Managed dental care plans saw a slight drop in their Orange County membership during the past year.
The Business Journal’s annual list of dental health maintenance organization and preferred provider organization plans with local members showed that the 13 largest plans had a collective membership slip of 1% to 2,018,857.
Dental plans on the list are ranked by local membership.
• San Francisco-based Delta Dental Plans Association of California once again came out on top.
Delta, which has an office just over the Los Angeles County line in Cerritos, said its local enrollment came in at 970,000, a minimal increase over last year’s 966,800 OC enrollees.
Delta became Orange County’s market leader seven years ago, supplanting what was then Safeguard Dental Health Plans, which is now a unit of New York-based MetLife Inc., the No. 3 plan in the county with 186,505 local members.
• The Business Journal estimates that Anthem Blue Cross has 200,000 dental plan members in Orange County.
• Cigna Dental, a unit of Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna Corp., was again No. 4 on this year’s list. The Business Journal estimated Cigna had 152,782 members in the county.
• Aetna Dental remained at No. 5 on the list. The Business Journal estimates that Aetna has 144,315 members in Orange County.
• Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America’s dental plan ranks No. 6. It posted a 2% membership hike to 102,238.
• UnitedHealthcare Dental followed at No. 7, with a 3% Orange County membership growth to 97,280.
• The No. 8 plan, Orange-based Western Dental Services Inc., had an estimated 45,000 members in Orange County.
• No. 9, Ameritas Group Dental had a large hike. Ameritas said its Orange County membership grew 40% to 41,742 members.
• United Concordia, based in Harrisburg, Pa., was this year’s No. 10 plan after its membership slid 14% to 33,208 from No. 9.
• Sacramento-based Premier Access Dental and Vision, which has a local office in San Clemente, was the list’s No. 11 plan after two years at No. 12. The Business Journal estimates Premier Access has 25,845 members in OC.
• Irvine-based Smile Brands Group followed at No. 12. The Business Journal estimates that Smile Brands, which was previously listed as Newport Dental, has 12,500 members in the county.
• Long Beach-based Dental Health Services rounds out the list. Dental Health said it had 7,442 members, down 25% from a year ago.
