DES MOINES, Iowa--Principal Financial Group, the nation's premier provider of employee and voluntary benefits, has launched Principal® Dental Series II.
New consumer driven features enable employers to stretch their benefit dollars while employees get personalized coverage.
"With the added flexibility behind Principal Dental Series II, our customers have virtually unlimited options for structuring their dental benefit designs," said Theresa McConeghey, dental product director for The Principal. "We developed our latest product by asking our current customers what they liked best about our dental products. The feedback boiled down to one word, flexibility, so we took that information and ran with it."
Building on the success of the original dental series, Principal Dental Series II boasts new features offering employees greater choice when it comes to how they use their benefit dollars. The maximum accumulation benefit allows dental plan members to roll over a portion of their unused annual maximum into the following year, much like rollover minutes on a cell phone plan.
A new lifetime deductible feature means claimants only meet one deductible amount throughout their lifetime coverage with The Principal. For employers who want to encourage use of in-network providers, the split maximum provides a cost-effective alternative.
In addition to new features, added benefit riders allow for coverage of services not always included in a traditional dental benefit design including: dental implants, temporomandibular joint treatment, cosmetic services, dental accidents and orthodontia coverage.
"One of the most important factors in driving down costs is preventive care, so this is woven throughout all of our dental benefit designs. Employees who seek preventive care will reap the rewards with greater cost savings," said McConeghey. "By pulling together consumer driven healthcare features and new benefit riders, we're building one of the most comprehensive, yet adaptable dental benefit designs in the market."
The Principal provides a number of interactive tools to help members get the most out of their dental benefits through the Principal Dental Health Edge located on www.principal.com. Members can access information on procedures, treatment plans, network providers and oral health information. The site includes a cost estimator, which calculates dental costs in a given ZIP code and a database of network providers who offer discounted charges and fees.
Principal Dental Series II is currently offered as employer-sponsored or voluntary in select states, with an effective starting date of Oct. 1, 2007. To learn more about dental solutions offered by The Principal, brokers should contact their Principal Financial Group representative or visit Principal Financial.
