East & West Coast Dental Plans
Join Forces
March 16, 2000
Delta Dental Insurance Company
becomes part of holding company system that aims
to improve coverage, add services and enable expansion
in 16 states
Alpharetta, Ga. - Delta Dental Insurance
Company announced today it will be part of a new
nonprofit holding company system to increase competitiveness
and improve services affecting 16.2 million enrollees
in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
Pending regulatory approval, Delta
Dental Insurance Company, along with parent company
Delta Dental Plan of California, Delta Dental of
Pennsylvania and their affiliates, will compose
the single largest dental benefits organization
in the nation. The new holding company system will
bring the strength of a $3.3 billion enterprise
to a geographic area covering nearly one half of
the U.S. population.
Delta Dental Insurance Company,
a for-profit affiliate of Delta California with
its main offices in Alpharetta, covers nearly three-quarters
of a million people in 10 states including Georgia,
where it has 82,000 enrollees. Other states include
Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Montana, Nevada, Texas and Utah.
The organizational structure of
Delta Dental Insurance Company will not change.
Robert Elliott remains president of Delta Dental
Insurance Company and its dental HMO affiliate,
PMI Dental Health Plan, which administers the DeltaCare
dental HMO in Georgia.
"One of the advantages of our
new holding company system is its unification of
management and business activities," Elliott
said. "Historically, we respond to the marketplace
with new programs and efficiencies that aid our
clients through our delivery of dental health benefits.
Sharing and combining our best business practices
will increase our efficiency and develop more consistency
in an increasingly global marketplace."
Delta Dental Insurance Company and
the California and Pennsylvania Deltas will retain
their individual licensing identities, assets, revenues
and claims processing operations. The formation
of the new holding company system should not affect
enrollees' benefits, rates or delivery of dental
services, Elliott added.
"What it does do is strengthen
our existing benefits delivery methods," he
added. "We have a long track record of successful
joint initiatives with Delta Pennsylvania that have
proven beneficial from a business standpoint. Joining
forces at this point in time builds upon the solid
relationship between the two companies and upon
the complementary competitive strengths that each
of us brings to the table."
Unlike so many mergers and consolidations,
the formation of the holding company system will
not require any of the Delta Plans involved to lay
off employees, company officials said.
Delta Dental Insurance Company and
both the California and Pennsylvania Delta Plans
are members of the nationwide Delta Dental Plans
Association (DDPA), consisting of 37 member Plans
that collectively cover more than 30 million of
the approximately 120 million Americans with private
dental insurance.
Delta Plans across the country work
cooperatively to administer national dental programs
to employers with multi-state workforces, and bring
to the marketplace a combined network of 108,000
dentists, nearly two of every three licensed dentists
in the nation.
About Delta Dental Plan of California
and its Affiliates
Delta Dental Plan of California,
a nonprofit company based in San Francisco, covers
some 13.7 million enrollees, including 1.3 million
members through affiliate PMI Dental Health Plan,
one of the nation's largest dental HMOs. Delta California
projects consolidated revenues in 2000 of nearly
$3 billion.
About Delta Dental of Pennsylvania
and its Affiliates
Delta Dental of Pennsylvania is
a nonprofit company based in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
Delta Pennsylvania operates in Pennsylvania and
Maryland and administers Delta operations in New
York, Delaware, West Virginia and the District of
Columbia, and covers 2.5 million enrollees. Since
1993, the company has grown from $118 million in
consolidated revenues to a projected $308 million
in 2000 - a 15 percent average annual growth rate.
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