Question: I would like to sign up for the Delta Dental PPO plan listed in the CovererdCa Dental Plans for Children document. I called Delta, they said they don’t sell it. How do I apply for this dental policy?
Answer: Delta Dental is one six selected companies including Anthem, Blue Shield, Health Net, LIBERTY Dental, and Premier Access Dental - offering dental plans in covered California. You can select Dental Dental’s plan on your Covered California health insurance application either online or by paper application. The dental plan selection was added to the applicaqtion very recently.
The Delta Dental PPO is only sold as a group plan, so you won’t find it available through Covered CA or on the Delta Dental IFP website either. While many dentists don’t participate in any dental HMO, dental HMOs tend to offer unlimited benefits compared to PPOs which usually cap out annually at $1200 - $2000 in covered services.
If your preferred dentist is a plan provider, you will probably do better in Delta Dental’s (or any other insurer’s) HMO. Blue Shield’s Dental HMO is a particularly attractive plan and has a fairly broad network (at least in Southern CA where my business is).
However, a number of Blue Shield’s participating providers are not accepting new patients, so unless you are already a patient in one of those practices, enrolling in a “closed” panel will not be possible. This may also be true of some of the other plans, too.