Coffee and Conversation: It All Comes Down to Trust


by JON JENNINGS I


am a big believer that everything in life comes down to trust. The smart- est strategies, the newest technology and hiring talented people — none of that matters without trust. Trust requires that you commit to something and get the job done. Trust starts with a conversation. When Dr. Copeland reached out to me for cup of coffee last November, I jumped at the opportunity.


We spent a lot of time going over the results from the MDA payer survey. While it was painful to hear the frustrations and disap- pointment you have with Delta Dental, as a new COO, the insights were extremely valuable to me. This matched closely with what I was hearing from my team — we were struggling with the transition to a new claim system, worsened by a wave of staff retire- ments. I grew up as a farm kid in rural Ne- braska where my father would ask me, “Well, are you going to stand there feeling sorry for yourself, or are you going to do something about it?” The choice was easy; we went to work right away. I’d like to provide you with a few updates on the progress we’ve made.


Delta Dental re-energized our focus on mak- ing the provider experience a top priority. We invested a lot of energy in our customer service team, hiring and training several new groups of customer service representatives. More than half of our staff have prior dental office experience. We also restructured the department to ensure the proper ratio of team leaders and supervisors to handle escalated calls. We implemented several technology changes to address dropped calls and unreturned callbacks. Our statistics have improved dramatically — call wait times are down over 95 percent. Several of our most important metrics — calls handled, num- ber of abandoned calls, percentage of calls answered in 30 seconds, average wait time


— are all better than before the new claim system. Our most recent change is the intro- duction of a new quality assurance program and our hire of a full-time quality assurance analyst. Beyond having great metrics, we want to ensure your offices get correct and consistent answers across the entire team. I am happy with the progress; however, we have several items yet to complete to reach our ultimate goal of outstanding service.


We heard from many dental offices that our online provider portal was outdated and lacked important functionality. We did sev- eral site visits to observe how dental offices use payer portals. We had six offices as part of our focus group to vet the new portal design, and 60 offices signed up to be in our pilot program to test the new portal. Our new dental office portal went live in April. Beyond a modern feel and navigation, we added im- portant new functionality, including the abil- ity to look up benefit information at the CDT code level specific to each patient. We added the ability to submit and view pre-treatment estimates and claims online. Our 2025 portal roadmap includes many additional enhance- ments.


We also focused on several process improve- ments related to claims processing and want to share a few notable examples. In response


to many complaints about our request-for- information denials, we worked with the clearinghouses to improve the information received on claim submissions. We created an educational quick reference guide for offices to clarify exactly what is required for each CDT code. We updated our denials code descriptions, so it was easier to understand what information was missing. The results so far this year are a 40 percent decrease in request-for-information denials and a 70 per- cent reduction in claims that are resubmit- ted two or more times. We also made some major improvements to our coordination- of-benefits (COB) process. We completely revamped our approach to setting up COB last month and already are seeing a dramatic improvement in processing times. Our team is energized by the improvements and is already working on the next round of ideas.


I am looking forward to that next cup of cof- fee. There is still work to be done. In many ways, this is just the beginning. There is much value in continuing the conversation. Trust takes time. We will continue to deliver on our commitment to improve the dental office experience. We will look for ways to engage with your office staff more actively. We also want to look for ways to partner on innovative and interesting initiatives to increase the overall health in our local com- munities. More to come.


Jon Jennings is the chief operating officer at Delta Dental of Missouri. Contact him at jon.jennings@ deltadentalmo.com. He joined the organization in 2016 and currently directs the company’s operations, including its customer service, claims


processing and project management teams. He previously served on Delta Dental of Missouri’s senior leadership team as chief actuary and vice president of underwriting, directing all aspects of underwriting, actuarial, client reporting and project management. This article is a continuation of a committment between past president, Dr. Jon Copeland and Mr. Jennings, to discuss issues facing all of us and possible solutions to improve outcome and relationships. The first article appeared in the Winter 2024 issue. You can access it at modental.org/efocus.


ISSUE 2 | SUMMER 2025 | focus 13


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