Delta Dental's Jonzzon receives national honor for streamlining patient coverage issues

Recognized for improving nationwide benefits processing effecting over 70 million Americans

OAK BROOK, Illinois - June 7, 2016 - An effort by Delta Dental to improve the handling of consumers' dental benefits is being recognized by the National Dental Electronic Data Interchange Council (NDEDIC) with the organization's top award. Kathy Jonzzon, the director of HIPAA product services and support for Delta Dental Plans Association, is this year's recipient of the Benjamin D. Ward Award for excellence in Dental EDI.

Jonzzon is being recognized for her efforts on behalf of the Delta Dental System to adopt NDEDIC's best practices. The move streamlines the handling of patient coverage matters and enhances electronic benefits processing, helping to ensure important patient information for Delta Dental's more than 73 million consumers is available to providers in real time.

"Kathy's efforts on behalf of Delta Dental consumers are tireless and we're proud of her well-deserved recognition," said Scott Jessee, vice president for information technology at Delta Dental Plans Association. "By Kathy leading the charge on this issue, we will help improve access to information for providers serving millions of Americans across the nation, creating a better consumer experience."

The award is the NDEDIC's top honor, recognizing a member who has done an outstanding job of promoting dental EDI, as well as lending support to the mission and goals of the National Dental EDI Council. The award is named for the founder of NDEDIC. Jonzzon was also the winner of last year's NDEDIC Volunteer of the Year Award.

The National Dental EDI Council (NDEDIC) is a not-for-profit association of diverse stakeholders working together to streamline dental business operations, reduce costs and improve patient service by effectively exchanging data electronically.