Humana are a for-profit health company that offer several healthcare plans, including Medicare Advantage ones. Many of the Advantage plans include coverage for routine dental care.
In this article, learn more about Humana and the plans they offer, including the benefits, costs, and enrollment options.
We may use a few terms in this piece that can be helpful to understand when selecting the best insurance plan:
- Deductible: This is an annual amount that a person must spend out of pocket within a certain time period before an insurer starts to fund their treatments.
- Coinsurance: This is a percentage of a treatment cost that a person will need to self-fund. For Medicare Part B, this comes to 20%.
- Copayment: This is a fixed dollar amount that an insured person pays when receiving certain treatments. For Medicare, this usually applies to prescription drugs.
Humana are a for-profit healthcare company with headquarters in Louisville, KY. Their Medicare healthcare insurance includes prescription plans, Medicare supplement insurance plans, and Advantage plans.
Additionally, Humana offer individual health plans for vision and dental care. These individual plans are designed for people who are self-employed or do not have health coverage through their employer.
Federally funded Medicare is a health insurance program that provides coverage for hospital and medical care for older people in the United States. Younger people with certain disabilities or conditions may also be eligible to enroll in Medicare.
The program includes:
- Part A provides hospital insurance.
- Part B is medical insurance.
- Part C, also known as Medicare Advantage, provides the same basic coverage as original Medicare (Part A and Part B) plus additional benefits.
- Part D is prescription drug coverage.
Medicare-approved companies administer Medicare Advantage plans, which provide the same basic benefits as Medicare Part A and Part B in one policy. Many Advantage plans include coverage for dental, vision, and hearing care, and some may have prescription drug benefits.
The most common Advantage plans are:
- Health Maintenance Organization (HMO): These plans generally have a network of healthcare providers, but people can get some healthcare outside the network through an HMO plan with a point-of-service option (HMO-POS). Usually, with an HMO plan, people must choose a primary care provider and get a referral to a specialist.
- Preferred Provider Organization (PPO): These plans allow people to choose between using the plan’s network of healthcare providers and using out-of-network providers at an additional cost. People do not need to choose a primary care doctor and can see a specialist without a referral.
- Private Fee-For-Service (PFFS): Unlike many other Advantage plans, a PFFS plan determines how much it will pay healthcare providers, such as doctors and hospitals, and how much a person enrolled in the plan must pay for healthcare coverage. People do not need to choose a primary care doctor and they can go to a specialist without a referral.
- Special Needs Plans (SNPs): This type of Advantage plan is tailored to people with specific chronic health conditions, including the benefits that meet their needs. People who get both Medicaid and Medicare or live in a long-term care facility may also qualify for an SNP.
Humana offer several types of Advantage plans, including SNPs and HMO, PPO, and PFFS plans. Most plan types include options for vision, hearing, and dental coverage. The plans available to a person will depend on where they live.
Humana optional supplemental benefits plan
Many of the Humana Advantage plans provide dental benefits for routine care, such as exams, cleanings, fillings, and X-rays, but do not cover more serious procedures.
The company offer an optional supplemental benefits (OSB) plan, which comes at an extra premium but provides additional dental coverage for various procedures and devices, including crowns, root canals, extractions, and dentures.
OSB plans work with specific Advantage plans, and people can use the search tool on the Humana website to find a list of the available OSBs in their area.
There are various Medicare enrollment periods during which a person can enroll in or switch Medicare Advantage plans.
- Initial eligibility period (IEP): A person can enroll in Medicare Advantage during their IEP. This period starts 3 months before the month in which they turn 65, includes their birthday month, and ends 3 months later.
- General enrollment period (GEP): People can make one change during the GEP, which runs from January 31 to March 31 each year. They can also switch from an Advantage plan to original Medicare (parts A and B) or change Advantage plans.
- Medicare open enrollment period (OEP): The OEP runs from October 15 to December 7 each year. A person can enroll in, switch, or drop an Advantage plan. The OEP is also known as the annual enrollment period (AEP).
- Medicare Advantage open enrollment period: Between January 1 and March 31 each year, a person can change from an Advantage plan to original Medicare or enroll in a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.
To enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan, a person must have original Medicare and live in the plan’s coverage area.
Costs for the Humana Advantage plans and the company’s stand-alone dental plans may include premiums, deductibles, copays, and coinsurance. For an additional premium, Humana’s OSB plan offers comprehensive dental insurance.
The chart below shows some costs associated with a few of Humana’s plans, plus information about any optional dental benefits. People can find further information about these plans by entering the relevant zip code in Humana’s online plan selector tool.
| Humana plan | Monthly premium | Annual maximum out-of-pocket | Optional benefits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Plus HMO ZIP 85001: Phoenix, AZ | $0 | $3,400 | MyOption Enhanced Dental: $30.40 monthly premium. |
| Gold Plus C-SNP-Diabetes ZIP 33124: Miami, FL | $0 | $6,700 | Routine benefits only, with some optional benefits. Premiums vary. |
| Choice PPO ZIP 41701: Knott, KY | $150 | $6,700 in-network; $10,000 combined in- and out-of-network | Routine benefits only, with some optional benefits. Premiums vary. |
| Choice PPO ZIP 78701: Travis, TX | $55 | $7,200 in-network; $10,300 combined in- and out-of-network | MyOption Dental High PPO: $16.30 monthly premium. |
Humana are a for-profit health company. They offer four types of Medicare Advantage plans, and most plans include routine dental care.
Humana also offer OSB plans, paired with Humana Advantage plans, which include comprehensive dental coverage for serious procedures, such as dental implants.