Delta Dental
Delta is redefining dental care on a very large scale. No, this is not a "Sky is Falling" note. Neither is it gloom and doom. Below are facts about what Delta is doing to control the future of dentistry. Draw your own conclusions.
Last week we launched a thread about about Delta and Guardian owning their own dental offices/DSOs. The below is an indication of how next they will control dental care and lower dental care expenses.
Earlier in the week, I posted for our OPT-In members, information about Delta Dental pushing forward with Best Practices and Outcomes driven dental care. I pointed out that while on the surface, the rationale for this effort would seem well founded and above refute, the reason for it was to reduce costs and most likely, feed their own dental offices, and the select few they contract with, most likely DSOs.
The software to drive this effort was developed by PreViser. Below is information on the company. Notice the highlighted areas. First, the software company being used is now owned by Delta Dental. Second note is about reducing costs, messaged to me by one of our dentist members. Third highlighted area is a link that shows nearly all their speakers are hygienists. Fourth highlighted area shows all their articles seem to be in hygiene magazines. There is no mystery here about the real potential for a MLP tie-in.
Northeast Delta Dental acquires PreViser Corporation
2/26/2016
"Northeast Delta Dental, northern New England’s most trusted name in dental benefits, announced today the acquisition of PreViser Corporation, through the dental insurance company’s fully-owned subsidiary, Red Tree Holdings, Inc. PreViser, headquartered in Mount Vernon, Wash., is the inventor of an easy-to-use online software tool that provides oral health professionals with a clear, objective, and reproducible way to measure, understand, and communicate patient risk for oral disease. The details of the transaction were not disclosed.
PreViser’s technology is currently being adopted throughout the United States by dental benefit professionals and wellness vendors who utilize PreViser’s oral health scoring for the management of evidence-based dental benefits and the implementation of effective oral wellness initiatives for group employers and state Medicaid populations."
PreViser Corporate Information
"PreViser Corporation is an information technology company, founded by dental clinicians for dental clinicians.
Our purpose and passion is improving oral health care - including better outcomes, better communication, better decision-making, better targeting of resources to needs, better disease management, better productivity, and a reduction in oral health care costs.
PreViser's patented and clinically validated periodontal risk/disease calculator - the only one in the industry - and its risk calculator for tooth decay are main features of the technology. Known as the Oral Health Information Suite(TM), this software allows practitioners to determine their patients' susceptibility to gum disease and tooth loss before they occur."
"Part of the demand for PreViser's software stems from its impact in helping to contain public dental/medical costs, especially in countries where the government subsidizes or pays for all those costs, Loeb explained. In the U.S., PreViser's tools offer an attractive method for helping to limit rising dental/medical insurance costs, while improving oral health."
Speaker's Bureau
https://www.previser.com/CorporateInfo/Speakers.html
General Press
"See what the Press has to say about us. Read reviews from HygieneTown, RDH Magazine, Contemporary Oral Hygiene, and more."
The company is located in WA, the home of Washington Dental Service, a notoriously anti dentist Delta Dental Company, and a state that trains MLPs. Recall that the dental hygiene lobby has been pushing MLPs, nationally. Also, they tout being founded and operated by “dental clinicians.” Listed amongst the officers is one dentist, John Martin, chief scientific officer, a co-founder with two other dentists.
I have my beliefs on how they will make this effective and what it will mean going forward but am not interested in sounding alarms. You can figure it out. I will share we (OPT-In and our business partners) are looking at this very hard, and seriously. I will also share how the insurance industry flipped the switch on physicians in the late 1980's. These guys lost their homes, cars, and practices, with many filing BK. Yes, that is a case of a fallen sky that none of them saw coming, but should have. That was not a trend, which changes slowly over time, something we have experienced. That was pulling the plug on the entire profession. Ask oral surgeons what it has meant for them.
This is the real stuff. Real business. If the profession doesn't pull its act together, many if not most, are going to get snuffed.
Dean Mersky, DDS
OPT-In Management, LLC
President
dean@optindentallab.com