NEW METLIFE DENTAL HEALTH MANAGER LAUNCHED

NEW METLIFE DENTAL HEALTH MANAGER^SM LAUNCHED

New York, NY, January 11, 2010

MetLife, a leading provider of employee benefits that offers dental plan administration for over 21 million people, today announced the availability of the MetLife Dental Health Manager. The proprietary dental disease management program provides participants with relevant educational content and personalized report cards that graphically illustrate their risk for oral disease and dental health, helping them understand and track their progress for maintaining or managing their oral health. The new program is available to new and existing MetLife customers with 500 or more employees, at no additional cost as a standalone program. Employers also have the option to coordinate the program with a disease management vendor which requires a one-time set-up fee.

"With the desire among employers to manage continually rising health-related costs, the importance of dental benefits to employees, and the association of oral health to overall health, a dental disease management program represents a logical, timely option. Good health is its own reward and a strong motivator for employees who participate in workplace wellness programs. Dental disease management is an important expansion of those programs and the outcomes have the potential to benefit both employees and employers," said Dr. David Guarrera, DDS, vice president, MetLife Dental Product Management.

Disease management programs, while an accepted medical practice, are still relatively new in the dental field. Dental disease management programs make sense from a business perspective since they may help employers get more value from the dental benefit plan dollars they already spend, encourage more appropriate dental benefit plans, cultivate the health and well-being of their workforce and enhance a benefit that employees value.

How it works
The MetLife Dental Health Manager is a proprietary dental disease management program consisting of two primary components. The first is a report card that illustrates a participant’s risk and disease score — utilizing an interactive risk assessment and data analysis derived from dental utilization data as well as systemic disease data — to help them understand and track changes in their dental risk and disease over time. The second component is the online MetLife Oral Health Library, which contains educational articles and tools, designed to help participants take a more active role in managing their oral health. The Library also encourages employees to ask informed questions about their benefits, dental care and risk for dental disease, and offers relevant information specific to employee oral health needs.

While users obtain private, specific information for assessing their own progress, employers will receive aggregate reporting providing them with the ability to measure and monitor the health of an employee population, or segments of that population, and the utilization of benefits over time so they can make better decisions about dental benefit plans.

"With over 45 years of dental focus, and as the dental plan administrator for over 21 million people, MetLife is uniquely positioned to offer such a comprehensive dental disease management program to our group plan members," adds Dr. Guarrera. "The MetLife Dental Health Manager is a dental disease management program with actionable insights designed to help both employers and employees maximize the value of their dental benefits."

To help employers understand more about how dental disease management programs can complement other wellness initiatives and be implemented most effectively, MetLife has also made available a free guide, Dental Disease Management: What Makes an Effective Program, which can be obtained at www.whymetlife.com/dentaldm.