The group insurance division of Sun Life Financial in the US has added oral cancer screening as a covered procedure on most new dental cases. The new coverage includes a variety of pre-diagnostic tests that detect cancerous and precancerous conditions.
Sun Life includes coverage for pre-diagnostic tests that aid in early detection, including: toluidine blue stain, fluorescence staining, exfoliative cytology and brush biopsy.
Sue Schoch, vice president of Dental Product Center, said: Adding oral cancer screening is very much in line with our priorities for our dental coverage. Some carriers have agreed to cover only certain kinds of oral cancer screening methods. We are taking the approach that there are many effective methods for early detection of oral cancer, so we are not limiting coverage to a particular method or brand name.