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DALLAS – Dr. Mark Jurkovich, HealthPartners, recently received the National Association of Dental Plans’ (NADP) 2022 Don Mayes Leadership Award for his continued business contributions to the dental benefits industry concerning quality measures, diagnostic terminology and Current Dental Terminology codes. The award, which celebrates volunteer leadership spanning three or more years, was presented during the association’s annual conference, CONVERGE 2022 in St. Louis.
Dr. Jurkovich’s ability to bring stakeholders with varied backgrounds, knowledge and views together on tasks and issues important to the dental benefits industry has been critical to success and recognition of NADP in these varied arenas. His skill and patience in ensuring all parties in a discussion are heard and respected have made him an exceptional emissary of NADP, the entire dental benefits industry and the profession of dentistry both nationally and internationally.
Dr. Jurkovich is currently Chair of the NADP Clinical SubWorkGroup (SWG), formerly known as the Clinical Quality Measures SWG. In this role, he has represented NADP and the dental benefits industry on the Dental Quality Alliance (DQA), SNOMED International and the American Dental Association’s (ADA) Enhanced CDT Task Force.
As part of the DQA, Dr. Jurkovich represents NADP on the DQA Executive Committee and the full DQA Committee and has participated on the DQA Measures and Maintenance Development Committee, bringing the payer perspective to all discussions. His extensive background in dental procedure and diagnostic terminology has led to his recognition as an industry expert both nationally and internationally.
He also serves as the Chair of the SNOMED International Dentistry Clinical Reference Group (CRG) and its Special Interest Group predecessor where his commitment made it among the most productive and successful CRGs of its kind at SNOMED. Dr. Jurkovich was presented with SNOMED International’s Award for Excellence and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
Dr. Jurkovich has brought insightful and focused ideas to the ADA Enhanced CDT Task Force ensuring the payor perspective is advanced in all discussions and proposals.
He began volunteering with NADP on the Codes Sub-WorkGroup (SWG) in 2016 and joined the Clinical and Diagnostic Terminology SWGs in 2017. He has been actively engaged in his extensive volunteer activities with NADP and attended every CONVERGE since 2018 and Leadership Conference since 2019.
Dr. Jurkovich is a senior fellow at HealthPartners Institute. He is very active in analysis and development of diagnostic terminology and information exchange in dentistry and the tools necessary to make them more effective. He serves on the State of Minnesota Department of Health eHealth Advisory Committee and Health Information Exchange Oversight Committee. He has more than 10 years of experience managing dental third-party administrators and coordinating activities with related medical plans. He has been recognized by his colleagues, serving as president of the two largest dental organizations in his home state of Minnesota.