Alright, so we're gonna get started.

All right, so welcome.

We're gonna get started with today's benefits resource session.

Today we have Jody Tuzen from Delta Dental with us.

He is our representative that works here with the city of Nashua.

He's gonna take us through the Delta Dental Benefit Plan, answer your questions that you might have, one small housekeeping rule.

If you do have questions, if you could just put your hand up and I'll run the microphone over to you.

This is to ensure that those that watch the video afterwards are able to hear your questions and the answer that goes with it.

So without any further ado, I'm gonna turn it over to Jody.

Welcome.

Great, thank you, Christy.

And uh thank you for joining me today at this uh benefits meeting.

I'm uh my name, as Christy said.

My name is Jody Tuzenam from Northeast Delta Dental.

And I'm just gonna go over your uh dental benefits with you and help you understand how the plan works and try to help you get the most out of the plan, make sure you're using it well and getting the best benefit possible out of it.

So to let you know though, this presentation is really for general purposes only.

So if you do have specific questions about claims and things like that, that's something you would want to contact our customer service department about.

Uh we'll talk a lot about them in the presentation, but they are a great resource if you have specific questions about your claims or benefits.

Okay.

All right, thank you very much.

So this is the agenda for today's meeting.

We're gonna give you some important information to start with.

Again, we'll talk about our customer service team and what a great resource they are for you.

We'll talk about our networks that you have available to you, which is our PPO plus premiere network, really great network that we'll get into in more detail in the following slides.

We'll go through your benefits overview with you.

We'll talk to you about our health through oral wellness program, which is a really great wellness program that can really help members that are at higher risk for oral disease, and again, we'll talk a lot more about that in the following slides.

We'll show you how to do a dentist search, we'll talk to you about our patient portal, we'll show you our mobile app, we'll go over the vision and hearing discount program, and then we'll have time for questions as well.

So that's the agenda for today, and we'll get right into it.

So essential information.

So ID cards are not issued uh every year, they're only issued initially when you enroll.

Uh in the past, we would issue two ID cards in the subscriber's name only.

That has changed in the last couple years.

Now we do issue an ID card for each individual member.

It'll have your name as the subscriber, but then each other card will have each member you're covering an ID card for them as well.

Um, all claims are submitted on the employees' membership, so you all have the same ID number, even though you're the subscriber, everyone will use that same ID number on your card.

As I mentioned, cards are issued at initial enrollment only.

But if you ever do need additional ID cards, you can always go on our patient portal, which we'll talk about more later, and you can print an ID card for yourself there.

Um if you really need a hard copy, you can give customer service a call as well, and they may be able to give you a hard copy through the mail.

But in general, the best way to get a copy of an ID card would be to go to the patient portal and log in there and do it that way.

Okay.

Um, customer service.

Again, we'll talk more about this on some of the next slides.

But you have fast friendly service calls are typically answered within 45 seconds of calling.

And actually, it's usually much less than that.

I think at one one month it was like 18 seconds.

So you're gonna get a live person in Concord, New Hampshire very quickly.

Um their call resolution, seven 97.5% of their calls are resolved on the first call.

So that means you don't have to call them and follow up, they don't have to call you back with an answer.

You get it all taken care of right then and there.

So customer service is awesome, and I'll give you a little more information about that later.

And again, we'll talk more about the patient portal as well, but there's a lot of great tools there.

You can view your claims, your benefits, like I said, print ID cards, you can see your explanation of benefits, all sorts of great tools available on the portal.

So I would encourage you all to go there.

It's NE Delta.com slash patients, or you can just go to NE Delta.com and click on the patients tab to create an account and log in.

All right.

So the part we're gonna talk about now is the networks.

And I've like talking about the networks because you have really, really great networks on this plan.

And um, this is probably one of the most important things we'll talk about today.

But when you're on a Delta Dental plan, you can see any dentist you wish in any state.

Our networks are nationwide.

