By Kellen Olshefski
staff writer
The Village of East Troy voted in favor of approving a dental insurance contract through Delta Dental of Wisconsin for processing claims for its self-funded plan at its Oct. 21 meeting.
According to Village Trustee Ann Zess, with the consideration the village’s dental plan is self-funded, administration is currently processing all of the bills and claims in the current dental plan.
Zess said the proposal from Delta Dental would allow the village to continue with the self-funded plan, yet save the village money and give village employees more dental benefits.
She said the village would save a percentage discounted, worked out with providers, despite the slight administration cost associated with the Delta Dental proposal.
According to Village President Randy Timms, through the current self-funded plan, employees can spend up to $1,500 at the dentist without it costing employees anything. Using the Delta Dental plan, employees will still be limited at $1,500 per year, but would be receiving discounted fees from dental providers.
“So, you would get more service for the same $1,500 by using them as administrators,” he said.
“It’s like being in any insurance program … if you go to the doctor and pay $200 for a physical, but if you have Blue Cross Blue Shield and you go to the doctor, he only charges you $150.”
Trustee Fortune Renucci asked members of the board who would be making up the difference if the dentist is giving a discount.
“They’re not going to give it out of the generousness of their hearts,” he said.
Timms said the plan would not only work well for employees, but the dentists as well, making the difference not as big of a concern.
“If I’m Delta Dental and you’re the dentist, I’m going to come to you and say give me a 20 percent discount to everybody I bring in your door and I can bring in 10,000 people,” he said as an example.
“You’re going to say, yeah.”
According to Timms, the plan will cost the village $4.53 for each of its eligible employees per month, totaling approximately $1,100 each year. However, by transferring administrative duties over to Delta Dental, the village has almost no administrative costs associated with the dental plan.
“When you look at $1,083, you have to ask yourself, are we using more staff time than that to do our own administration,” he said. “The answer’s got to be yes, I would think.”
After a quick calculation, an employee paid $20 per hour to handle administrative duties related to a dental plan would only have to put in 54 hours per year to equate the $1,083.
