How COVID Changed Dental Plan Services

Jeff Album
Vice President of Public and Government Affairs
Delta Dental of CA, NY, PA & Affiliates

Jeff Album is vice president of Public and Government Affairs for Delta Dental of California, New York, Pennsylvania, and affiliates, which serve 36 million enrollees.  His responsibilities include managing a team of 16 lobbyists, as well as staff who engage in reputation/issues management for all affiliates.

Jeff is widely regarded as one of the nation’s foremost experts on the dental industry generally, and on health care reform’s impacts on that industry. His impact on state and federal legislation and rule making occurs through his advocacy on the boards of the California Dental Plans Association (CADP), the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP), and as a member of the Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA) Public Policy Committee.

In 2014, Jeff was recognized for his contributions by NADP with the Gabryl Award, that association’s highest honor for lifetime service to the dental benefits industry. Jeff holds a Master of Arts degree in communication from Stanford University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in planning and public policy from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is past chair and a current member of the San Francisco Public Relations Round Table, and a current board director with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

Susan Lotz

Susan Lotz is vice president of Quality Management for Western Dental and Brident. The corporate offices are based in Orange, California where plan operations and dental centers in California, Arizona, Texas and Nevada are managed. Western Dental and Brident currently serve more than 1 million adults and children a year. Susan has more than 28 years of experience in the health care industry. Susan has held several leadership roles, strategically managing all aspect of dental plan operations in a mixed model environment, including quality assurance, network development, provider and payer relations, plan administration and compliance activities. Susan joined the company in 2002, and currently serves as the company’s antifraud officer and chair of the antifraud committee reporting to the Board of Directors. Susan is currently a member of several internal and external committees, including the CADP Quality Management Committee where she has served for more than 15 years. Susan also serves on the company’s Public Policy Committee, Utilization Management Committee, Quality Improvement Committee, PACE – Academy of General Dentistry, in addition to several strategic committees involving acquisitions and integration.

Gary Pickard
Director of Government & Industry Affairs
Pacific Dental Services

For more than two decades Gary Pickard has been connecting people and ideas, dedicating his life to advocating for the dental industry and elevating the profession.

Gary has focused his attention on legislative affairs for the past seven years and in that time, he has helped two bills become law, one in Washington State and one in Maryland. He has spoken to countless legislators that include attorneys general, senators, governors, and has even met the vice president of the United States. He has testified in front of state dental boards and legislative committees addressing access to care issues, explaining alternative business models, urging that Congress add medically-necessary dental coverage to Medicare, and educating policy makers on the value of dentistry and good oral health.

He has helped Pacific Dental Services (PDS) become one of the largest and most successful Dental Support Organizations (DSO) in the world, a leader in modern dentistry, moving the needle on the Mouth-Body Connection, supporting almost 4,000 oral healthcare professionals, approaching 1,000 dental practices across 22 states.

Gary currently serves as PDS’s senior director of Government and Industry Affairs. He is a proud veteran of the United States Navy. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Organizational Leadership from Azusa Pacific University. Gary also serves as an Advisory Board member for the Pacific Dental Services Foundation. A foundation dedicated to creating opportunities to serve through improving oral healthcare locally, nationally and internationally. He is an editorial board member for Group Dentistry Now, the dental industry’s go-to place for DSOs and a member of the Board of Advisors of XP Health, a health tech startup introducing a new kind of vision benefit for employees.

Brian Watts (moderator)
CEO, California Dental Network

Brian Watts is Chief Executive Officer of California Dental Network, a wholly owned subsidiary of DentaQuest.  CDN is a Knox-Keene licensed plan with offices located in Laguna Hills.  In addition to his responsibilities at CDN, Brian is responsible for DentaQuest’s national direct-to-consumer business. 

Brian has more than 30 years of industry experience in virtually all aspects of dental benefit plans including sales, sales management, marketing, operations, provider recruitment, underwriting and regulatory compliance.  Prior to CDN, Brian spent 12 years as Executive Vice President of First Dental Health, a California based dental network management company, where he guided FDH’s successful effort to become California’s first Knox-Keene licensed discount plan.  From 1985 to 1998, Brian served a number of roles at National Dental Health including Director and President of NDH’s California operations.  Following NDH’s acquisition by United Dental Care and Protective Life, Brian served as Director of National HMO Sales.

As an Army dependent, Brian was born in and graduated from high school in Germany.  He received his bachelor and master’s degrees in organizational communication from Ohio University.  Brian has published numerous articles on dental benefits for publications including ProducersWEB, CalBroker, and Employee Benefit Plan Review.  His current CADP Board role is his second “tour of duty” and he is a past Board member of the National Association of Dental Plans.