The dental PPO market in 2026 is producing the most granular reimbursement rate data in the industry's history — not because carriers became more transparent, but because machine-readable file mandates and third-party data aggregation have surfaced rate information that was previously invisible to providers. What that data shows is not reassuring. Aetna's national average for D2740 is $255. Delta Dental of Michigan's is $727. The same carrier has a floor of $10 on D2750. An estimated 8 to 15 percent of dental claims are being repriced through leased networks. The gap between knowing this and acting on it is the difference between a practice that recovers its contracting position and one that accepts progressive rate erosion as a background fact of business.
Aggregating available carrier data, machine-readable rate files, and provider-level negotiated rate records produces a current state picture that is both specific and actionable.
D2740 (all-ceramic crown) remains the most data-rich CDT code in the public dataset. Aetna's average is $255 across 1,189 data points with a range of $54 to $2,115. Delta Dental of Michigan's average is $727 across 311 data points with a range of $52 to $1,867. State-level averages reveal the geographic dimension: NY $982, WA $957, FL $879, CA $834, TX $790, NM $757, MO $739, NC $691, NJ $684, WY $90.
D2750 (porcelain fused to high noble metal crown) runs higher under Aetna at $487 average — but with a $10 floor that represents legacy contracts that have not been touched in years. The crown code data, more than any other category, illustrates how individual negotiation history produces the widest rate variation for a single procedure.
Preventive codes show tighter variation but still material range width. Delta Dental of Michigan: D0120 (periodic exam) $31 average with range $20 to $79; D1110 (adult prophylaxis) $52 average with range $42 to $100. At high claim volumes — 800 to 1,200 preventive visits annually in a high-volume general practice — a $10 per-claim gap between the low end and the average compounds to $8,000 to $12,000 annually on preventive codes alone. Preventive reimbursement is not trivial just because the per-claim amount is small.
Delta Dental of Michigan: D2160 (amalgam 3-surface) $153 average; D2391 (resin composite 1-surface posterior) $140 average. D4341 (scaling and root planing, 4+ teeth per quadrant) averages $226. D7140 (simple extraction) averages $85 with a range of $24 to $174 — a 625 percent spread on a single code under a single carrier. These ranges are not random. They reflect contracts negotiated at different points in time by providers with different levels of preparation.
Current industry estimates place 8 to 15 percent of dental claims as being repriced through a leased network at the time of adjudication. At a practice billing 1,200 claims per year, that is 96 to 180 claims annually processed by an entity the provider never directly contracted with. The four major leasing networks remain: DenteMax (Cigna, BCBS affiliates, Humana, 30-plus regional plans), MetLife PDP Plus (Guardian, United Concordia, 14-plus carriers), Aetna Dental Access (30-plus downstream plans), and Connection Dental (small commercial and employer plans).
Silent PPO repricing typically reduces rates 15 to 40 percent below the primary contracted rate. On a D2740 crown priced at $727 through Delta Dental, a 25 percent leased-network reprice produces an allowed amount of $545 — a $182 per-claim loss. At 15 repriced crown claims per year, the annual leakage on that single code from leasing alone is $2,730. Across all codes at similar leasing exposure rates, annual leakage for a mid-volume practice typically runs $10,000 to $40,000.
The 2026 data context makes leasing harder to ignore than in prior years. When providers can see that the Aetna national average for D2740 is $255 and that their own EOBs show allowed amounts below even that number for claims that should have priced through a different carrier, the leasing mechanism becomes visible in a way it was not when rate data was entirely opaque.
2026 data point that changes the negotiation conversation: Aetna's D2750 floor rate is $10. That is a real, documented, contracted rate currently in effect. If your D2750 rate is anywhere below $200, you are in the bottom quartile of the national range. Aetna's own network average is $487. The case for an immediate renegotiation request is arithmetic, not speculation.
The 2026 rate data exposes a pattern that explains why some practices collect near the top of their carrier's range while most collect near the average or below. Practices that renegotiate regularly — on a 2 to 3 year cycle — maintain rates that compound upward over time. Practices that accept auto-renewals without reviewing fee schedules see rates stagnate or erode in real terms as costs increase and market rates move upward without them.
Practices that audit their EOBs for repricing entity differences identify and stop leasing repricing events. Practices that do not audit accept the repriced rate as if it were their contracted rate — because they cannot distinguish between the two without reading the EOB repricing entity field. The top of the D2740 range ($2,115 under Aetna) is occupied by practices that negotiated actively — DSOs with volume leverage, practices in high-rate geographic tiers, or practices that have renegotiated multiple times from a starting baseline.
Several market dynamics are making the 2026 rate environment more complex than prior years:
Consider a general practice billing 1,100 claims annually with the following mix: 100 crown codes (D2740/D2750), 300 preventive codes (D0120/D1110), 200 restorative codes (D2160/D2391), 80 perio codes (D4341), and 50 extraction codes (D7140).
At market average rates across all codes, annual revenue from those 730 tracked claims is approximately $250,000 to $320,000 depending on payer mix. At the low end of each carrier's range for those codes — reflecting a practice that has never renegotiated and is at default credentialing rates — the same 730 claims produce $140,000 to $180,000. The gap — $70,000 to $140,000 annually — is the range of revenue impact attributable to contracting and negotiation posture alone, not clinical volume or efficiency.
PayorMap maps every leased network relationship in the US — so you know which fee schedule applies to every claim before you sign anything.
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