is it beneficial to have dual dental insurance policies?
I’m going іn fοr orthodontics, аnd mу insurance οnlу covers 2000 οf thе 5000 total. саn i cover ѕοmе οf thе ramianing costs bу signing up fοr mу wife’s dental рlаn аlѕο? dοеѕ snyone knwo hοw thаt works?
The only way it might work for you is if you wife’s dental plan pays a higher amount for orthodontics. Most policies will have a provision that disallows paying for anything that is covered on another plan. You cannot be paid by two insurance companies for the same service. Therefore you wouldn’t receive any benefit from the second plan until the first was exhausted, and then only if the benefit was higher.
If your wife’s policy also covers orthodonture, you need to then look at the co-ordination of benefits clause on her policy. Sometimes they will pick up the entire balance after the primary insurance. More often than not, they will only pick up the balance up to their maximum benefit that they would have paid if they were primary.
I do not think that it is additive. You get covered up to whichever covers more, but not the total of the two. For example, if one plan covers 60% and one covers 70%, they do not pay a combined total of 130%!
It is apparent that Addie does not work in the insurance industry because that answer is misleading.
Lori S. is pretty-much right. There is more to it than that, depending on your policy. I would read both dental certificates (yours and your wife’s) under ‘coordination of benefits’ section and that should answer your question as to how it is specifically handled in your instance.
There are too many variables in plans to be more specific than what Lori S. explained.
You can have dual dental. Your plan is primary, wife’s plan is secondary. The ortho will have to submit to your plan first, then after your plan pays, submit to your wife’s plan. It gets very confusing and you may have to chase the carriers for claim payment.