Um, so if you have kids traveling uh kids in college out of state or you're traveling out of state, you're covered, you'll find in network dentists just like you do here in New Hampshire.

Um, but you will get the best convenience value and savings when you see an in-network provider.

So again, you can see any provider you want, but you'll get that best convenience value and savings when you see an in network provider.

You get there's no balance billing, they can't charge you up front for services that are covered.

You don't have to submit your claims, they'll submit them for you.

And again, no balance billing.

So the advantages of using an in-network provider are really great.

What's important to note is that the PPO plus Premier Network, it's actually two networks.

You have the Premier Network, which is very, very large.

In fact, over 90% of the dentists in New Hampshire participate in the Premier Network.

You also have the PPO network, which is a little bit smaller.

It's about 53% of the dentists in New Hampshire participate in the PPO network.

The PPO dentists have agreed to accept a lower charge for their services from Northeast Delta Dental.

So as a patient and as a member, that can actually help you save some money on your coinsurance.

If you're going in and you're paying for a service that's let's say covered at 50%, you're paying 50% of a lower starting point.

So that can help you save some money out of pocket.

It also helps you stretch your annual maximum a little bit further because we're paying the dentist a little bit less, less is coming out of your annual maximum.

And we'll talk a little bit more about annual maximums on some of the next slides.

But that's probably one of the most important things I'm going to tell you today is you can see any dentist you want, but if you go in network, it's better, and it's even better, and more savings if you see a PPO dentist.

And you can always go on our website and do a dentist search, and I'll actually show you how to do that later in the presentation.

Alright.

Alright, so this is a general dental benefits overview.

There are several different plans throughout the city of Nashua.

So to see your specific outline and overview, you would want to go on your employee website and take a look at that.

You will be able to see all of them there, and you can see you can look at your specific one.

But in general, I actually like to start at the bottom where it talks about contract year maximum.

And so each plan has a certain maximum amount of dollars that Delta Dental will pay out per person per contract period.

And in the case of City of Nashua, your contract period is July 1st through June 30th of each year.

So that means let's say your plan had a thousand dollar maximum.

Anytime you go into the dentist, the Delta Dental will pay the dentist for that service, and that amount we pay will come out of that maximum out of that thousand dollars.

So it's always a good idea to know how much of that thousand dollars you have remaining in case you're going in for a service that's normally covered, but you've already used that full amount, it wouldn't be covered, you'd end up paying for it.

So especially towards the end of your contract period, so you know, May, June, it's always good to know how much you have left so that you don't end up paying, you know, hang out of pocket for something that could have waited.

Um, and you can always go on our website and create an account on our patient portal and log in and see how much you have left of that amount.

You can also call customer service.

But that's the starting point is your contract year maximum.

Again, it runs from uh July through June each year, and each plan uh has a different amount.

The first column uh all the way toward the left is your diagnostic and preventive services, and these are kind of the services you would think about when you go in for your regular checkups.

So it's oral evaluations, cleanings, x-rays, um, fluoride treatment for children, sealants for children.

All of those services are covered at a hundred percent by Northeast Delta Dental on all plan options.

And so when you go in for those services, as long as you are seeing an in-network provider and you have money left in that contract your maximum, you shouldn't pay anything for those services.

So, another very important point that I'm gonna make today is because those services are covered in full, you really should be going in and making sure you're getting those preventive services done.

Go in for your routine checkups, it can really help save you a lot of pain later on and save you a lot of money later on.

If you're going in, you're getting that routine work done, any issues come up, get caught early.

That can really help you out a lot.

So make sure you're getting your diagnostic and preventive.

You're going in for your checkups.

The next column after that is your basic restorative services.

And the amount that Delta Dental will pay towards those varies by plan.

So they're not all the same, but I believe the range is about 60 to 80% on those services.

And those are your fillings.

We cover the Sylvum or Amalgam fillings on this plan.

We also cover the white or resin fillings on all teeth on this plan, which is great because a lot of plans only cover the white fillings on the front teeth, but this plan actually covers them on all teeth.

