Dominion Dental, fresh from its acquisition last year by Capital Blue Cross in Pennsylvania, is growing in membership and offerings.

Alexandria, Va.-based Dominion Dental has increased its membership in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Washington, D.C., from about 175,000 members in 2007 to about 400,000 members now, said Mitch McGlynn, president of Dominion Dental. The Harrisburg, Pa.-based Blues plan serving the Central Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley areas bought Dominion Dental last fall for $9.4 million.

Dominion Dental, formed in 1996, provides individual, group, voluntary and employer paid PPO and dental health maintenance organization plans.

Expanded Pa. presence

As a result of its acquisition, Dominion Dental has been working to expand its offerings in Pennsylvania. Capital Blue Cross, which had no dental plan to offer, has begun selling dental products using Dominion Dental’s administrative end and network development services in the central part of the state. In return, Dominion Dental expects to obtain “significantly improved” support in technology, government affairs and other backroom operations, McGlynn said.

Last fall, the dental insurer expanded its Teethkeepers.com website to provide “triple-choice coverage.” The company added to its reduced fee (discount) program a dental health maintenance organization and PPO option. The dental HMO plan is not available in Maryland and Virginia yet, company officials said.

New tool for brokers

The Teethkeepers.com website has been a success throughout the mid-Atlantic and that success could grow with a new tool offered to brokers, McGlynn said. The dental insurer also is providing brokers with a means to push individual dental sales through their websites to Dominion Dental. Brokers appointed with Dominion Dental can obtain a code allowing them to link on their website to the Teethkeepers.com website, where individuals can obtain dental coverage. New people who access the website and buy coverage from a broker’s site are the broker of record for the sale and earn commission and credits, McGlynn said.

“It takes about five minutes to get the code so we can identify the source of the business coming through a broker’s website,” McGlynn said.

About 45% of consumers lack dental coverage and an increasing number of people who had coverage through their employers are now seeing dental benefits disappear or become voluntary, he said. Those factors make Internet access to dental insurance a possible growth market for brokers.

“Things are tough and people are looking for alternatives,” said McGlynn. “Employers are cutting costs and more employers are offering voluntary dental plans.”

More than 70% of Dominion Dental’s business is in voluntary plans, he added.

This story originally appeared in the April 2009 print edition of Insurance & Financial Advisor.