Throughout the past two years, virtual care has expanded and evolved at a rapid pace. Colleen Van Ham, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Dental, discusses how virtual dentistry is improving access to preventive care.
One of the most common reasons for emergency room visits are oral health needs. In fact, many people visit their dentist more frequently than their primary care provider. Earlier this year, UnitedHealthcare launched a virtual dental benefit. Patients can now seek virtual care for acute needs, triage before an in-person appointment and receive post-op follow-up care.
In this episode, Colleen Van Ham, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Dental, discusses:
Evan Sweeney
A quick message before we begin today's episode. The UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation’s annual Hero Days campaign is going on now through April 30.
UHCCF is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that provides medical grants to help children gain access to health-related services not covered, or not fully covered, by their family’s commercial health insurance plan. They have awarded more than 28,000 medical grants since 2007, totaling more than $60M in support of children and families in the United States. Families can apply for a medical grant to help with things like surgeries, prescriptions, therapies, and medical devices. They do not need to have UnitedHealthcare insurance to be eligible.
To get involved and learn about all the ways to support UHCCF, visit uhccf.org today. And now to this week's episode.
Hello, and welcome to UnitedHealth Groups the Weekly Dose podcast, where we'll get you up to speed on latest trends shaping the future of health care. And remember, you can now subscribe and listen to episodes on Apple and Spotify.
If you've listened to past episodes, you've heard us talk to experts about the rapid evolution of virtual care. Today, you'll hear about how that evolution now includes dental care. Earlier this year, UnitedHealthcare launched a virtual dental benefit, where members can seek care for acute needs and get direction for in person care when needed.
As more people adopt a digital first mindset, when seeking out care, virtual dentistry can be a way to improve access to preventative care. In fact, oral health needs are among the most frequent causes of emergency room visits, and can lead to longer term health complications. Additionally, many people see their dentist more often than their primary care provider, offering an opportunity to identify potential red flags.
Here to talk about virtual dental care, including how it works and what benefits it can provide is Colleen Van Ham, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Dental. Colleen, welcome to the podcast.
Colleen Van Ham
Thank you for having me, Evan.
Evan Sweeney
So maybe you could start, tell me a little bit about your background, obviously CEO of UnitedHealthcare Dental, but sort of your current role and UHC’s dental care business?
Colleen Van Ham
Yeah, today I lead a national ancillary benefits business. It's part of UnitedHealthcare specialty benefits. So we serve the oral health needs of nearly 24 million people enrolled in employer sponsored benefit plans and government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. So in that role, my main focus is the strategic development that has driven the growth and performance of UnitedHealthcare dental that's grown to include nearly 1000 talented employees and we contract with more than 120,000 dental professionals. So I've been with the UnitedHealthcare for about 18 years. Since 2004, and various roles. Part of my role role leading United Healthcare central organization, I served as the CEO for UnitedHealthcare's commercial insurance operation in Illinois. And then we're broadly I've been in the field for more than 25 years in the space of healthcare spanning consulting, sales, account management and operations.
Evan Sweeney
And so, UHC recently launched a virtual dental benefit, I know we have some virtual dental care options. And so I'm going to ask the question, I think everyone's probably thinking is, how does a virtual dentist appointment work?
Colleen Van Ham
Very, very legitimate question. So it's an exciting time, technology is really changing how medical and dental services are not only paid for, but also delivered. So one huge trend in the adoption of virtual care, which across our UnitedHealthcare members increased by more than 2,000% in 21, but compared to the pre pandemic levels, is virtual teledentistry. So, regarding how it really works, virtual option for dental care enables people when they have a dental issue or a dental question, to connect live with a licensed dentists 24/7 using either their mobile device or a computer. And we have first launched this capability for our members in 2020. And then we recently announced an enhanced dental benefit, which provides our UnitedHealthcare dental members with two virtual dental dental visits a year at no cost share. So virtual care and the enhanced benefit, they're really helpful after hours or on weekends, because our members have access to dental care basically anywhere at any time. And where we found even greater traction is with rural membership, where 20% of Americans live in areas that really do struggle with access to any type of oral health care provider. So our main goal is to provide access to that dental care on a timely basis to make it affordable and convenient for our members. And that really helps us drive two things. One is to continually improve the oral health of our members and to to really help them reduce any unnecessary trips to the emergency room for a dental issue. As you can imagine, if one is panicked, the first thing they might do is go to the emergency room to seek back care if they can't get into a dentist right then. And re it's amazing, but dental care ranks among the most frequent type of avoidable er emergency room visits, and that costs the industry over $2 billion in avoidable costs each year. So having the capability to help guide a member to the right place at the right time and really solve for that issue quickly. glady is a key asset here with the virtual teledentistry. Yeah, wow.
Evan Sweeney
Can you take me through sort of a real world example how someone would interact with that benefit or use that?
Colleen Van Ham
Yeah, it's hard to imagine sometimes thinking about virtual dental care. So while dental dentists obviously can't reach through the smartphone or laptop and provide actual care, through a camera screen again, on their mobile device or computer, the licensed dentists can provide multiple services. So those range from what I just mentioned, which is triaging an emergency situation, to conducting an initial patient screening to determine what the best next course of care should be to pre and post operative consultations, getting somebody ready for the procedure, or treating them afterwards, to even facilitating finding a local dentist who has availability or when appropriate, even connecting them to a primary care physician for that need instead of the dentist. And then lastly, you know, there's care coordination and consultation that can occur with other health oral health specialists, which is great because that extends the reach of specialty care, particularly in areas like I mentioned earlier, that might be challenged with access and not have all of the available specialists that they might need. So one common example of teledentistry use is for post operative care following a tooth extraction, which is quite a common procedure. And rather than coming back into the office after a tooth is removed, our members can meet with a dentist virtually to just check in on the healing process and discuss any ongoing maintenance. And then if the person needs to go into the office and make an appointment, we can help to facilitate that through the virtual visit. And what we're finding is really consumers today, particularly millennials and Gen Z, they expect digital capabilities from text for import appointment confirmations, to really this virtual visit capability, which saves the patient's time and money and again, avoids a face to face meeting if we can facilitate the care. And 80% of those who use virtual visits during the pandemic indicated, they're definitely likely to engage in another virtual visit in the future. So overall, I think we're really seeing a willingness to embrace technology and a new way of delivering care in the dental space. And we're trying to make that as easy as possible for our members to take advantage of that you had in health care.
