As most of you who design and/or administer benefit plans know, most Dental plans have an annual max that folks have to work with - usually $500 to $1,500 annually for each covered employee/dependent. Use it or lose it, and start with a new pool of dollars the next calendar year.
Evidently, the long arm of preventative care on the medical side has found it's way to the Dental plan. With an eye towards costly factors like gum disease--which studies have linked with diabetes, heart disease and premature birth, many dental providers are now allowing members to roll over a percentage of their unused maximum treatment limits to subsequent years, with the amount of the percentage determined by the insurers.
Some of the plans cap the number of years you can hold carryovers, some have a hard cap on a dollar amount limit - lots of flavors in this space. Additionally, the studies show that it only costs companies 5% more to offer such rollovers, but I would think it is hard to lock that number down since you are deferring an expense to the plan that you plan to pay for at some point in the future.
One more way big-ticket Medical items are dictating strategy - similar to the new trend of giving Rx away free in order to control disease management issues....
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