The Massachusetts Dental Society filed a petition May 5 urging the state Division of Insurance to require insurers to provide emergency financial aid, according to The Boston Globe.
About 30 percent of Massachusetts dental providers, currently limited to emergency care, have lost more than $30,000 in income between March 15 and April 15, while another 20 percent lost between $20,000 and $30,000, the petition states.
A Massachusetts Dental Society survey of its 5,000 members found individual dentists need anywhere from $150,000 to $300,000 to reopen. Dentists have said insurance companies are still collecting premiums from policyholders, even as claims payments decline sharply.
"We are in dire straits," Janis Moriarty, DMD, president of the Massachusetts Dental Society, told The Boston Globe. "We think Delta can throw us a lifeline since they are sitting on all these premiums."
Delta Dental, the state's largest dental insurance provider, said it already pledged $2 million to the dental society's COVID-19 recovery fund. The insurer is expected to announce a second phase of relief for Massachusetts dentists this week, according to a statement from Dennis Leonard, president and CEO of Delta Dental of Massachusetts.
Dr. Moriarty said MDS dentists were grateful for the $2 million, but noted that it totaled $400 per member.
The petition asked regulators to require insurers to advance claims payments equaling 50 percent of dentists' average weekly reimbursements in 2019, multiplied by nine weeks, with a limit at $50,000. The petition also requested policies to help cover the increasing cost of personal protective equipment and proposed a rollback of the 8.8 percent reimbursement rate cut approved for Delta in October.