Shake-up at Delta Dental of Arizona's board

May 25, 2010

A recent shake-up of the Delta Dental of Arizona's board of directors resulted in the replacement of 11 of 13 board members.

The members were voted out or resigned after infighting among some dentists who were critical of the Arizona Dental Association (AzDA) management and operations. The shake-up occurred April 30 during a vote at the company's annual meeting in Phoenix.

Phoenix dentist Robert Griego, D.D.S., who has resigned from the Delta Dental board, organized a group called Concerned Dentists because he said the association ignored concerns about the cost of two lawsuits, ongoing budget deficits, and bylaw violations. He accused AzDA of pressuring Delta Dental to get rid of critics.

"AzDA took retribution against Concerned Dentists so they came after us at Delta," Dr. Griego told DrBicuspid.com.

AzDA spent nearly $400,000 in membership dues in two lawsuits, he said. One stemmed from a business contract and the other was filed by AzDA against one of the parties involved in the contract. Mismanagement at AzDA also caused reserves to drop from $1.2 million to approximately $450,000 during the last year, he said. AzDA lost 600 members in the last two years, according to Dr. Griego.

AzDA's Executive Director Kevin Earle told DrBicuspid.com that critics' concerns have been discussed during several meetings of AzDA's House of Delegates since 2008, and that the House of Delegates has been "uniformly supportive of AzDA leadership and executive staff throughout this entire period."

Regarding the lawsuits, they were settled for "business reasons" earlier this year, Earle said. He added that the association's attorneys have advised him against discussing the suits because of a nondisparagement clause imposed on all parties in the settlement agreement.

Earle disputed the amount of the decline in the AzDA's reserves, but acknowledged that legal expenses contributed to a drop. In addition, the recession and market changes have negatively affected most professional organizations, he noted.

Earle also disputed the number of members who have left, saying the group currently has 2,104 dues-paying members.

He noted that the group has achieved several important goals for the state's dentists.

"The Arizona Dental Association has just passed its most successful and aggressive legislative agenda in a generation, including a prohibition on noncovered service provisions in dental insurance provider contracts and major changes in the Dental Practice Act that now make pending, dismissed, and terminated complaints confidential in Arizona," Earle pointed out. "That's huge for our members."

The elections at Delta Dental relates to issues at Delta and have nothing to do with the Arizona Dental Association, he added.

But one of the Concerned Dentists group, Roy Daniels, D.D.S., of Sedona, AZ, echoed Dr. Griego's concerns and agreed the ousters were the result of AzDA's influence on Delta Dental.

Gary Feldman, Delta Dental's vice president of sales and marketing, said he didn't know what was behind the shake-up. "I don't know anything about fighting between the Concerned Dentists and AzDA," he told DrBicuspid.com. "We're a membership organization; I sit on the other side of the door." He said he had heard about the Concerned Dentists group but didn't know the details.

The voting process to change the board's members was done according to the group's rules, according to Feldman. "It was done in a very professional manner," he said.

Some 90% of AzDA members are providers for Delta Dental, the state's largest dental insurer, and most Arizona dentists are members of both groups.