So that's a great benefit that you have available to you on this plan.

Oral surgery, which includes routine extractions and surgical extractions, all would be covered under basic restorative, uh, root canals, periodontal cleanings, crown lengthening, all of those types of services are covered under basic restorative, and there's no deductible, which is great.

A lot of plans have a deductible for those services, there's no waiting period for those services.

So you've got a lot of great benefits on the basic restorative side.

The next column is your major restorative services.

So these are kind of the bigger items, and not all of the plans through the city of Nashua include coverage for major restorative.

Most do, but not all do.

And the amount that Delta Dental pays varies on these as well, but typically it's around 50%.

But again, check your specific plan design for your amount.

But these are the services like dentures, crowns, onlays, implants, all of those bigger types of services.

One nice benefit you have is the occlusal guards or you'll hear them called night guards.

Those are covered once in a five-year period under major restorative.

That's not a service that's standardly covered on our plan, so that's a great additional benefit that you have available to you through the city of Nashua.

And so, as I mentioned earlier, the diagnostic and preventive, the basic, the major, you go into the dentist for those services, you pay your portion, we pay ours, and the amount that we pay counts against that contract year maximum that we talked about earlier.

So that's kind of the first part of the plan.

Now there is also orthodontia on one plan option, and that's for children to age 19.

So it does vary by plan, but I think it's only on one plan option.

So again, check your specific outline on the website.

But the orthodontic is covered at 50% for the plan that covers it.

And that is a separate lifetime maximum than your annual maximum that you have on the diagnostic preventive and basic and major services.

So it is a separate lifetime maximum per child.

Okay.

And one thing I always like to mention is that if you are going to be going in for something that's a little bit more comprehensive, potentially costly, it's a really good idea to ask your dentist to do a predetermination of benefits.

When you do that, they'll actually submit the paperwork to us before you have the procedure.

And they're gonna give us what they're gonna do, and based on the codes they've given us, based on how much you have left in your max, what plan you're on, we'll then respond to you as the member and to the dentist, letting them know based on this moment in time, this is what you can expect Delta Dental to pay.

This is what you can expect to pay out of pocket.

So it's really like getting an estimate on your car.

You know, we'll we'll just tell you this is what you should expect based on the information we have right now, and that can help avoid surprises and issues later on when you have them do that.

Okay.

All right.

So the next thing we're gonna talk about is our health through oral wellness program, which is a really great program that you have available to you through the city of Nashua.

And science continues to show the association of many chronic and serious metal conditions to a person's oral health.

And believe it or not, signs or symptoms of over 120 diseases can be detected in the mouth.

So that's why it's really important to go in and get those routine uh oral evaluations done.

But you have this health through oral wellness program, which is a patient-centered oral wellness program that's really designed to help each individual member get the highest level of oral health and overall health, and it really is about you.

So you have this great plan through the city of Nashua, but maybe you're a little bit higher risk, you have a little bit higher needs, and you need some extra preventive benefits.

Well, that's where the how program can come into play.

So it's um it's a really great program, and basically the way it works is you go see your dentist, your dentist will do a clinical risk assessment with the software that we've provided to them.

They'll get an immediate score, and basically it's a five-point scale.

And if you score from three to five on that scale, indicating that you have moderate to high risk, you'll automatically qualify for extra preventive benefits.

And the extra preventive benefits do become part of your plan, so they are subject to any co-insurance or anything like that, they just become part of your plan.

They're not like you know, added for free.

But if it's an extra cleaning, then that cleaning is covered at 100%.

So just keep that in mind.

Um, but really, it's as easy as that.

You go see your dentist, they do the assessment.

If you're high risk, they'll get a score immediately, letting them know you qualified, and these are the services that you qualify, the extra preventive services you qualify for.

And again, the idea being that if you are getting those extra preventive benefits early and up front, then that's gonna save you a lot of pain and a lot of money and delta dental, a lot of money later on.

