Health Insurer Unum Expands to Offer Dental and Vision Coverage

Unum Group announced that it is expanding its benefits offering through the addition of Unum Dental and Unum Vision. The Chattanooga, Tennessee-based employee benefits company is offering the coverage through the services of Starmount Life Insurance Co., a dental and vision insurance company acquired by Unum in 2016.

Dental and vision insurance have become more popular over the past several years, according to Mike Simonds, Unum U.S. president & CEO. Unum made the announcement Jan. 11. More studies link dental health to overall health and suggest that digital eye strain can have adverse health effects.

“Since the workplace is still the main way people can get quality, affordable benefits, more people are turning to dental and vision coverage as part of a comprehensive health package,” said Simonds, who projects that these new offerings will be a huge opportunity for the company. Unum currently covers 181,000 employers and 33 million people along with their families.

Most organizations do already offer dental (96 percent) and vision (87 percent) insurance, according to the Society for Human Resource Management 2015 Employee Benefits survey. Outside of the traditionally most important benefits — health care and retirement — dental and vision are some of the most desirable benefits for employees.

Simonds expects more employers who have yet to use Unum benefits to consider doing so as the company strives to become a one-stop shop for benefits outside of health and retirement.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.