Humana Dental Passes Million-Member Milestone
Consumers Benefit From Market Power, Company Says

LOUISVILLE, Ky., (May 8) Humana Inc. today announced it has reached membership of 1 million in its dental plans, marking a major milestone in its effort to expand into high value managed dental care.

The growth of Humana's dental plans, which has averaged 20 percent in each of the last six years, now makes the company one of the nation's leaders in dental coverage.

 Consumers benefit from the size of Humana's dental business as more and more customers choose managed dental plans y dental health maintenance organizations or preferred provider organizations. Massive membership is the key to achieving the highest value and the best quality programs for three reasons. First, the company shares data about the best methods among all its participating dentists. More members means more experience for the patient's own dentist to draw on. Second, a large dental plan has lower per-member administrative costs. Finally, consumers benefit from the increased bargaining power the dental plan realizes as its membership increases.

Because of its expanding ability to deliver quality and value in its dental benefit plans, the company expects to realize continued strong growth in the second half of this year.

 "We hope to see growth of 20 to 30 percent between now and the end of the year," Vice President for Specialty Products Kirk Rothrock said. "The addition of managed dental plans to our business portfolio, matched with customers' increasing desire for such plans, means our membership can now snowball. More membership means we can reduce administrative costs per member, which means more of the premium dollar is available to expand benefits. That increasing value, in turn, increases membership," he said.

Humana now markets its dental plans under the name The Dental Concern (TDC). This follows the consolidation of several dental subsidiaries. It offers the plans to all size businesses, from those with two employees to multi-site employers with thousands of employees.

In recent years Humana has increased the number of dentists participating in its national dental plans. Through TDC the company currently offers dental health maintenance organizations and/or dental preferred provider organizations in 15 states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia. The company offers traditional dental insurance in an additional 23 states.

Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is one of the nation's largest publicly-traded managed health care companies with approximately 4.8 million medical members located primarily in 17 states. Humana's primary business is medical plans, including health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, point-of-service plans and administrative services products y to employer groups, government-sponsored plans and individuals.

SOURCE Humana Inc.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Greg Donaldson
Humana Public Affairs
502-580-3683
Email: gdonaldson@humana.com