Delta Dental

Delta Dental member companies serve more than one third of the estimated 166 million Americans with dental insurance.

History

In 1954, several dental service corporations formed in California, Oregon, and Washington. These corporations were created by dentists who recognized the need to increase access to oral health care, and later joined to form Delta Dental. Delta Dental began working with Washington Dental Service to provide dental benefit programs for organized labor unions and later underprivileged residents through a partnership with the Washington State Department of Public Assistance.

Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA) was created in Fall of 1966 to bring together these local state service organizations and coordinate dental benefit programs for customers with employees in multiple states. A year later, the first multi-state program was sold by WDS to the International Association of Machinists. WDS ceded the administration for enrollees in other states to other Delta Dental member companies and contracted with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association for administration in those states without a Delta Dental affiliate organization.

Coverage was provided this way until the late 1980s when Delta Dental of California won the bid for the Office of the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (OCHAMPUS) program. Delta Dental member companies agreed to share its provider data so the administration of this very large account could be centralized, with Delta Dental of California sharing the administrative income and risk. The OCHAMPUS program led to the creation of the National Provider File (NPF), which was made available for commercial accounts in 1990 via Delta USA – providing Delta Dental coverage to organizations with employees and subscribers located in multiple states.

In 2013, the Washington Dental Service was rebranded as Delta Dental of Washington.