Dental insurance plans continued to pick up Orange County members over the past year, with the perennial market leader lifting the whole field to a gain.
Local enrollment among the county’s 14 biggest dental plans rose 6% to just more than 2 million, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
No. 1 Delta Dental of California led the way with a 21% jump in enrollment to 885,239 local members. San Francisco-based Delta’s Orange County plan led the list last year, when its local enrollment grew 48%. It now has held the top rank on the list for five consecutive years.
Dip Without Delta
Without Delta Dental, the other 13 insurers saw a 3% decline to 1.17 million members, down from 1.2 million members a year ago.
Six of the plans added members, one saw a decline and one remained flat. Totals for six are Business Journal estimates.
Delta became the Orange County market leader in 2007, succeeding Safeguard Dental Health Plans, which is now part of New York-based MetLife Inc.
MetLife, which kept its No. 2 ranking on the list, reported 205,110 members in Orange County, down 7% from a year ago.
The Business Journal estimates No. 3 Anthem Blue Cross as having 200,000 local members, up from a year ago. Anthem Blue Cross is a unit of Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc.
No. 4 Aetna Dental has 155,401 local members.
No. 5 United Healthcare/PacifiCare is estimated to have 135,000 local members.
No. 6 Cigna Dental, a unit of Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp., has an estimated 131,000 local members, up from 125,454 a year ago.
No. 7 Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America’s membership was essentially flat over a year earlier at 100,986 members.
The No. 8 Western Dental Services, based in Orange, grew 2% to 79,325 local members.
No. 9 United Concordia Cos. of Los Angeles, saw its Orange County membership rise 3% to 47,835. United Concordia is headquartered in Pennsylvania.
No. 10 Golden West Dental & Vision, another WellPoint business unit, has an estimated 35,000 members, unchanged from a year ago.
No. 11 Ameritas Group Dental, part of UNIFI Mutual Holding Co. of Lincoln, Neb., said its Orange County enrollment was up 3% to 31,608.
This year’s list has one new entry: Premier Access Dental and Vision, which is based in Sacramento and has a local office in San Clemente. Premier Access, the list’s No. 12 plan, said it has 25,159 members in Orange County.
No. 13 Newport Dental, a unit of Irvine-based Smile Brands Group Inc., has an estimated 12,500 members, even with last year.
Smile Move
Smile, which had been based in Santa Ana for a number of years, moved its corporate headquarters to a building that fronts the San Diego (405) Freeway in Irvine in late 2010.
No. 14 Dental Health Services, headquartered across the county line in Long Beach, said it had 8,000 members in Orange County, unchanged from a year ago.
Last year, Dental Health Services nearly tripled its Orange County membership.
