Benefits 101

05/18/2006
Dental insurance is an insurance plan that will pay for costs of normal dental care as well as damage to teeth from an accident. Types of Dental Insucance There are two main types of dental insurance: scheduled and non scheduled plans. Non Scheduled dental plans provides payment for dental treatment received by the covered individual on fee-for-service basis. Most insurance companies pay the full amount for preventative procedures. Preventative procedues include x-rays, cleanings, tooth sealants, nutritional counseling for dental diseases, and flouride rinses.

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05/15/2006
Dental Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Plans A Dental HMO plan will usually provide the most comprehensive level of benefits with the lowest share of cost to the insured. Routine check-ups and other preventive dental treatments may be covered in full or require a small co-payment. Dental HMO plans are also referred to as "Capitation Dental Insurance Plans." These types of plans will pay the participating dentist a set monthly capitation fee for accepting you as his dental patient. He receives this fee, whether he sees you during the month or not.

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05/15/2006
Dental Insurance Exclusions All dental insurance plans will have a specific list of treatments that will not receive benefits under your policy. These are referred to as the "exclusions or limitations." A limitation usually refers to a maximum benefit limit on a specific covered dental insurance benefit. The exclusions may differ from one dental insurance plan to another, but there are certain exclusions that you should expect to find in your dental insurance plan.

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05/15/2006
Discount Dental Plans A discount dental plan is not considered dental insurance, but it is a very common type of dental plan. Any company that offers a discount dental plan must disclose that they are not offering a dental insurance policy. Unlike a dental insurance policy, you will not have set co-payments or coinsurance amounts under a discount dental plan. The payments that you make for this type of dental plan are a membership fee. As a member of a discount dental plan, you will be able to receive dental services from a specific list of dentists at a discounted rate.

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05/15/2006
A PPO dental insurance plan will provide you with more freedom to choose your dentist than an HMO dental plan. You will be able to seek dental services from a wider selection of dentists, and may visit any dentist or specialist within the PPO network. However, unlike a traditional dental insurance plan, you will still not have the complete freedom to use any dentist of your choice. A PPO dental plan will provide you with a list of participating dentist. All of the dentists on this list will have a contractual agreement with the dental insurance company to provide services at negotiated rates to any member of the dental insurance plan.

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04/06/2006
Aetna will expand disease management from the current six conditions - asthma, diabetes, chronic heart failure, coronary artery disease, end-stage renal disease and low back pain. The additional conditions are grouped by such categories as pulmonary, orthopedic, oncology, "neuro," and "GI," or gastro-intestinal. The conditions will include hypertension, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, migraines, sickle cell disease, peptic ulcers, HIV and various kinds of cancer. California-based LifeMasters, a vendor that handles diabetes and heart failure programs for some Aetna members, will continue to do so.

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04/04/2006
Aetna To Announce First Quarter 2006 Results HARTFORD, Conn., April 4, 2006 - Aetna (NYSE: ΑET) announced today that its first quarter 2006 results will be made public on Thursday, April 27th, at 6:00 a.m. ET, and that the first quarter 2006 results conference call will begin at 8:30 a.m. ET on that day. The public may access the conference call through a live audio webcast available on Aetna’s Investor Information link on the Internet at www.aetna.com.

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04/01/2006
HARTFORD, Conn., March 31, 2006 - Aetna (NYSE: ΑET) announced today that it is offering a continuing education course to participating dentists that will help them identify individuals who are at greatest risk for dental decay, or caries, with the goal of improving early intervention and prevention. The course, titled "Cariology Update for the Dental Practitioner," offers dental practitioners three continuing education credits free of charge.

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