ITRANS was designed to be simple for software vendors to switch to and to not change the way dental offices operated. We wanted it to be secure, easy-to-use andmost importantly, we wanted to provide it at no additional cost to dentists. CDA ITRANS Celebrates 20 Years of Claims Service for Canadian Dentists CDA introduced CDAnet in 1991, a service which allowed dentists to use telephone modems to transmit claims to dental benefits claims processors. By the early 2000s, most Canadian dental offices had adopted CDAnet, and most claims were transmitted using a dial-up modem that required its own phone line. Dental offices would transmit information from their dial‑up modem to CDAnet’s system, which would then transmit the information to insurance carriers. Some dental offices still sent paper claims through the mail. “By 2001, it was abundantly clear that the internet was not a fad, it was going to stick around,” says Geoff Valentine, head of programs and services at CDA. “E-business had become a trend. Businesses began to get high speed internet and no longer used dial-up modems.” At CDA, both staff and CDA board members were thinking about the future. Dentists needed a secure, fast, easy way to send claims and the internet offered a viable solution. “New computers didn’t have a reliable port for a business-class modem,” says Valentine. “Offices needed the extra phone line for their debit and credit card machines. When we began to think about what the dental office of the future might need, we felt that an internet-based benefit claims service would be very useful.” It was a big, ambitious idea, and CDA wanted to build it. “There was a feeling that we could let the world happen to us, let tech companies determine how dentistry would fit into the claims marketplace,” says Valentine. “Or we could be proactive and determine our own role in the market, make it so dentistry had an influential voice in matters affecting dentistry.” To develop the technology, CDA created a new company called Continovation Services Inc. (CSI). Using leading edge security technology, CSI created ITRANS, a smooth path for dentists to transition their offices to using the internet for claims transactions. “ITRANS was designed to be simple for software vendors to switch to and to not change the way dental offices operated,” says Valentine. “We wanted it to be secure, easy-to-use and most importantly, we wanted to provide it at no additional cost to dentists.” The Start of ITRANS In 2004, ITRANS was officially launched as a free service for CDA members. Transmissions occurred online instead of using phone lines. Together, CDAnet and ITRANS created a national approach for the future of benefits claims transmission in what could otherwise be a fragmented market. “Instead of different claims processors devising their own internet benefit claims transmission, we created a national system, which serves dentists more efficiently,” says Valentine. In the US, 13 Issue 5 | 2024 |
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