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Articles
Foundation Gives Back to NJ Communities
2004 Marks 35 Years for Delta Dental
Bimonthly Online Consultant News Debuts,
Supplements Print Version
A Peek Inside Consultant News
Subscriber News Available Free to Subscribers
Delta Dental Employees Help Children Affected
by AIDS
HIPAA Readiness Statement and Transaction Contingency Plan
Captain Supertooth Begins Statewide Tour in February
Golf Classic Reminder
There's more to Delta Dental Plan of New Jersey
than providing quality dental benefits programs.
Our charitable arm, the Delta Dental Plan of New
Jersey Foundation, Inc., reaches out to communities
and helps the needy get dental treatment, as well
as fund scholarship programs for dental assisting
and dental hygiene programs at schools throughout
New Jersey.
In 1986, the Delta Dental Endowment Association
of New Jersey was organized to help promote educational
projects devoted to enhance dental health, and support
research programs that increased public awareness
of the importance of dental health. In 2000, the
Endowment Association changed its name to the Delta
Dental Plan of New Jersey Foundation, Inc. The Foundation
continues to provide financial support to programs
that promote and provide dental care.
The Foundation's 14-member board meets four times
a year to review grant requests and make awards.
The board also follows up on all grants by requiring
each funded organization or school to submit outcomes
reports giving a breakdown of the results of their
programs. Organizations and educational institutions
apply each year for financial support. The Foundation
must determine which ones are most in line with the
Foundation's goals.
Delta Dental's Foundation donates money to many
community clinics and organizations to help the underserved
(individuals who do not have dental insurance or
are unable to access dental treatment) get dental
care. Some of those facilities are Dover Community
Clinic, Henry J. Austin Health Clinic in Trenton,
Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Northwest New
Jersey Dental Coalition (Newton Memorial Hospital),
Paterson Public Schools Dental Clinic, and Virtua-West
Jersey Hospital in Camden.
The Foundation also funds organizations that provide
dental treatment to children and adults with severe
disabilities. Some of those organizations are:
- Kessler Memorial Hospital (treat developmentally
disabled)
- Kimball Medical Center (offer emergency dental
care to underserved, mentally handicapped people
and children)
- Matheny School and Hospital (provide dental care
for children and adults with developmental impairments
such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida and muscular
dystrophy)
- NJ Foundation of Dentistry for Persons with Disabilities
(provide dental care for elderly and mentally/physically
handicapped-with disorders such as lymphoma and
multiple sclerosis-for patients of all ages who
have severely neglected dental problems)
Thanks to the support of the Foundation, dental
assisting and dental hygiene scholarships have been
established at colleges throughout the state. Some
of the schools include: Bergen Community College,
Camden County College, Mercer County Technical School,
Middlesex County College, and the University of Medicine
and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). Due to the shortage
of dental professionals, each year the Foundation
provides financial support to a certain number of
students pursuing a career in dental care.
For the past 17 years, the Delta Dental Plan of
New Jersey Foundation, Inc. has funded dental scholarship
programs and supported community clinics and organizations
to help ensure that greater access to dental care
is achievable. The Foundation continues to promote
the importance of dental health through all the programs
it funds each year.
This year Delta Dental Plan of New Jersey celebrates
our anniversary using the theme "35 Years Dedicated
to Healthy Smiles." We began providing quality
dental benefit programs in 1969.
Delta Dental is committed to providing excellent
value for your benefit dollar. We are honored to
serve you and your employees. Thank you for helping
us to reach this milestone.
Delta Dental in January launched the online Consultant
News to provide more frequent, timely information
to our brokers and consultants.
Consultant News is published every other
month. The print version of Broker News will
continue to be published quarterly.
Each bimonthly issue contains information about
Delta Dental's products and services, including what
sets Delta Dental apart from other dental benefits
providers. Consultant News is not a rehashing
of stories that appear in the print version of the
publication. Instead, Broker News and Consultant
News complement each other, with their own content
and approach.
A subscription to Consultant News is available
to any broker who requests it. Subscriptions are
free. Headlines are sent to your e-mail inbox every
other month. Just click the link to read the full
story. To subscribe, go to www.deltadentalnj.com,
click "Brokers" and enter your e-mail
address in the "Consultant News" subscription
box.
You may unsubscribe to Consultant News at
any time.
If you ever have comments about Consultant News,
or have a question or story that you want to see
covered, please contact our editor at dbelle@deltadentalnj.com.
Delta Dental does not sell, rent, or disclose e-mail
addresses to third parties. Therefore, you will not
receive unsolicited e-mail ("spam") as
a result of subscribing to Consultant News.
