Dental HMO and PPO plans’ net dental enrollment increased 3.7% to 2.7 million Orange County members in the year ended July 31.
Dental insurers said the sector remains largely untouched by recent proposals to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The policy makes few mentions in regard to dentistry to start with.
The biggest change is the law’s designation of pediatric dental care as an essential health benefit—meaning that dental coverage for children must be made available, including small-business and individual group plans and stand-alone plans.
The 13 dental insurers on this week’s Business Journal ranking are measured by the size of their OC memberships.
• Delta Dental of California in Cerritos ranks No. 1 with 1.5 million members, a 1.8% increase from a year earlier.
• No. 2 and No. 3 changed places this year, with New York-based MetLife Inc.’s Irvine operations overtaking Indianapolis-based Anthem Blue Cross’ Costa Mesa office with about 249,000 members, increasing its enrollment 33% from 186,522 a year earlier, by far the biggest percentage jump on the list.
Anthem Blue Cross has an estimated 200,000 members here.
• No. 4 through No. 7 on the list remain unchanged, with No. 4, Connecticut-based Cigna’s Irvine operations, growing membership 4.8% to 170,530 and No. 7, Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America, increasing 2.3% to 114,628 members.
• UnitedHealthcare Dental ranks No. 5 with an estimated 154,805 local members, and Aetna Dental comes in at No. 6 with nearly 150,000, an estimated number.
• This year’s Nos. 8 and 9 also swapped places. Western Dental Services Inc. in Orange landed at No. 8 with an estimated 45,000 members, and United Concordia Dental fell to No. 9 with 43,753 members, a 5.9% decline from a year earlier.
• Ameritas Group Dental in Costa Mesa is No. 10 with almost 42,000 members, an estimate, followed by Irvine-based Smile Brands Inc. and Sacramento-based Premier Access Insurance Co., with 12,500 and 12,332 members, respectively, both estimates.
• Long Beach-based Dental Health Services trailed with 6,493 members. Its membership declined 10.6% from 7,261 members a year earlier.
