Event
This year’s consortium topic is Innovations to Dental Benefits and Building Support for Them. This collaborative program will examine and consider the ways that dental plans can innovate their benefits, including new cost-sharing structures, member incentives and transparency tools, and tools that incentivize providers and members to select high-value services. Relatedly, the consortium will deepen the toolbox regarding how dental plans can influence key stakeholders, including employers, brokers, and providers, toward embracing innovations.
Session 1: April 23, 2026
1:00 – 2:30 PM (CT)
Consortium Kick-off: Building Support for Innovation by Understanding What Stakeholders Care About
In this consortium session, after kicking off with a review of our goals and a preview of the exciting content to come, we’ll delve into how to view dental innovations through the eyes of stakeholders: members, employers, brokers, providers, and insurers. We will discuss what each stakeholder wants (and doesn’t want) from a dental plan, drawing on industry surveys and research, Milliman consultant expertise, and your interactive, real-time input! This exercise will form a consistent framework for future sessions, so we may view innovations through the lens of how they improve one or more stakeholders’ experience.
Recommended Job Areas: All areas
Speakers:
Joanne Fontana, FSA, MAAA
Principal and Consulting Actuary at Milliman
Joanne has consulted for insurance companies, including many major dental carriers, as well as employers, government entities, and other organizations. Her focus has been largely on managed care and dental insurance, with experience in premium rate development, product development, provider contract analysis, and health care reform. Over the past decade, Joanne has come to be known as an industry expert in dental product and pricing topics; she regularly presents on dental-related issues at industry forums and has authored many topical articles. Joanne has worked closely with the National Association of Dental Plans, the California Association of Dental Plans, the American Dental Association, and other dental clients to assess the impact of health care reform on the dental industry. She manages Milliman’s Dental Actuarial Analytics PPO Network Study, a product that uses a vast contributor database of dental claims to provide competitive insights on dental network discounts and utilization to study participants. Joanne has worked with carriers and employer groups on the dental insurance procurement process. She has worked on Medicaid dental procurements with both state entities and bidders and has done core actuarial dental pricing and underwriting work for many carriers in the commercial, ACA, and Medicare Advantage dental markets. In addition to Joanne’s dental consulting, she also manages Milliman’s GASBhelp.com, an online tool allowing small government entities to complete valuations of post-retirement health benefits. Prior to joining Milliman, Joanne spent more than 10 years as an actuary with Cigna, where she held various healthcare financial leadership roles, including chief actuary of Cigna’s dental insurance business.
Andrew Timcheck, FSA, CERA, MAAA
Principal and Consulting Actuary at Milliman
Andrew Timcheck is a principal and consulting actuary with the Chicago office of Milliman. He joined the firm in 2018.Andrew is a credentialed actuary with over 15 years of experience working with plan sponsors, health plans, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Andrew has assisted his plan sponsor clients in all aspects of plan strategy and plan management, including benefit design, budgeting, contribution strategy, benchmarking, vendor procurement, stop loss analyses, reserve development, retiree benefits, and health care reform strategy. He also has extensive experience in the pharmacy space, including comprehensive pharmacy benefit design, contract reviews, procurements, market checks, analytics, and audits. In addition, he has supported his health plan clients in providing statements of actuarial opinion, rate development, and product strategy support. Lastly, he has assisted his PBM clients with pricing strategy, procurement, and analytics.
Prior to joining Milliman, Andrew spent time as a healthcare benefits consultant to large employers.
