Charles Norwood: “Delta Dental had 113,000 dentists in their network nationwide. Concordia has said, ``Well, we can do it with 40,000.''…”

“Delta Dental had 113,000 dentists in their network nationwide. Concordia has said, ``Well, we can do it with 40,000.'' That means less access. They have only been able to sign up 33,000. Eighty thousand not willing to sign up and work for nothing. I want to present to the Speaker some corrections that I think that DOD Health Affairs really has to bring out and deal with, because this is just the beginning. They have not even awarded the contracts all across the country yet. This is just the beginning. So if I could, Mr. Jones, I would like to list a few things for the record because we are going to bring it back to them in other ways as time goes on. First of all, DOD must establish a full-time oversight board to monitor complaints of the Concordia contract, which are numerous. They must authorize local dental commanders and regional dental service support area commanders. That means the colonels and the majors and the captains and so forth that are working in the different armed services clinics around the world, we need to let them exercise some oversight over this Concordia program. In the same manner, by the way, as the TriCare lead agents and medical facility treatment commanders have over TriCare contractors. Third, we need to establish a methodology for measuring the effectiveness of the Concordia program to provide access, choice, and quality of care, not just how much cheaper is it.”