Volume 7 • 2020 • Issue 6

Usually, July is a month of lower volumes due to vacations, of both dental staff and patients. In July 2020, it appears fewer people took vacations than usual and dentists may have been working through a backlog of patients from the pandemic. “There are some concerns that demand may lessen once the backlog is taken care of,” says Valentine. “But I’m hopeful that our numbers will trend upwards in the fall months, as they do most years.” *CDA does not always reliably receive data extracts from some CDAnet carriers. There are other factors that create some data “noise.” Regardless, the general trends are statistically reliable. **Comparing July 2019 and July 2020 is complicated by variables such as the percent of the population entitled to dental benefits (which has likely increased), new carriers that have joined CDAnet, carriers that have made changes to receive more claims electronically (such as coordination of benefits), and an increase in the number of dentists and offices on CDAnet. 11 Issue 6 | 2020 | CDA at W ork