Orange County’s dental insurers posted overall growth in enrollment in the past year with the market leader leading the gains.
The 14 dental health maintenance and preferred provider organizations on this year’s Business Journal list saw OC membership grow 8% to 1.4 million during the past 12 months.
The overall growth was dominated by No. 1 SafeGuard Dental & Vision, which posted a 25% gain to 428,000 OC members, according to a Business Journal estimate.
Factoring out Aliso Viejo-based SafeGuard, the remaining 13 dental plan providers had a 2% increase in local enrollment.
SafeGuard’s enrollment growth came about through acquisitions. Earlier this year, it bought the California dental and vision HMO membership for an undisclosed price from GE Wellness Dental & Vision, which was No. 11 on last year’s list.
Estimates were made for five other dental plan providers: No. 4 Aetna Health of California; No. 5 Blue Cross of California; No. 7 Guardian Life Insurance Co.; No. 11 Golden West Dental & Vision; and No. 13 Newport Dental Plan.
Delta Dental reported 6% growth in OC plan enrollment to 203,091 members.
Other top-five dental plans are No. 3 Cigna Dental, down 11% to 129,600 local members; Aetna Health, with an estimated 128,710 local members; and Blue Cross, with an estimated 105,000 local dental plan members.
The list had one newcomer: No. 6 PMI Dental Health Plan, a unit of Delta Dental. PMI reported enrollment of 93,020 OC members.
Guardian Life had an estimated 70,000 local members. Western Dental Services, the No. 8 plan, posted a 10% membership gain to 66,728 local enrollees.
The No. 9 plan, Santa Ana-based PacifiCare Dental and Vision, said its OC membership grew 12% to 60,252.
PacifiCare Dental and Vision’s growth came as it tapped its commercial health plan clients to cross-sell its dental plan, said Cheryl Randolph, a spokeswoman for Cypress-based parent company PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.
No. 10 United Concordia Cos.’ OC dental plan enrollment grew 8% to 49,752 members with No. 11 Golden West Dental & Vision next with an estimated 48,000 OC enrollees.
At No. 12 is Ameritas Group Dental and Eye Care, which posted a 6% membership decline to 25,751.
Rounding out the list were Newport Dental Plan with an estimated 11,400 members and No. 14 Dental Health Services, which recorded a 23% local membership gain to 3,436.
