Assurant Employee Benefits Proactively Extends Dependent Dental Coverage

KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Assurant Employee Benefits, a leading carrier of life, disability and dental group employee benefits, today announces it is proactively extending dental coverage for adult children of an insured parent up to age 26. Taking effect July 1, 2010, this extension helps prevent potential gaps in coverage, and provides consistency with health plan provisions under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

"We continue to strive to make insurance simple to understand and administer," said John Roberts, Assurant Employee Benefits president and chief executive officer. "Even though the government recently stated that stand alone dental plans are not included under this Act, we believe this proactive measure will simplify things for our customers by aligning our practices with those of many health plans."

On June 14, 2010, the U.S. Departments of Health & Human Services, Labor and Treasury issued interim final rules on "grandfathered health plans." Within this document and a supplemental fact sheet they state, "retiree-only and excepted health plans such as dental plans, long-term care insurance or Medigap are exempt from the Affordable Care Act insurance reforms."

The extension of dental benefits to adult children up to age 26 applies to the company's fully insured and DHMO coverage with dependent plans. An adult child of an insured parent who is under age 26 will no longer be required to be a full-time student or claimed on the parent's federal income tax return. As a result, adult children who are working, do not reside with the insured parent or are married can be covered under the insured parent's plan until age 26. This extension of coverage does not apply to any spouse or child of an eligible adult child. Those groups and individuals paying premiums for plans with dependent coverage automatically fall under this extended dependent coverage policy.

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Assurant Employee Benefits specializes in quality employee benefits and services, including long-term and short-term disability, life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, dental coverage, and disability reinsurance management services. Assurant Employee Benefits also markets voluntary (employee-paid) disability, life, and dental plans. Products and services marketed by Assurant Employee Benefits are underwritten by Union Security Insurance Company or an affiliated prepaid dental company.  Assurant Employee Benefits is located in Kansas City, Missouri.

Assurant Employee Benefits is a part of Assurant, a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500. The company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AIZ. Assurant has approximately 15,000 employees worldwide and is headquartered in New York's financial district.

SOURCE Assurant Employee Benefits