AlwaysCare Benefits is expanding access to oral wellness benefits.
AlwaysCare, a unit of Starmount Life Insurance Company, Baton Rouge, La., says it will pay for one adjunctive, pre-diagnostic oral cancer diagnostic test per year for members ages 40 and older who have suspicious lesions or risk factors for oral cancer.
Oral cancer strikes about 35,000 Americans each year, and it kills 21% of the people diagnosed with having the disease, according to the American Cancer Society, Atlanta.
Early diagnosis can have a big effect on the 5-year survival rate, AlwaysCare says.
AlwaysCare also will be paying for an additional cleaning for pregnant women in the second or third trimester of pregnancy, or periodontal maintenance for women who have been treated for periodontal disease.
