Dental Select fills insurance niche

Brent Williams' approach to entrepreneurship might be called flexible vision.

Since founding Salt Lake-based Dental Select in 1989, Williams has wanted to make dental plans available and affordable for everyone.

But making Dental Select Utah's largest provider of dental benefits has meant adapting the realities of that vision on the fly.

Williams started the company in an apartment and paid his first receptionist with his credit card. As the company grew, Williams and his team recognized the need for flexibility in the plans they offered. That led to Dental Select's philosophy of continually customizing and improving plans to fit any company's needs, network or price.

As the advantages of developing technologies became clearer, Dental Select adapted by instituting rigorous customer-service protocols to ensure, for instance, that every call to the company is answered in less than 20 seconds by a member service representative.

In addition, the company's Web site offers such functions as online enrollment for individual plans, online provider referrals and real-time provider search. This year, the company plans to begin offering more online functions, like enrollment for groups, real-time claims processing, billing and claims tracking and quotes.

Williams also has overseen Dental Select's expansion into offering insured vision and accidental death and dismemberment plans, giving customers the option of choosing Dental Select for all of their ancillary coverage needs.