Unfortunately, with the new requirements per the Affordable Care Act in 2014, carriers are mandated to have pediatric dental benefits included in the medical plan. Employers have no choice to “opt out”, even if they do not have any families/dependents, as the law requires the benefit be in place.
With many major medical carriers, these benefits are automatically folded into the plan and they do not give the option for employers to choose. With other insurance carriers, such as Health Net of Arizona, they break out the rates with and without pediatric dental. They do this since some groups may have a stand-alone group dental plan. The only exception to not having the benefit in place is if the employer has a separate stand-alone dental plan that includes pediatric dental, or the members themselves have their own dental coverage that includes pediatric dental.