The dental benefits industry rapidly grew out of the blossoming health insurance market. Perhaps, we can better appreciate the dental benefits industry by getting more familiar with its origins as well as natural progression.
Health insurance began to appear in the United States around 1850 and it just offered advantages to individuals who had been disabled by accidental injury.5 Benefits for medical treatment did not begin to present themselves until 1910, and coverage for hospital, medical, medical and nursing care costs started in 1930.5 The earliest health insurance models were pretty traditional fee-for-service plans (also known as indemnity insurance programs). They had been rapidly followed by numerous prepaid health programs, considered the precursors to today's managed care insurance models such as health maintenance organizations (HMO) and preferred provider organizations (PPO).
The very first example of managed care insurance came about in 1917 in Tacoma, Washington when the Western Clinic started offering the lumber industry with prepaid physician services.6 In 1929, Dr. Justin Ford Kimball was instrumental in establishing the Blue Cross manufacturer by unveiled a prepaid hospitalization for regional teachers sponsored by Baylor Hospital in Texas.6 The Blue Shield method was used in 1939 for participating prepaid physician plans.6
Among the founders accountable for making quality healthcare and insurance available to Americans was industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. In 1938, Kaiser recruited Dr. Garfield that will generate prepaid clinic as well as hospital care for his Grand Coulee Dam project.6 In 1942, Kaiser as well as Dr. Garfield established a prepaid healthcare program for the employees of Kaiser shipyards and Kaiser steel mills that really helped popularize overall health maintenance organizations.7 Kaiser Permanente remains prominent in the HMO insurance market to this day.3
By 1949, there were eighty one Blue Cross hospital strategies and 44 Blue Shield medical insurance plans, covering a total of 24 million Americans.6 Blue Cross organizations and Blue Shield insurance plans covered 52 million along with 40 million Americans respectively by 1959.6 After merging, Blue Cross Blue Shield collectively covered 87.4 million Americans by 1979.6 So Blue Cross Blue Shield, among today's the best insurance providers, was quite influential in the first managed care insurance movement.
Benefits grew as well as expanded in the 1950s as conventional fee-for-service health insurance plans flourished and coverage expanded to add in other expenses, including vision care.3 Most insured people have been covered by either Blue Cross Blue Shield and by individual commercial insurance companies at this time.3 Despite this progress, the 1960s and 1970s brought about a tumultuous time for the health insurance sector.
The word "Health Maintenance Organization" was coined in 1970 by Paul Ellwood, who was instrumental click here to buy ProDentim promote the Maintenance Organization (HMO) Act.6 HMO insurance came around as the insurance marketplace adjusted to employers' and individual consumers' concerns aided by the high premiums connected with traditional indemnity insurance.
After debating various costs for a national health insurance plan in the 1960s and 1970s, Congress passed the health Maintenance Organization Act in 1973.6 This Act provided grants to businesses that implemented HMO insurance - considered cost-effective alternatives to private doctors and hospitals - and effectively urged companies to provide the employees of theirs with health and fitness benefits.