The January 2004 issue of Consultant News features:
- Detailed information about the services Delta
Dental provides to its groups.
- How brokers can contact us via phone, fax, e-mail
or online regarding RFPs.
- And more.
The online Subscriber News is a free monthly
publication for all Delta Dental Plan of New Jersey
subscribers. Each issue features information about
how subscribers can make the most of their Delta
Dental benefits. Subscriber News covers everything
from how to find a participating dentist, to where
to get detailed explanations about your family's
benefits, and much more.
In addition, Subscriber News features the
latest news in the areas of dental health and wellness.
Readers can find out how to keep their smiles healthy
between dental visits, what to do in a dental emergency,
and what dental science has in store for the future.
Subscriber News headlines are delivered to
readers' e-mail inbox each month. They can just click
the link to read the full story.
Delta Dental subscribers can sign up for a free
subscription by going to www.deltadentalnj.com and
clicking on
"Subscribers." They should enter their
e-mail address in the
"Subscriber News" box on the right side
of the screen. They may unsubscribe to Subscriber
News at any time.
Please note: We do not sell, rent, or disclose e-mail
addresses to third parties. Therefore, subscribers
will not receive unsolicited e-mail ("spam")
as a result of subscribing to Subscriber News.
The two infant girls slept peacefully side by side
in a stroller while adults in the kitchen chatted
about upcoming holiday parties and gifts still left
to wrap. But the conversation soon switched to a
more serious topic: HIV and AIDS, and how they affect
thousands of area children, including the two napping
infants. Born prematurely last summer to HIV-infected
mothers in New Jersey, they, too, carry the disease.
But Chaplain Carol Bamesberger, director of the
nonprofit group Angel Connection, and her cadre of
volunteers, refuse to focus on the tragedy of AIDS,
and instead strive to improve the lives of children
and families who live daily with the disease.
For the past 11 years, Angel Connection has worked
with businesses throughout New Jersey on holiday
toy drives. Employees at organizations including
Delta Dental buy gifts for children whose families
are affected by AIDS.
Unlike most toy drives, Angel Connection does not
present the gifts directly to children. Instead,
gifts are delivered to parents and guardians so they
have something to give to their children. Many parents
are so weakened and impoverished by illness that
this is the only way they can give their children
anything.
For some families, this may be their last holiday
together.
Delta Dental employees donated gifts for more than
100 children, thereby helping dozens of families
in difficult situations find joy in the season. "We
believe miracles happen one angel at a time," says
Bamesberger. To Delta Dental employees, she says, "Thank
you for being that angel."
She adds, "Delta Dental and Angel Connection
are really both in the same business. We're both
about smiles."
Families served year-round
This marks the 11th year of Angel Connection, which
operates out of a refurbished house on the grounds
of the Greystone Park state psychiatric hospital
in Morris County, NJ.
Near the holidays the house bustles with activities,
as volunteers sort, wrap and distribute gifts to
an ever-growing list of children. This past holiday
season, Angel Connection collected holiday gifts
for nearly 4,000 AIDS-affected children throughout
New Jersey and New York City.
Angel Connection operates year-round, providing
many other services for families. It holds workshops
for mothers with AIDS to help them plan for the future
of their children. "Many of them are alone in
their journey," says Bamesberger. "We help
them think about finding guardians, and show them
how to go about that."
Angel Connection holds a fall "Pumpkin Patch
Picnic" to collect coats for children. Each
summer Angel Connection prepares camp backpacks for
250 children, so they have everything they need to
go to summer camp.
One new program, called "The Shirt Off My Back," pairs
fourth graders with others the same age who have
AIDS. The students create matching shirts for themselves
and their
"twins." Programs like this are designed
to educate children and adults about AIDS, and help
reduce the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding
the disease.
Much progress has been made in this area, says one
Angel Connection volunteer named Mary. Mary is a
foster parent and adoptive mother of five children
with AIDS. Two of her children died. In 1987, when
she started caring for children with AIDS, her children
weren't allowed into church play groups, her pediatrician
didn't know how to treat them, and other parents
wouldn't allow their children to play with hers.
Today, her children participate in scouting, attend
school and have play dates.
It isn't a typical life, Mary quickly adds. For
a class assignment, Mary's 11-year-old daughter recently
wrote an essay about what makes her sad. She wrote
about the deaths of her birth mother and siblings,
that she never knew her father, and about her own
disease. "Most of us will never go through what
she's already been through," says Mary.
Angel Connection receives no public funding. It
relies on donations from companies and individuals
to remain in operation and continue its services.
