Is this a crazy idea - re: dental ins. for the teachers at my DD's school?

[LoveBWVVBR]

I've been tasked with finding a dental plan for the teachers at my DD's school and I've been striking out left and right. Nobody wants to deal with a group of only 4. Anyways, I'm starting to wonder if we'd be better off "self-insuring" the teachers. How would that even work, though? Would we have to set up an FSA for dental expenses or would the school just pay their bills directly? I'm on the board and I will be proposing this at our meeting in 2 weeks if I can figure out how it would work. Thanks for any info!

ETA - Our school is a not-for-profit 501c3 or whatever it's called if that matters.

 

[tinker&belle]

I don't know how the technical aspect of it would work, but I like the idea of putting 1000 a year in a HSA in lieu of dental insurance. Then they could use it for dental or medical expenses. Most dental insurance caps out at 1000 a year anyway and the teachers would have more flexibility.

I don't know if I would do it if a FSA was the only option since the money could be lost at the end of the year.

 

[csharpwv]

Have you checked Delta Dental? They offer two different plans for Small Business. Both seem like pretty good options.

FSA would be a good option in some situations. An individual who is single with no family or dependents on their plan would require a different amount than an individual with family on their plan.

As the PP said, the biggest worry about FSA is losing it at the end of the year.
Plus with the new rules on SOME FSA's it is getting increasingly difficult to file claims for reimbursement.

Starting Jan 1 - we even have to have a prescription for Tylenol, Tums, etc etc etc - yeah - it's pretty crazy!

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I don't know how the technical aspect of it would work, but I like the idea of putting 1000 a year in a HSA in lieu of dental insurance. Then they could use it for dental or medical expenses. Most dental insurance caps out at 1000 a year anyway and the teachers would have more flexibility.

I don't know if I would do it if a FSA was the only option since the money could be lost at the end of the year.

The problem with an HSA is that you can only do it if you also have a high deductable health plan and right now we're really struggling with finding an affordable health plan for our teachers. The FSA would be the only alternative for us, I think. Could we just pay the $$ directly to the dentist for the teachers, though, or is that not possible? I'd love to skip the hassle of any FSA paperwork if I could.

 

[PHXscuba]

What about a reimbursement-type plan? We had it for vision care at my old job and it was a pretty simple setup. Would definitely cap your costs. I really don't know the details but I'm sure they're out there.

PHXscuba

 

[castmemberb4]

I'm the Office Manager for a general dentist. If the teachers are paying for insurance themselves. Present it this way: for most people with a healthy mouth the cost of dental insurance is higher than what you'd pay out of pocket. The majority of people only need two cleanings and maybe a filling or two per year. Of course you take a gamble that you're not going to need anything major. Get some quotes from local dentist and compare them to the out-of-pocket expense for insurance.

If you are paying for it. We have actually talked about doing something like what you're talking about for our medical insurance. If you have the ability to put $1000.00 per person in an account and pay directly for their work that's a good way to do it. I'm sure their dental offices will want payment at the time of service, just decide on the easiest way for all involved. It might take a trial and error period to dcecidce what that is. If there is a credit card avaliable for the account I know for us we'd always be willing to take that number over the phone, but that would mean the person would have to be in the dental office during school office hours. For small things like cleaning maybe just a reimbursement plan would work.

 

[rhiansmom]

Call an independent broker as there are tax implications for both the employer and employee. If you use an independent broker they aren't set into selling you one specific product.