So it's a great program.

Um, most of the dentists in our area in New Hampshire are already probably proactively doing it, but if they're not, you can ask them to.

Um and if they say, Oh, I don't know anything about that, or we don't do that, you can always have them call Delta Dental, and we'll be happy to have a conversation with them and and uh make sure that they understand how to use the software and do that.

But um, like I said, most of the dentists in this area are already using it and doing it proactively.

So just keep that in mind.

And the good news too is that once you qualify, if you go in, you score three to five on the five-point scale, that means you've qualified.

You will continue to qualify even if your condition improves.

So you're going in, you're getting those extra preventive benefits, your condition improves.

You're still qualified because you qualified originally.

So we don't want to take it away once you've done the right things and improved your health.

So just keep that in mind.

And this is a chart kind of showing what those extra preventive benefits are.

And so the first one is cleanings.

Most of the plans for the city of Nashua cover two cleanings.

Whereas if you qualify for how you would be able to get actually four cleanings covered per year.

So that's a great benefit.

There is also sealance and fluoride treatment, typically only covered for children.

But if you qualify through the Health through oral wellness program, you can actually then get the sealants and the fluoride treatment.

Every time I go to the dentist, I get the fluoride treatment because I've qualified.

So it's a nice additional benefit to have.

So all those are additional preventive benefits that you would qualify through for on the Health through oral wellness program.

So that is the quick version of the health through oral wellness, or you'll hear it called the how program as well.

Okay.

All right, so we're gonna shift back to the network.

So if you are looking for a dentist or you're not sure if your dentist is in network, you can go to NE Delta.com, and up on the top right corner, there's a little button that says find a dentist, and you click that, and you'll be able to enter some information that will help you find an in-network dentist.

And this is an example of what you'll see.

So if you have a specific dentist in mind, you can search by their name or you can search by the practice name, and that'll tell you whether they're in network or not.

But if you don't have a specific dentist you're looking for, you just want to know what dentists in your area are in network, you can put in your zip code, your town, and then you can give it a radius of how many miles you want to look at, 10 miles, 15 miles, and it will give you a list of results of all the dentists who are in network.

So it's a really great tool available to you.

And this is an example of the results you would see once you've done a dentist search.

So in this case, um I just did a search by I think Concord, New Hampshire, you know, within 15 miles, uh, whatever it may have been.

And the first doctor that came up was Dr.

Nicholas Papateros.

And if you look to the right where the arrow is, it says Delta Dental Premier.

So that means this dentist is in our premier network only.

So he is in network, and you can see him and it'll work exactly like it should.

But if you look at the second dentist, Dr.

John Samaha, who I believe actually just retired, so I think I need to update this slide, but uh it's it still gives you the example.

If you look to the right where those arrows are, you can see it says Delta Dental Premier, but it also says Delta Dental PPO.

So that means he is actually in both networks.

So if you go in and you're seeing someone who's in both networks, it will be treated as PPO, which means the dentist will accept that lower reimbursement, which again can help you save money out of pocket, can help you stretch your maximum further.

So again, just keep that in mind.

You can see any dentists you want, but the PPO is really where you'll get that best value, and this search will show you how to find someone who's PPO.

Okay, all right.

Now you've heard me talk about the patient portal quite a bit.

Um, but if you go to WW.nedelta.com slash patients, or again, you can just go to WW.nedelta.com and click on the patients tab.

There'll be a place where you can create an account, and then once you create an account, you can log in and you'll have access to all your benefit information right there on the portal.

Um, like I mentioned earlier, you can print ID cards from the portal.

Um, you can view what your benefits actually are and all your frequencies for services and things like that.

You can see your claims, you can see how much of that maximum you've spent.

Um, that you can see your explanation of benefits, which you might need for your FSA or something like that.

So a lot of great tools available to you on the patient portal.

I definitely encourage you to go in and just kind of manage your benefits through that portal.

Um so that's the portal, but we also have a mobile app.

