Dental and vision
Group dental and vision for a small business
Figures on this page checked . Small group rates and rules reset every year — if you are reading this long after that date, call and we will tell you what moved.
What’s the difference between employer-paid, shared and voluntary dental?
It’s who pays the premium. In an employer-paid plan the company pays all of it. In a shared plan the company pays part and employees pay the rest through payroll. In a voluntary plan the employee pays all of it, and the company’s job is to set it up and run the deductions.
- Employer-paid is the benefit people notice. Nearly everyone eligible enrolls, because it’s free to them, and a group where nearly everyone enrolls is the group carriers like to price.
- Shared is common among small companies: you cover the employee, and employees who want their family on the plan pay the difference.
- Voluntary costs the company almost nothing beyond the paperwork. The trade is that the people most likely to sign up are the ones who already know they need a crown, and carriers price for that.
In plain terms
“Adverse selection” is the insurance name for that last point. When only the people expecting a big bill enroll, the plan costs more per person, and carriers protect themselves with longer waiting periods and higher enrollment minimums on voluntary plans.
How small can a company be and still offer group dental and vision?
Most dental and vision carriers will write a plan for a company with as few as two enrolled employees, as long as the company pays some or all of the premium. Voluntary plans usually need more people enrolled, commonly somewhere from four to ten, because a plan nobody is required to join needs a bigger group to price.
Carriers also set their own rules for what the company has to pay. Among the dental carriers that sell to small groups in Colorado, the minimum employer contribution runs from nothing at all to half of the employee’s own premium. Participation rules vary the same way, and they change without much notice, so we check them against your headcount when we quote rather than printing one carrier’s rule here.
Who counts
Carriers want proof of a real employer and employee relationship, usually payroll records, before they write a group plan. If you’re not sure whether your company qualifies, that’s a phone call, not a web page.
Which way of paying fits your company?
The one that matches how much you can spend and how many people will enroll. Here are the three side by side.
| Question | Employer-paid | Shared | Voluntary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who pays the premium | The company, all of it | Both: often the company covers the employee, the employee covers family | The employee, all of it |
| Enrollment carriers want | Lowest bar; often two enrolled | Low; often two enrolled, with a share of eligible people signing up | Highest bar; commonly four to ten enrolled |
| Taxes | The company’s cost is a business expense, and not income to the employee | The employee’s share can come out of pay before tax under a Section 125 plan | Same: payroll deduction, before tax under a Section 125 plan |
| Waiting periods | Often shortest | In between | Often longest on major work |
| Best for | Recruiting, and a small team you want to keep | A company that wants to pay something without paying for families | A tight budget, or a team that asks for it |
General patterns across carriers, not any one carrier’s rules. Enrollment minimums, contribution minimums and waiting periods are set by each carrier and change; we check them against your company when we quote. A Section 125 plan is a written plan document your company adopts; your payroll provider or accountant usually sets it up.
Can you offer dental and vision without a health plan?
Yes. Dental and vision are sold on their own, and a company with no group health plan can offer one or both. For a business that isn’t ready for a health plan, or whose people are covered through a spouse or the marketplace, it’s often the first benefit it adds.
The other choice is whether to buy dental and vision from the same carrier as your health plan or separately.
- Bundled with the health plan: one bill, one renewal date and one card in some cases, and some carriers price the package better than the parts.
- Stand-alone: you choose the dental network your employees’ dentists are in, and you can change your health plan next year without disturbing the dental plan.
For dental, the network is usually the deciding factor. Ask your team which dentists they see before you ask what the plan costs, and we’ll check those names against each network.
What does a group dental plan cover?
Cleanings and checkups, fillings, and a share of the bigger work like crowns and root canals, with the plan paying less as the work gets bigger. Almost every group dental plan is built from the same parts.
- Preventive care (cleanings, exams, routine X-rays) is usually covered in full or close to it, often with no deductible.
- Basic work (fillings, simple extractions) is covered at a lower share after a small deductible.
- Major work (crowns, bridges, dentures, often root canals) is covered at a lower share again.
- An annual maximum caps what the plan pays for one person in a year. Past it, the patient pays. This is the number that surprises people mid-treatment.
- Waiting periods on major work are common, especially on voluntary plans: a new enrollee may wait months before a crown is covered. Many carriers waive them for a group moving from another dental plan, so keep your current plan’s paperwork.
