DDPA Mission 

Delta Dental Plans Association's (DDPA) purpose is to promote an increase in the availability of dental care to the public by encouraging the expansion of dental benefit programs administered through member Plans and by providing the means for such service corporations to cooperate in providing multi-state and national group dental coverage.

DDPA History 

DDPA's early years set the stage for today's dental benefits industry.

As the oldest and largest dental plan system in the country, DDPA's roots lie in the 1954 formation of dental service corporations in California, Oregon and Washington. These organizations were created by dentists who recognized the need to increase access to oral health care. The corporations, of which Washington Dental Service (WDS) was the first, began by providing dental benefit programs for organized labor unions.

DDPA was created in 1966 in response to the need to affiliate these local state service organizations and coordinate dental benefit programs for customers with employees in multiple states. A year later, the first multi-state program was sold by WDS to the International Association of Machinists, beginning a cycle of continued growth and expansion for DDPA. WDS ceded the administration for enrollees in other states to other Delta Plans and contracted with Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association for administration in those states lacking a Delta Plan.

Coverage was provided this way until the late 1980's when Delta Dental Plan of California (DDPCA) won the bid for the OCHAMPUS program. Delta Plans agreed to share their provider data so the administration of this very large account could be centralized with Delta Dental Plan of California sharing the administrative income and risk. The OCHAMPUS program led to the creation of the National Provider File (NPF) which was made available for commercial accounts in 1990 via Delta USA--our program to facilitate Delta Dental coverage to organizations with employees/subscribers located in multiple states.

Today, the Delta Dental System is comprised of 39 independent Delta Dental Plans, operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. These member Plans provide coverage to 45 million people, enrolled in 76,000 groups that are either administered locally or nationally through DeltaUSA.

The Association continues to be committed to: 

Affiliating its independent state service organizations 
Serving as a means by which member Plans provide multi-state and national coverage to customers 
Increasing the availability of dental care to the millions of people working and living in the United States.