Do you still have any unused dental benefits that you can use this year? In less than three months it’ll already be a new year. If you’ve paid for dental insurance every month, or you still have funds available within a Flexible Spending Account(FSA), now is the time to use these benefits before they slip away on January 1st!
According to the National Association of Dental Plans, only 3% of people with PPO dental plans typically reach or exceed their plans’ annual maximum. That means about 97% of us essentially leave money on the table by not using up our hard earned (and paid for!) dental insurance benefits each year!
We get it. Daily life gets hectic for everyone. It’s easy to forget, postpone or even neglect to schedule your routine cleanings and check-ups. But do try to schedule an appointment to come in before the end of the year, so that you can put your dental benefits to work before you lose them.
1. You Still Have Not Reached Your Yearly Insurance Maximum – Your dental insurance covers a maximum dollar amount that you can spend towards your annual dental care. If you haven’t hit this annual maximum yet, and you know that you may need additional dental work soon, use what you can this year towards some work you need. And then when your new maximum begins next year, apply this to some of the remaining work you may need. Your max amount will vary depending on your dental plan, but it will typically reset at the end of the year (Dec 31st). So, that means you can use any unused benefits to work now before you forfeit them January 1st.
2. Prolonging Your Dental Care Could Cost You More – Delaying dental treatments that you know you need, or even postponing your annual check-ups can lead to you needing more extensive, and costly, future dental care. It’s just like neglecting to change the oil on your car. A lingering cavity today turns into a root canal or, even the loss of a tooth down the road. Applying your dental benefits now towards your routine dental care, or other treatments, will help keep your teeth healthy and also keep your future dental costs down.
3. You’ve Reached (or Just About Reached) Your Annual Deductible – Your insurance deductible is the amount of money you’ve already paid (out of pocket) before your insurance pays for any of your dental care. This deductible varies between insurance companies and may be higher if you prefer seeing a dentist who is out of your plan’s network. When your plan rolls over at the beginning of the year, you start from ground zero paying towards a new deductible before you can take advantage of your dental benefits.
4. Don’t Lose Your Existing FSA Contributions – Your Flexible Savings Account (FSA) is an account that you’ve established through your employer to have some of your pre-tax pay put into. If you have an FSA account that has a remaining balance that you can use towards your dental care, you’ll want to use up this balance before the end of the year, as you can lose this by the end of the year.
5. Your Dental Coverage Could Change Next Year– Changes in health care plans occur every year. If your current health insurance plan changes after the New Year, either because you or your employer change health/dental insurance carriers, next year’s dental benefits may not be as good as they are now.
Please give us a call (425) 957-4700 or contact us online to find out if you have any dental benefits remaining that you can put to work now! And if you have set up an FSA account, or a Health Savings Account (HSA), contact your FSA representative (or your Human Resources department, if you’re not sure). You may also want to verify with your FSA what types of dental services you can be reimbursed for. These generally include dental treatments for the prevention and alleviation of dental disease, including fillings, teeth cleanings, x-rays and other dental treatments.
If you know that you need to have some dental work done and you still have dental benefits that you can apply towards this work, now is the time to get it done…before everyone else is trying to get in BEFORE the New Year! Just give us a call and we’ll make sure you get on the schedule in time!
