Moan, moan, moan. That is all the Higher Beings in C-suite seem to do. This time, several of them have given Big Bad Boss a bad time about our dental benefits plan. My eyes roll. It is not even one of our core benefits; it is a just voluntary plan, so no one is forcing them to take it. They could go to any provider in their own right, and if I am honest, I am not sure they would pay so much more. I guess that is the problem; if there is one thing the Higher Being expects from us it is executive perks, big perks.
I do not participate in the scheme myself, so I do a bit of asking around to see what the fuss is about. Some employees complain they are a bit slow in processing claims. Others say the excess is too high. Another suggests it should cover cosmetic treatment with aligners, and whitening treatments. They don’t want much.
You may remember I hate doing rework. I spent a lot of time setting up this dental plan and, at the time, it was definitely the best on the market. There are niggles, yes, but there does not seem enough problems to have to start all over. Big Bad Boss is insistent. He needs to go back with a positive response to the moaning. Sigh.
I arrange a beauty parade with the other two major providers. I can dust off the request for proposal (RFP) we put out before; it was a couple of years ago and nothing much has changed, although I can now give a realistic idea of take-up. Our current provider is a typical insurance product. The individual pays a premium and has a list of issues they can claim against it. There are a couple of other providers offering a cash plan where the person pays a monthly fee, which really only spreads the cost of treatment. We already have a health cash plan which allows for claiming on basic treatment, so I do not want to go down that route. However, I make a note to step up the marketing of the dental aspect in case that pleases some people moaning about excess.
Selecting a new provider
I still think we have the best of the insurance providers in place, but I suspect even if I get a new scheme agreed, it is now tainted in the eyes of our noble leaders. So, I begin negotiations with SimpleTeeth. It offers three tiers of cover, rather unoriginally named Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Should it not be White, Whiter, and Whitest, I ponder. There is an impressive list of conditions covered including fillings, crowns, and emergencies. There are long descriptions of facial surgery options, which I would rather not think too much about. The other provider, Dentinsure, has a more impressive sales pitch, but the cover sounds identical. I am guessing all providers are similar, I mean, how many things can you do to teeth? I am tempted to skip the comparison of cover, but I know someone will ask me. I remember we have a new AI tool for that sort of thing, and I feed in the documents and wait seconds for the summary. As I suspected, there are few differences.
Given the perceived problems with claiming, I quiz both providers on their customer service offering and service levels. David from Dentisure has all the answers, presenting with a whole pack setting out how it performs against the competition. He flashes a beautiful smile while telling me they can demonstrate they respond to claims quicker than our current provider. I have no idea if it is true, but I like that. David is also a good advert for keeping your teeth in shape.
Finally, I wade through the cover again searching for details on cosmetic treatment. As I thought, no one covers this unless medically justified and why should they. However, there is one firm, the one with the fancy service level stats, which offers to cover a limited contribution towards the first consultation on aligners. I drop that into my summary proposal.
Family cover
Finally, there is some boring stuff to tick off on options for family cover. It is hard for me to get excited, but I have learnt our employees are obsessed with benefits for their children. Again, Dentinsure comes out tops. It does not take long to summarise all this in a nice deck for Big Bad Boss to take to the Higher Beings. I wait to hear the conclusion. I have made a clear recommendation, but sometimes they choose someone else just to be awkward or because they know the chief financial officer in a lesser firm.
Luckily, this time they go with our choice. I am pleased although my preference would have been to leave well enough alone and stick with the existing provider. This way, I still have a whole load of work to do, including giving notice to the existing firm and setting up the process with the new one. Our flex provider will help with some of this, but it is still down to me to make sure it all works. Still, I am a small cog in a giant machine, and nobody really cares how much pointless work I need to do, least of all Big Bad Boss or the Higher Beings. I should have added a notional setup time cost to the proposal so that the Higher Beings can see the impact of their changing whims.
Now I have refreshed my memory on dental plans, I wonder if I should reconsider the option for myself. In the end, I decide against it. I look after my teeth, and I can cover routine hygienist through the health cash plan. Hopefully, the moaners will be happy we have responded to complaints. At least there should be a few more smiles around here.
Next time…Candid helps with budgets.
