Wally Health offers subscription-based dental care for employers

• Key Insight: Learn how subscription dental benefits bypass insurers to expand preventive workplace care.
• What's at Stake: Rising oral health issues could drive absenteeism and higher employer healthcare costs.
• Expert Quote: Tyler Burnett argues current models prioritize employers over patients, worsening access.
• Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

For years, dental benefits have been a sore spot for organizations, seen as outdated, underutilized and unsupportive of employees' real needs — but this provider is aiming to change that with a new approach to subscription-based care.

Fifty-five percent of adults reported some type of oral health problem, according to a 2022 research survey from oral health institute CareQuest. However, only 43% of adults said they saw a dentist, with 29% citing lack of insurance as the reason. In an effort to close that gap, dental benefits provider Wally Health is working closely with benefit leaders to bring more comprehensive dental care to the workplace. 

"Dental care has a major accessibility crisis — and we're moving in the wrong direction," says Tyler Burnett, co-founder and CEO of Wally. "Our goal with Wally is to rebuild the front door for people's dental experience." 

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Wally provides a $249 annual subscription-based benefit employers can add to their existing suite of offerings. Employees can then opt into the platform like they would any other supplementary benefit, gaining access to unlimited critical preventative dental care procedures, such as cleanings and exams. Wally also offers certain teeth whitening services, as well as advanced diagnostics for more complex dental cases like root canals or teeth extractions, before they're referred out to larger dental providers in-network.

The key to keeping their solution accessible and affordable, according to Burnette, was to avoid working with big healthcare providers and eliminate the need for insurance entirely when it comes to preventative care.  

"What's really gone wrong with dental benefits is that there's too many stakeholders in the mix," he says. "For most insurance companies, their customers are large employers and when your customer is an employer, you're not really thinking about the actual patient and what they're receiving from it." 

Cutting healthcare costs for organizations

Of adults struggling with their oral health, CareQuest revealed that 23% reported toothaches as the most frequent dental problem they've faced. Eighteen percent experienced cracked or broken teeth, 17% had swollen or bleeding gums, and 17% suffered from frequent dry mouth. Many of those conditions may seem small, but could lead to large overhead costs for organizations. For example, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that untreated oral diseases result in almost $46 billion per year in lost productivity due to absenteeism.    

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"If you don't feel good about your mouth and you're not able to smile or speak because you're in pain and it's difficult to make dentist appointments, that affects how you show up in the workplace," Burnette says. "[Intervention] can be as simple as talking to your people and figuring out what they need."  

In addition to providing organizations with more robust dental care for full-time employees, Wally is also an effective and affordable alternative for freelance employees who may not have access to benefits at all, or for employees who may not feel satisfied with their current benefits and want to pay for the service outright. 

"Peoples' relationships with dentistry are deteriorating and legacy systems can't solve it the way they're currently set up," Burnette says. "Our goal is to empower people to make the right decisions for their oral health and to do it in a way that doesn't include the obstacles from the traditional dental system."