Dental managed care taking bite out of local market. (Industry Overview)

Oversupply of dentists combines with cost concerns to spur plans

When Pennsylvania Blue Shield's DentalPlus dental maintenance organization started up in the early 1980s, the plan had a hard time recruiting dentists to serve its clients.

Now, according to Bob Rembisz, director of the DMO, dentists are calling him to see if they can join its provider network.

"More and more, dentists can see themselves losing patients if they don't jump on the bandwagon," Mr. Rembisz said.

A decade later, DentalPlus has 165 dentists in its network in Western Pennsylvania, and covers more than 66,000 lives under its DMO.

Several factors are driving a trend in dental insurance toward more managed care plans. The need for dentists to increase their patient flow and pressure on employers to control costs has brought to …