FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 1997
CONTACT: Chris Martin; [email protected]
Jann Ingmire; [email protected]; 312/440-2806
ADA Pushes Alternative Dental Benefit Program in Wall Street Journal Advertisement
CHICAGO -- Breaking a long drought on national advertising, the
American Dental Association this month will place four page-dominant
advertisements in the Wall Street Journal to promote Direct
Reimbursement, a method of dental benefit funding that lets patients
choose their own dentist while allowing employers to allocate a greater
percentage of benefit dollars toward actual dental care, thus minimizing
administration costs.
Typically, Direct Reimbursement plans are self-insured plans that
reimburse employees for dental expenses incurred up to the limits of the
plan. The employee usually presents a paid receipt or proof of
treatment and is reimbursed by the employer from an interest-earning
fund set up specifically for the company.
The advertisement is part of a $2.5 million allocation authorized by the
Chicago-headquartered dental care group's House of Delegates last fall.
Other ads have appeared in publications targeting benefits personnel and
chief executive officers and other business decision makers.
The Wall Street Journal advertisement is titled "How to make a CFO say
'ahh,'" and will appear four times in April and three times in September
to coincide with the times of the
year when benefits executives usually make decisions about employee
benefits. The ad encourages readers to call 1-800/232-7698 for an
information packet and computer disk on Direct Reimbursement or to
access the ADA's website at http://www.ada.org to print out a cost
estimate form on Direct Reimbursement.
"This promotion is backed by our 141,000 member dentists who want to
make sure dental patients choose dentists with whom they have a trusting
relationship and that employers have a simple, cost-effective way to
afford and administer a dental benefit plan," said ADA President Gary
Rainwater, D.D.S.
"Direct Reimbursement helps make employees better dental care consumers
because it allows them to set the exact treatment they need -- from
their own dentist -- while helping put 90-95% of every dollar invested
by the employer into actual benefits," he said.
The association's marketing efforts up to now have featured
advertisements in Employee Benefit News, Human Resource Executive,
Business Insurance, Workforce, CFO and HR Magazine. To complement these
ads, a direct mail effort has been used, targeting employers in 24
states.
Currently, approximately 48 percent of Americans are covered by some
form of dental insurance. Dental care expenditures comprised less than
five percent of all health care dollars spent in the United States in
1995, totaling approximately $45.8 billion in 1995.
###
RSS