- Carry-over features, on some plans, let a person who used little of this year’s maximum bank part of it for next year. The names and rules differ by carrier.
- Orthodontics is an add-on, often for children only, with its own lifetime maximum.
In plain terms
PPO or HMO dental is the network question. A PPO plan pays for any dentist and pays more for one in its network. A dental HMO costs less, uses a fixed schedule of copays, and only pays for the dentist you’re assigned to. A team that wants to keep the dentists it already has usually wants the PPO.
What does a group vision plan cover?
An eye exam on a set schedule, plus an allowance toward glasses or contact lenses. That’s most of it, and it’s why vision is usually the least expensive line a company can offer.
- The exam is covered with a small copay, usually once a year or once every two years.
- Lenses are covered with a copay on the same kind of schedule, with coatings and upgrades at a set price.
- Frames or contacts come with a dollar allowance, and the employee pays anything above it.
Because the plan mostly pays fixed allowances, vision works well as a voluntary plan: the price is predictable for the carrier and the employee can see in a minute whether it pays for itself.
Does the health plan already cover children’s dental and vision?
Often in part, because children’s dental and vision care are on the federal list of essential health benefits that small-group health plans are built around. The law’s own words are “pediatric services, including oral and vision care”. Adult dental and vision are not on that list.
What that means in practice depends on the health plan: some include a children’s dental benefit and some rely on a separate dental plan for it. If your health plan already covers children’s dental, a parent enrolling kids in the group dental plan may be paying twice for some of the same care. We check how the two plans fit before your employees enroll, so families don’t find out at the dentist.
The same overlap can apply to vision: a health plan may already cover a child’s eye exam and glasses, so look at both plans before paying for a child on the vision plan.
Do employees care about dental and vision?
They do, and most people who work for a small company can’t get them through work. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ March 2026 survey of employee benefits, 30% of workers at private workplaces with fewer than 50 people could get dental coverage through work, against 44% across all private employers. For vision it was 21% against 29%.
Employees value these plans for a plain reason: they use them. A healthy employee may go a year without meeting their health plan’s deductible and still use the dental card twice for cleanings.
For a small company competing with bigger employers for the same people, dental and vision are often the least expensive way to close part of that gap, and they’re benefits a candidate can see the value of on the first day.
Questions owners ask about dental and vision
We have two employees. Can we get a group dental plan?
Usually, yes. Most dental and vision carriers write a plan for a company with two enrolled employees when the company pays some or all of the premium. A plan the employees pay for entirely usually needs more people enrolled, commonly four to ten.
Carriers want proof of a real employer and employee relationship, usually payroll records. We check the rules against your headcount before we quote.
Can I offer dental and vision without offering health insurance?
Yes. Dental and vision are sold on their own, and a company with no health plan can offer one or both. It's a common first benefit for a company that isn't ready for a health plan, or whose people are already covered through a spouse or the marketplace.
Do I have to pay part of the dental premium?
It depends on the carrier. Across the carriers that sell group dental to small companies in Colorado, the required employer share runs from nothing to half the employee's own premium. A plan you don't contribute to at all is a voluntary plan, and those usually need more people enrolled.
Can employees pay their share before taxes?
Yes, through a Section 125 plan, a short written plan document your company adopts so payroll can take premiums out before tax. Most payroll providers can set one up. The company's own contribution is a business expense and isn't income to the employee. Your accountant should confirm how it applies to your company, especially if you're an owner of an S corporation or a partnership, where the rules for owners differ.
Will my employees have to wait before a crown is covered?
Often, yes, on major work like crowns and bridges, and more often on voluntary plans than on plans the company pays for. Cleanings and checkups are usually covered from the first day.
Many carriers waive the wait for a group moving from another dental plan, which is one reason to switch at renewal rather than letting coverage lapse.
What is an annual maximum?
The most a dental plan will pay for one person in a plan year. Once it's used up, the patient pays the rest until the year resets. Some plans let a person carry part of an unused maximum into the next year. When somebody needs a lot of work, a dentist can sometimes split it across two plan years so two maximums apply.
Should dental come from the same carrier as our health plan?
Sometimes. Bundling means one bill and one renewal, and some carriers price the package better. Buying dental separately lets you pick the network your employees' dentists are in and change the health plan later without touching the dental plan. We price it both ways.