Evan Sweeney
Yeah. Okay. So think I guess less of a teeth cleaning and more of sort of triage assessment, post op, that that sort of thing? Yeah, exactly. Okay. Was this sort of product or offering conceived because of the pandemic? I mean, obviously, you've seen a huge increase in virtual care overall. Or did the pandemic provide sort of more of a reason to stand it up?
Colleen Van Ham
Yeah, definitely the ladder, the pandemic really helped us get to get out to our members what was already in the works, UnitedHealthcare from an overall level has been investing in virtual care resources for many years. And that really was a great asset to have when many dental offices suddenly closed during those early days, and people had no idea where to go for care. So it continued to prove valuable too, even as offices started to open up as some people did still want to choose to minimize that in person interaction. And now nearly three quarters of people saying that they're very open to using teledentistry in an emergency situation, it really has taken a foothold in terms of an optional way to deliver care in the dental space. For those specific uses that I mentioned, a key learning that we, that we were able to draw from the progression of COVID-19 Was that poor oral health. So think about gum disease, that's also linked to worse outcomes following a COVID-19 infection, which can definitely drive a higher chance of admission to the ICU. So when we look at COVID, and gum disease, which is an inflammatory condition, we see nearly 50% of Americans over the age of 30 have some form of gum disease. So that's definitely why we want to focus on connecting our members to care to their help them avoid that gum disease in the first place, or support them in working through treating that if they do have that.
Evan Sweeney
So can you tell me more about that, you know, what role does dental care play in preventative care and also sort of the connection between oral health and your overall health?
Colleen Van Ham
There's definitely a proven linkage. And we know that oral health plays a crucial role in maintaining and improving overall health. And what I've always appreciated about UnitedHealthcare is that because we do provide medical and dental and even vision benefits. Our entire philosophy and approach starts from the basis of thinking about whole person health. So our commercial customers, they enjoy a great advantage when they integrate their medical and dental benefits. And we show them through data, how their members who are taking advantage of both are really showing improved oral and overall health outcomes. And those customers know they can rely on us through the integrated approach to help with early identification and management of that chronic condition. So think about that diabetes example I shared earlier, and then help enable the health care providers and the dental providers to better collaborate and flag when they see those gaps in care. And a common example of this integration we find in members who have both diabetes and gum disease, we can cross check the dental claims with the medical claims to determine if that patient has missed a recommended periodontal treatment or just a regular cleaning. And if we see that we'll actually outreach to that member to help with scheduling the recommended dental treatment or the cleanings. Or if we find that they haven't gone because they've had an access to care issue, we can actually deploy them to teledentistry capability as a way to begin assessing any oral issues in order to get that person back into the dental office for that preventative maintenance, and then hopefully help their overall health. And through our data. We know that people with chronic conditions who do receive regular dental care had an average of 21% lower medical costs than those who didn't, and didn't follow up with their care. So it really comes back to an overall health perspective, when we think about how that contributes how that prevented, cleaning is so important. And getting to any emerging issues quickly. And truly teledentistry has allowed us to even be quicker in in that outreach.
Evan Sweeney
And so UHC is rolling that is really making that connection point between sort of the dental side of the medical side and kind of identifying those red flags correct?
Colleen Van Ham
Absolutely.
Evan Sweeney
So based on your observation over the last few years here, what's the true deck trajectory of the dental care space? How much do you think it might evolve going forward? It sounds like it already has to some degree and and especially with more of these virtual models available.
Colleen Van Ham
And half, it definitely has evolved. I think the pandemic definitely spurred some of that, too. So innovation and digitalization will continue to shape the healthcare delivery, it'll become much more of a consumer driven personalized experience, which is what we've already been driving towards. And to meet that need. From an overall perspective, united healthcare and health group is investing more than 5 billion in data and technology and innovation annually. So the UnitedHealthcare dental business is deploying those investments and changing rapidly along with that. teledentistry is just one example of many consumer driven advancements that we're deploying. And when I look at the dental industry, I see it to speeding up to advance and its embrace of technology, and innovation. And that might range from dental schools incorporating into their curriculum, more focus on technology and the role that it plays as well as overall health to large dental provider groups that are investing in electronic medical record systems that can integrate with medical claim systems. So think, epic, or Cerner, we're seeing that come into the dental space right now, which is great, because that absolutely aligns with our overall goal of helping people live healthier lives, and really, truly making the system including the dental care delivery, work better for everyone. So that pace of change, like I mentioned, really has picked up between a pandemic and office closures. And that's really helped. I think, overall, the industry, UnitedHealthcare patients, the providers, lots of new thinking in terms of how we can improve overall health.
Evan Sweeney
Yeah, it certainly seems like a sector that's kind of ripe for for that type of innovation. Well, Colleen, thank you for joining us. Really appreciate it.
Colleen Van Ham
Thank you for having me here.
Evan Sweeney
Thanks to our guest, Colleen Van Ham and thank you for listening. Have a great rest of your week.