Charles Norwood: “we have been assured that everything is wonderful, that everybody is doing exactly what they need to do, that patients…”

“we have been assured that everything is wonderful, that everybody is doing exactly what they need to do, that patients will have all the access to care that they possibly want, and that there are really no problems. You know, I want to just point out a little small inconsistency in that. DOD says that the Concordia dental network is adequate, meaning there are enough dentists to provide the care that the patients need. Since the size of this network determines access, which you mentioned and I mentioned, which is so important, that beneficiaries have to dental care, how did the DOD determine what constituted an adequate network? The previous dental provider was Delta Dental. When they were first granted the contract from DOD, CHAMPUS determined that their existing national network, they had 90,000 dentists, and CHAMPUS said, ``That is too small.'' They required Delta Dental to go out and hire more people to work. Concordia stated that their goal for an adequate network was only 40,000 dentists. To date, they have really been able to only sign up 33,000 from the Delta Dental network plan of 113,000. Yet, Concordia claims, ``That is small enough to take care of all the patients.'' I am saying that somebody needs to oversee Concordia.”