Dental-Insurance Contract Up for Bid for State Workers
* The chief competitors for the contract are expected to be Blue Cross & Blue Shield and Delta Dental of Rhode Island.
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PROVIDENCE – Just months after switching health-insurance carriers, the state of Rhode Island has begun seeking a new contract for employees’ dental insurance.
Bids are due Aug. 10, with an insurer expected to be selected in mid-September. The three-year contract will run from 2006 to 2008.
The state’s current dental insurer, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, and market rival Delta Dental are expected to be the chief competitors for the contract.
The contract covers a little over 17,000 workers — generally current state employees — plus their dependents. Most state retirees do not have dental coverage.
The state paid $11.5 million in the recently concluded fiscal year to provide the coverage, at a cost of $68.26 a month for a family plan or $24.38 a month for individual coverage. State workers do not pay a share of the premiums, although they do pay half the cost of some procedures, including periodontal work and braces.
As it did with the state health-insurance contract, the state is working with a health-care benefits consultant, Hewitt Associates LLC, to design the “request for proposals” for the contract and choose a winning bidder.
The work is part of Hewitt’s existing $681,000 contract with the state, said Brian Stern, executive director of the Department of Administration.
Blue Cross spokeswoman Kim Keough confirmed the company hopes to keep the state’s business, which she said it has had for about a decade.
The competition will look familiar.
Mary Sommer, director of corporate communications for Delta Dental, said the company is “always interested in bidding on the state account” and has done so “every time the bid becomes available.”
Right now, she said, “The state employee population is one of the only major employer groups we don’t have as a client.”
The Carcieri administration, last October, replaced Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island as the state’s health insurer, picking UnitedHealthcare of New England as the new insurer for 52,000 state employees, retirees and their dependents.
Blue Cross challenged the bid award, but the Supreme Court upheld the decision. State employees switched to United coverage on May 1.
State lawyers are now asking Blue Cross to pay about $320,000 in costs related to that case, including outside legal services and consultant work. A judge has not yet ruled on that request.