The primary focus of the Dental practice is on developing competitive information and helping carriers use data and analytics to develop business strategies.  Our clients include all major national dental carriers and many regional companies.  RCL created the first national study of dental PPO network discount and size data, now recognized as the industry’s standard source of competitive information, and has developed competitive intelligence tools for ASO pricing.

We also work on assignments involving pricing, reserving, product development and competitive market reviews.  Examples of past projects include annual reserve opinions, modeling the impact of a rate manual revision on a company’s book of business, modeling estimated savings from network leasing arrangements, developing a pricing model for a non-standard product line, and developing updates to network dentist fee schedules.

Dental PPO Network Study

RCL’s Dental PPO Network Study is the only tool available in the dental insurance industry that allows carriers to see how their network results line up against competitors.  The study collects claim details annually from companies covering over 75% of the industry, and uses them to analyze dental network discounts.  Participants can receive data showing how their results compare to the industry, and where exactly they fall in the distribution of actual discounts in each of their markets.  RCL partners with The Ignition Group to also include data on the number of dentists in each network.

Customers of the study have found a variety of strategic and practical uses for the information obtained from the study. Many use the results to provide more facts and discipline to their network fee review process.  The information helps carriers to understand whether they are achieving the right balance between discounted fees and broad network access, or whether they are over-weighted in one or the other direction.  It has also been used to understand a company’s strengths and weakness in each market, and to ensure sales and marketing efforts emphasize those strengths.  Finally, since the study occurs each year, companies have used the data to set specific targets for their network goals and to monitor their progress relative to the competition.

Ruth Ann Woodley heads up the Dental Consulting Practice.