{ association insights } Executive Office Updates


Coffee and Conversation


by JON COPELAND, DDS | PRESIDENT E


arlier this year, you might have noticed an email in your inbox from the MDA asking you to tell us if you have had any issues with


third party payers. Many of you responded that you have. We received 319 responses with a distribution across 57 different Missouri counties. Of those 319 responses, 186 reported issues with pre-paid plans, specifically Delta Dental. The next highest listed insurer at 75 responses was Anthem. The leadership of the MDA is very aware of Missouri dentists’ ongoing frustrations with insurers, particularly Delta, and is looking for avenues to ease those frustra- tions.


Similarly, Delta Dental of Missouri is aware of your frustrations. Delta implemented a new claim processing system over the last few years and, admittedly, that integration has been rocky.


Delta leadership held open town hall meet- ings across the state earlier this year where providers were able to air their concerns, ask questions and get some answers. It was at one of these meetings in St. Louis that I met Jon Jennings, the new COO of Delta Dental of Missouri. Jon has been in leader- ship at Delta for several years and previ- ously at Ameritas Insurance Company in Lincoln, Neb. After our first meeting in the Delta board room, Jon agreed to meet me on neutral territory for a cup of coffee and a conversation.


One thing I want to let the reader know off the bat is that Delta (Jon J.) and the MDA (Jon C.) do not, and likely will not, agree on Assignment of Benefits language. So, at the


10 focus | WINTER 2024 | ISSUE 4


onset, we agreed to put that in a box and set it aside. You should also understand the MDA is not looking to negotiate any sort of fee schedule changes for individual prac- tices. We all understand we would like to be paid more for doing the same thing and that is not unique to Delta. That said, there are areas we both agreed can be improved. One such is related to claims processing.


In the MDA survey, one of the most com- mon complaints expressed was customer service. This could be long wait times when calling, dropped or unreturned calls, lost claims and representatives’ lack of knowl- edge of the process. I was very pleased to hear from Jon J. about the steps he and his team already have implemented, creating drastic improvement in this area. Over the next few months as Delta continues to onboard, train and stratify their team, it should continue to improve.


In forthcoming conversations, Jon and I will continue to talk about issues facing all of us and do our best to come up with solutions to some of the ongoing problems. Some of the areas we plan to cover are downcoding, lower alternate benefit, un- covered codes and other ways the MDA and Delta can better coordinate their efforts. I also plan to give Jon the opportunity to be a take the reins and contribute his perspec- tive in future articles. More to come.


Contact Dr. Copeland at joncopelanddds@gmail.com.


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