Dental Health = Overall Health. One Insurer Gets It.

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DENTAL NEWS: Aetna reports that in 2008, nearly 67,000 of its health insurance members who are considered medically at risk sought dental care they would otherwise not have gotten because of Aetna's DMI (Dental Medical IntegrationSM) program. Aetna's DMI program is offered at no additional charge to all Aetna medical plan members who are identified as "at risk" meaning those with diabetes, heart disease and pregnant women who will not see a dentist in a year or more. Introduced in 2006, Aetna's DMI program now standard issue.

DENTAL VIEWS: The optimist in me says that this DMI program is a win-win situation because it improves the health of chronically ill people without increasing the price they pay for health insurance. The cynic in me says Aetna isn't implementing the DMI program because they want to help people, they're doing it so they can save money in the long run by not having to pay out as much money for treatments of their chronically ill members.