Delta Dental of Colorado (DDCO) and its foundation (DDCOF) have collectively committed $30 million in the form of billing and premium credits, loans, relief funds, and grants to customers, oral healthcare providers, and local community organizations.
“Delta Dental of Colorado has developed a comprehensive and holistic COVID-19 Relief Response, recognizing that we have a number of stakeholders who have significant needs,” said DDCO president and CEO Helen Drexler.
“As a nonprofit organization, our desire is to create a plan and response that will have the greatest impact on the greatest number of those stakeholders and allows us to ensure that the oral health needs of all Coloradans are met not only during this period of the global pandemic but also when we recover and begin to rebuild the economy and reopen businesses,” she said.
DDCO is the state’s largest dental benefits company, covering more than 1.3 million members, it said. DDCOF is the state’s leading funder of programming that advances oral healthy equity, DDCO added. Their commitments to relief include:
- Customers: 50% premium/billing credit for March and April totaling $16 million in relief to group and individual customers. DDCO also has extended grace periods to 60 days for each billing period and has frozen rates on renewals through the end of the year for small businesses.
- Colorado dental providers: Partnering with local Community Development Financial Institution Colorado Enterprise Fund to provide access to $7.5 million in low-interest loans to oral healthcare providers in the state. DDCO also is allocating $3 million toward a personal protective equipment (PPE) reimbursement program for DDCO network providers that will run from May through July.
- Community: $1.5 million to frontline organizations addressing community needs like community health clinics, food banks, shelters, and those serving the most vulnerable, including the Colorado COVID Relief Fund, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Denver Rescue Mission, Food Bank of the Rockies, Metro Carin, and Family & Intercultural Center.
Also, DDCOF is accepting applications for a Responsive Community Relief Fund with $2 million available for general operating grants to support community health provisions for those people most significantly stressed by the effects of COVID-19. Supporting local outreach and wrap-around services will be prioritized at this time of increased demand and decreased revenue. These grants will help ensure the future viability of community health and the ability to bring back community dental health services.
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