Your Medical Coverage

Nothing is more important to us than our health and the health of those we love. Unfortunately, good health can't be guaranteed. But, we can select our benefits so that we can get necessary treatment if illness or injury strikes.

That's why the City provides you a choice between several medical plans: Gold - an HMO type plan, Silver - a high PPO plan and Bronze - a low PPO plan. Click here for a chart that compares the benefits of the plans available.

You will have to carefully compare each plan's benefits and your monthly costs to determine which plan is best for you and your family.

Your Dental Coverage

Your dental health is an important part of your overall health care framework. You have three options for your City-sponsored dental coverage:

• Safeguard Dental
• Cigna Dental PPO
• QCD Dental

To see which approach is best for you and your family, let's take a closer look at each option.

Safeguard Dental

When you enroll in Safeguard, each family member chooses a network dentist. Then, you must receive your care from your network dentist in order to receive benefits.

Safeguard's Key Features:

• You do not have to meet a deductible
• You have no annual or lifetime maximums.
• For most covered services, you pay only the copays specified by the schedule of benefits.
• You file no claims.
• For emergencies away from home, if your procedure is covered in your schedule of benefits, you will be reimbursed the cost of the procedure less your copay.
• Treatment by a specialist is based on a 25% discount of their standard fees.
• If you need to see a specialist, your dentist will send you to a DHMO provider.
• Must use network dentist.

Quality Care Dental (QCD) is designed to provide a comprehensive dental and vision program at a discounted rate.

QCD Key Features

• No claim forms, no deductibles and no maximums of coverage
• No waiting periods for coverage
• Orthodontics (Braces) covered for children and adults
• Must use network dentist.

QCD Program Highlights

• You must use QCD network dentists, including specialists. Each family member may select a different dentist and members may change dentists at any time without notifying QCD.
• When you go to the dentist, you will be charged a fee for each procedure done in accordance to the schedule of benefits. Any procedure that is not listed by code on the fee schedule (including all lab fees) will be charged to the member at a 20% discount from the dentist’s usual charge.
• QCD offers a large network of affiliated dentists in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Visit the QCD web
  site at www.qcdofamerica.com for an up to date dentist listing or contact Human Resources. The Member-
  ship Services Department is available at 1-800-229-0304 if you need help scheduling an appointment with a
  QCD dentist.

Dental PPO

With the Dental PPO Plan, you may see any dentist. You pay nothing for eligible preventive services, but pay a $50 deductible per person for other services.

The maximum annual plan benefit per person is $1,250 for preventive, basic, and major services combined.

Vision Coverage

The City offers two choices for vision coverage through Superior Vision:

• BASIC vision coverage (exam only) with discounts on lenses/frames or
• BUY-UP, which covers frames/lenses/materials and the discount plan benefits at a minimal copay amount in most cases.
 
 

You should go to a Superior Vision network provider to receive the highest level of vision benefits. However, some benefit is paid even if you go to an out-of-network provider.

For more information, see the Employee Benefits Guide.