Volume 7 • 2020 • Issue 6

By the Numbers: Business Recovery From the Pandemic Since 1991, CDAnet and the CDA ITRANS Claim Service have enabled dental offices to quickly and securely send dental claims to insurance companies online. The service is available to dentists who are members of their provincial dental association, and, in Quebec, dentists who are members of CDA. Currently, 89% of Canadian dentists transmit claims electronically. E ach month, CDA receives summary information fromCDAnet carriers that includes data (anonymized of patient and dentist information) for each successfully processed dental benefit claim (including claims inQuebec submitted by dentists subscribed to Réseau ACDQ rather than CDAnet). CDA also has information about the volume of claims that are submitted through ITRANS. This data provides insight into how much work dentists across Canada are doing andwhat categories of oral health care they are providing, as well as changes over time.* “This data is unique in its ability to capture a broad picture of the economic situation of dentistry,” says Dr. James Armstrong, CDA president. “To have it gathered in one place for analysis to help with strategically positioning dentistry for the future is yet another value that a national association brings to the dental profession.” CDAnet claims do not represent all dental care that occurs in Canada; it only tracks insurance claims, so patients who pay out-of-pocket are not included. Therefore, these numbers are not definitive, but are suggestive of general trends. ITRANS data shows the extreme and immediate effects of COVID-19 related lockdowns in March and then an incremental recovery that began in May. Volumes of claims fell by almost 95% between March 12 and 19 (note that this data represents the claims that occurred on two Thursdays, separated by a week). During recovery, many weeks showed about 10% of growth in claim volumes [see "Lockdown and Recovery" chart below]. Using carrier data, Geoff Valentine, associate director of Practice Support at CDA, created a report that compares the volume and value of dental claims from July 2019 to July 2020.** “July 2020 is the first full month of practise since the pandemic restrictions have been lifted to their current levels,” Valentine says. “Comparing 2019 to 2020 shows us trends that reveal how well dentistry is recovering from the pandemic.” The followings graphs and charts provide a snapshot of how Canadian dentistry has changed in the last year. “We’ve been hearing anecdotally about the resilience of Canadian dentists,” says Valentine. “These numbers show resilience quantitatively.” ITRANS transaction volumes fluctuate with the day of the week and statutory holidays. Looking at the transaction volume for a single day of the week is a good method to gauge the week over week changes. This chart tracks the ITRANS transaction volume for every other Thursday from early March until the end of August. These transactions at the ITRANS data centre include claims, predeterminations, requests for outstanding transactions, etc. Claim transactions will be about 75% of these. 9 Issue 6 | 2020 |