It has come perilously close to running out of money
several times in the past year. Bamesberger worries
about the future of Angel Connection. "If we
fail, there are a lot of little children who won't
get help," she says.
For information about how to support Angel Connection,
contact:
Chaplain Carol Bamesberger, Director, Angel Connection
3 Executive Drive
P.O. Box 9123
Greystone Park, NJ 07950-9123
(973) 898-0048
Delta Dental Plan of New Jersey is engaged in an
enterprise-wide project to meet Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates
governing the Standards for Electronic Transactions
and the Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health
Information. Delta Dental has identified and implemented
reasonable system changes, policies, procedures and
documentation necessary to comply with the final
Privacy Rule as it applies to dental benefit programs.
As each final rule is issued, Delta Dental will begin
another project cycle of assessment, planning and
implementation. Delta Dental will continue to commit
the resources and funding we believe is necessary
to meet the compliance deadlines.
To achieve a successful implementation of the new
HIPAA transaction and code sets regulation, Delta
Dental will continue to accept existing claim formats,
in addition to HIPAA compliant transactions, under
its contingency plan. During this time, Delta Dental
will transition our providers to HIPAA compliant
transactions. Delta Dental will monitor the situation
and will make a determination on how long to continue
our contingency plan based on the unique business
environment of our service area.
The new HIPAA transaction and code sets rules represent
the most sweeping change ever in the way electronic
healthcare claims are processed. Our decision to
accept noncompliant transactions was made based on
the likelihood that many healthcare providers might
have been unable to meet the October 16, 2003, HIPAA
transactions and code sets regulation deadline. Noncompliance
with the HIPAA requirements could result in several
unintended consequences, the most important of which
would be a return to inefficient and costly paper
transactions.
According to a July 24, 2003 guidance issued by
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
payers will not be penalized for accepting existing
transactions during a transition period as part of
their contingency plan provided they can demonstrate
good faith efforts in working with their providers
to facilitate compliance. Delta Dental has been working
closely with our trading partners to ensure a smooth
transition.
We believe we are compliant with the most important
of the covered transactions - Health Care Claims
(837), Eligibility Benefit Inquiry (270/271), Claims
Status Request and Response (276/277) and Benefit
Enrollment and Maintenance (834). There are some
transactions - Health Care Services Review, Request
for Review and Response (278), Payroll Deducted and
Other Group Premium Payment for Insurance Products
(820) and Health Care Claim Payment/Advice (835)
for which we have had no trading partner request
that we conduct these transactions. In addition,
testing of all of the transactions has been difficult
to complete, as many trading partners (mostly clearinghouses)
have not been able to test with all of their payers.
We fully expect, however, to see no adverse impact
on our claim adjudication or customer service processes,
as we work with our trading partners toward conducting
the HIPAA compliant transactions.
Delta Dental encourages any client who wishes to
send enrollment data to us using a standard 834 transaction
to contact their account executive or service coordinator
as soon as possible to schedule the necessary testing.
Delta Dental's Information Services personnel will
establish each client's testing schedule based upon
resource availability.
Delta Dental's Captain Supertooth rides again!
Each year in February - throughout National Children's
Dental Health Month - the caped superhero of dental
hygiene visits school children to promote the importance
of early preventive dental care and teach them proper
oral care.
In addition, Captain Supertooth made 11 "landings" in
October 2003.
The Captain Supertooth program is part of Delta
Dental's ongoing initiative to spread the word that
oral health is vital for good overall health.
Captain Supertooth visits schools armed with a larger-than-life-sized
toothbrush and other fun props. During the 20-minute
program, the Captain shares helpful "teeth"
tips, such as using toothpaste in a pea-sized amount
on a soft-bristled toothbrush, remembering "don't
rush when you brush" by brushing for at least
one minute, eating a balanced diet, and visiting
their dentist for regular check-ups. The program
is geared for children in kindergarten through second
grade, and is provided by Delta Dental as a free
public service.
Since the program began in 1990, Captain Supertooth
has instructed more than 36,000 New Jersey children
about proper dental care. For the first time, in
2004 Captain Supertooth will also visit schools in
Connecticut. Captain Supertooth programs will take
place at 21 schools in New Jersey and 10 in Connecticut.
Because of the high demand for this program, there
is a waiting list. For more information, call Delta
Dental at (973) 285-4059.
The 14th annual Delta Dental Golf Classic will take
place on June 23, 2004, at Fiddler's Elbow Country
Club. The event benefits Special Olympics New Jersey,
a non-profit organization that provides athletic
training and competition for children and adults
with mental retardation. We hope to see you there!
Call (973) 285-4059 for more details.
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