Yay or Nay?: Delta Dental is No. 1

So take this with a grain of salt here everyone, because the survey data came from Delta Dental themselves, but a press release hit my inbox recently declaring the dental benefits provider is No. 1 among consumers, dentists, brokers and benefits decisionmakers.

According to the survey, Delta Dental outperforms the competition on all attributes of importance to benefits decisionmakers who consider the brand three times more frequently than its competitors. Delta Dental holds a significant advantage with benefits decision makers in terms of brand awareness, reputation, retention, and market share. Among benefits decision makers, Delta Dental possesses more brand advocates than any other competitor.

Benefits decision makers with Delta Dental benefits identify the following attributes as most important: 1) customer service; 2) best value; 3) a company you trust; 4) fast claims processing; 5) easy to administer; 6) many dentists; 7) easy to use; 8) quality care; 9) friendly 1-800; and 10) rate stability.

So what do you think? Do you work with Delta Dental, and if so, is it in fact No. 1? Yay or nay?

Tip of the Day: Maintain that dental plan

Sure, it's not as "sexy" and newsmaking as other benefits, like health care and retirement plans. And it's not the "unicorn" benefit that might get you on the Fortune list, like sushi bars and onsite massages. But dental benefits arguably are the tortoise to health benefits hare, and a new survey from Delta Dental cements their value among consumers.

BenefitNews.com reports Delta Dental Plans Association recently issued survey results showing that workers with employer-sponsored dental benefits are more likely to visit their dentists for checkups than other workers.

For example, 83% of participants with dental benefits visit the dentist twice or more a year, compared to 63% of consumers who pay out of pocket for their dental benefits or dental care. Moreover, employed adults lose more than 64 million hours of work each year due to dental disease or dental visits.

Click here to read more survey results and related EBN dental coverage.