Delta Dental - The Advantages of a Single Line Carrier


Advantages of a Single Line Carrier
Delta Dental provides expertise in dental benefits

As a dental benefit market leader, Delta Dental provides the expertise, network access and service that clients rely on for advanced dental benefits. Experience, dedication and focus are three key reasons you can use to promote why single line carriers such as Delta Dental should be considered.

Experience
  • Because Delta Dental processes a high volume of claims, they have a wealth of claim information that can be leveraged to improve our services. We analyze utilization and treatment statistics, the latest clinical evidence and independent studies recommended by their dental experts to tailor plan designs and product features to provide more value to their clients.
  • Claims processing and other customer service functions are performed by staff trained specifically in dental benefits rather than managed by generalists who may process many different lines of coverage.
  • Delta Dental has the knowledge and tools in place to detect and prevent fraudulent activities, which drive up dental care costs for everyone.
  • Our contracted fees with dentists reflect the true cost of providing a dental service in a particular region to ensure that dentists are not overpaid or underpaid. The result is cost control and strong relationships with dentists, which provides network stability.
  • They’ve been providing dental benefits for more than 55 years, and they continue to be an industry leader.

Dedication

  • Stand-alone dental plans are dedicated to a specialized, single line of coverage, delivering a valued experience to customers. Delta Dental’s 97 percent enrollee retention rate1 demonstrates their commitment to providing quality dental benefit solutions.
  • Unlike many other carriers where staff coordinate the business of several lines of coverage, Delta Dental’s staff — from the account management team to the customer service representatives — deal only with dental plans, making them dental benefit experts. Additionally, Delta Dental does not outsource core processing or customer service functions, giving customers immediate access to answers if questions arise.
  • Delta Dental’s provider relations representatives spend time educating dental offices about their policies, which means fewer claims processing surprises for enrollees. They also have staff dedicated to expanding their national dental networks so that in-network utilization is high and out-of-pocket costs stay controlled. As a result, four out of every five dentists are part of their extensive network, and nearly 75 percent of all claims submitted are from a network dentist.
  • They deliver a focus on dental cost and quality protection that is unlike many multi-line carriers who must divide their resources for their medical plans and networks.

Focus
  • Most dental disease is preventable. Because single line carriers focus just on dental, they are able to effectively reinforce the value of early intervention through focused communication, which can make a difference in enrollees’ oral health.
  • A recent claims study2 provides a clear demonstration of the need to focus on preventive care. The study shows that as the number of low-cost preventive dental services increases, the number of more expensive treatment and restoration procedures decreases.

1 Based on calculated data for January-December 2009.
2 Delta Dental analysis of submitted claims for over 3 million enrollees from 1997-2007.