 % of the next $ 800. Costs above $ 1,000 would have to be paid entirely by the employee.
This move by the Colorado Dental Association has caused a fair amount of resentment among the insurance companies, which are opposing the plan. Apparently a lot of money is involved and this transition, if it happens could mean a big loss for the insurance companies but would benefit the common man the most.
