Montana passes dental loss ratio legislation

Joins North Dakota, Washington in passing 2025 DLR bills

Montana became the third state in 2025 to pass dental loss ratio legislation after Gov. Greg Gianforte signed Senate Bill 335 into law.

“The Montana Dental Association has worked on [dental loss ratio] legislation for the past six years and three legislative cycles. Our success this year relied on persistence, engaging key legislators year after year, partnering with our hygiene association and their lobbyist, having a dedicated team at the [association] and on our government affairs committee,” said Michael Bowman, D.D.S. president of the Montana Dental Association. 

Known as the Montana Dental Insurance Transparency and Accountability Act, the legislation requires that dental insurance coverage has a dental loss ratio that is “transparent to the public and fair to covered individuals.” Dental loss ratio is the portion of insurance premiums spent on patient care rather than overhead. Montana previously did not have a reporting requirement.  

Montana’s new legislation aims to create transparency of the expenditure of dental health care plan premiums, requiring annual reports and remediation if the dental loss ratio falls below a certain percentage. Under the new law, dental insurers will annually file a dental loss ratio report with the state’s commissioner of securities and insurance that is organized by market and product type.   

The commissioner will then investigate insurers designated as outliers with respect to helping patients pay for dental care and may require refunds for those insurers continually falling outside of the average loss ratios. 

Similar bills have appeared in the prior two sessions but didn’t make it out of committee. Senate Bill 335 was the Montana Dental Association’s top priority of the session, according to Webb Brown, executive director of the association. 

“We have gotten strong support from dentists and their dental teams, patients, and of course, the ADA, who is helping us not only with a State Public Affairs grant, but also expertise and support along the way,” Mr. Brown told ADA News after the legislation passed the Senate. 

During the process, the Montana Dental Association’s originally filed bill was in danger of stalling in one chamber, as it had done in previous legislative sessions. To avoid this, result the association made the strategic decision to substitute in model language on dental loss ratio from the National Council of Insurance Legislators, known as NCOIL. This decision reinvigorated the effort.

Achieving this feat required having a strong team aligned in the same direction to accomplish the same goal, as well as a willingness to learn from failures, according to Dr. Bowman.

“The significance of this law lies with the receivers of dental insurance in our state where transparency, knowledge that value is present, and where patients come first. These are the biggest wins,” he said.  

Montana joins North Dakota and Washington state in enacting dental loss ratio legislation this year. For more information on the topic, visit this ADA webpage.