You can basically get the mobile app and go in and get a lot of the same information that you can through the patient portal.

Um it's the Delta Dental app, and you can get that through Google Play or through the App Store, and it's just the Delta Dental app.

Um thing it does is you can actually display your ID card right on your screen.

So if you're at your dentist and they want to see an ID card, you can just show them your screen.

Um, there's a lot of good tools available on the mobile app as well.

All right.

All right, so that's kind of it for the dental portion.

But the few more things I just want to mention is that as part of your Delta Dental plan, you do have a vision discount program through IMID included.

So if you need to go in for vision services, you can go to providers who are part of IMED's uh advantage network, which includes a lot of the big retailers like Target, lens crafters, places like that, but also a lot of private practitioners as well.

If you show them your Delta Dental ID card or you tell them that you're on Delta Dental and you have an IMED discount, you can qualify for discounts on exams, frames, and lenses.

It's really like having a coupon.

It's not insurance, um, it's really like having a coupon, uh, but you can benefit from those uh savings.

Now, I usually tell people when you're going in for vision services, show them your Delta Dental ID card, show them your medical carrier ID card.

If you have triple A, if you have AARP, any membership type ID card, show them all, and they're usually really good at telling you which one will get the best discount and the best value from.

That's good to know.

There's also a hearing discount program built in through Ampliphone that works a little bit differently.

You would actually give Ampliphone a call and they would kind of walk you through the process of how to access discounts on hearing aids and exams and things like that.

Um there's free batteries for up to two years on that program, I believe, and a lot of really good benefits available on that as well.

Um I believe the state of New Hampshire does have um a law where the medical carriers have to cover hearing aids, so that might work better.

But if you are in a position where you need a hearing exam or you need hearing aids, I would give Ampliphone uh a phone call, talk it through with them and see if they can direct you on how to uh access those savings.

So just keep that in mind.

You have those two additional uh benefits, the the vision discount and the and the hearing discount as well.

All right.

And there's not a slide for it, but one thing I also want to mention too is that our um YouTube page, our Delta Dental YouTube page, you can go there and there's a series of videos available there.

Um that short videos that are just informational where you know it might be something as can you explain my annual maximum or can you explain what a deductible is?

Things like that.

So there's a lot of really great tools available there.

Um if you go to the Northeast Delta Dental YouTube page, you can watch those videos as well as our website.

There's a lot of great resources available at anydelta.com.

And again, if you need to reach customer service, they are available 8 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

Monday through Friday.

Again, they're right in Concord, New Hampshire.

You'll get a quick answer.

You can always uh email customer service as well at customerservice at NE Delta.com, or as I mentioned, you can call them at 1800 832570, and they are always happy to help.

So that's it for the presentation.

But I now we have plenty of time for questions.

If anyone has any questions.

I just want to mention I think it's great learning.

I actually learned something today about that supplemental discount piece.

I had no idea that that was a part of the benefit.

So that's wonderful to know, and certainly something that we'll be sure to share here at the city.

Because I think that's wonderful.

Yeah, and I have some materials that I can certainly share if you'd like.

You know, again, it's not every provider that takes the vision discount, but it is a lot of providers in the iMID network, and um, yeah, it's definitely a good additional benefit.

So hopefully your employees can benefit from it.

Do you have any questions?

I must have done good then.

It was very thank you.

No, no, you're good.

So I just want to thank you for coming today.

Um thank the TV station for helping us record this session so that people who um unfortunately can't make it during the day have access to the same important information.

I think this was very thorough and and wonderful.

Um, and again, if you're looking to find out what your exact benefit is, the benefits page of the website, you go there and you're actually able to see what your exact plan is based off of the union you work for.

Um that's how they're all listed there.

So thank you very much, Jody.

This was wonderful.

Um happy to have you on site.

Um, you're always um definitely very informative with the information you share.

So thank you.

Um so that'll be it for today.

So thank you.

Thank you, Misty.