This is not an easy time. We keep hearing words like, "unprecedented," "uncertain," and "unknown." All these words are appropriate for our current situation. We want to reassure you that we are all in this together -- your practice and patients, and our customers and team members.
Delta Dental of Colorado (DDCO) is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization focused on the same goal you have of improving the oral health of the communities we serve. Since this pandemic began, we have been evaluating how DDCO can help our team members, customers, community, and stakeholders. In doing so, we also must consider the numerous uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as how long the economy will be shut down, what help is available now versus what help will be needed as we emerge from this pandemic, and what the likely economic impacts are at each stage along the way. That's why we have been carefully considering our response and looking for ways to help. We want to assure you that we are not ignoring dental providers or any other stakeholder. The first phase of our response was focused on our internal operations, ensuring the safety of our team members and enabling them to work remotely so we could continue to pay claims and resolve appeals quickly. We have heard from many of you that this was your number one priority for us -- to keep the claims payments coming. In addition to continuing to process new claims for emergent care, we also implemented teledentistry processes and the approval of the 0140 code for telehealth visits. Finally, we made sure our ongoing efforts through the DDCO Foundation continue to support our community health partners across Colorado to improve access to the underserved and most vulnerable.
Some of you may have heard about Delta Dental member companies in other states offering loan and advance claim-payment programs for their network providers. The federal government has passed the CARES Act, and Colorado is offering additional resources that are available to providers. We are carefully evaluating these and other programs for effectiveness and impact. Our intent is look for ways to help supplement some of these government programs and reach as many of our stakeholders as possible.
You and your employees are critical to maintaining and improving the oral health of our members, and we are sympathetic to your current situation. As we consider the needs of all our stakeholder groups, we believe that being ready to support the dental community with patients who have dental insurance coverage will be most helpful to dentists when offices reopen for all services. We all know that patients with dental insurance go to the dentist more often than those without insurance. That's why we're working closely with our employer groups and individual customers to find flexible payment options for them to keep their dental coverage as they weather this crisis. We are committed to ensuring that as many Coloradans as possible remain insured throughout this pandemic and beyond.
We see this as a phased approach and recognize there will be many stages to recovery. DDCO's Chief Dental Officer, Dr. Brad Guyton, and I are committed to regular updates on how we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis. If you have any thoughts or feedback you'd like to share with us, please email us at providerfeedback@ddpco.com.
Thank you for your continued partnership and commitment to improving the oral health of all Coloradans. Please know that we are committed to working together through this very difficult time.
