Delta Dental of Tennessee Honors Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey | National Business
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NASHVILLE, Tenn.–(Company WIRE)–May well 26, 2022–
Delta Dental of Tennessee (Delta Dental) and its charitable arm, the Smile180 Foundation, have identified outgoing Tennessee Wellness Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey with its 3rd-ever Smile Power Award. The award, which celebrates an specific who has built a major positive affect on the oral wellbeing of Tennesseans, was supplied to Dr. Piercey in recognition of her stewardship of the state’s new 5-year, $94 million pilot method to grow accessibility to dental care known as the Healthful Smiles Initiative . Simply click listed here to see a video of the award presentation.
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“Too usually people today address oral well being as a independent problem, and I have to remind them that your mouth is connected to the rest of your system,” mentioned Dr. Phil Wenk, CEO of Delta Dental. “But Commissioner Piercey comprehended the worth and urgency of addressing our dental disaster in Tennessee from the begin, and played a important purpose in the advancement and ultimate acceptance of the Wholesome Smiles Initiative. Generations of Tennesseans will benefit from her leadership, and I simply cannot consider of a better or extra deserving receiver of this award.”
At the ask for of Governor Monthly bill Lee, Commissioner Piercey convened a team of dental sector stakeholders from throughout the state in early 2021 to build recommendations to maximize obtain to higher-excellent, very affordable dental treatment for Tennesseans. The workgroup, which included dentists, dental hygienists, the state’s two dental faculties, TennCare, the Division of Overall health, payors, protection web clinics, and others, settled on a detailed established of proposals that grew to become the Balanced Smiles Initiative.
The big factors of the Wholesome Smiles Initiative are an expansion of dental faculty class sizes, new and strengthened workforce recruitment and retention attempts, and amplified protection internet funding. Two existing, verified security net systems will get a sizeable raise: the Smile On 65+ application, which delivers oral wellbeing treatment and circumstance management solutions for more mature grownups, and the prosthodontic grant program, which has to date helped deliver far more than 2,300 Tennesseans noticed in safety-web clinics with reduced- or no-value dentures. 1 of people Tennesseans is Samantha, a 33-calendar year-old solitary mother of three from Paris, Tennessee who acquired daily life-conserving care at Interfaith Dental Clinic.
“Everything we do at the Office of Well being goes back again to our mission statement – to protect, boost, and boost the health and prosperity of individuals in Tennessee,” reported Dr. Piercey. “The Balanced Smiles Initiative checks all of all those boxes – even and in particular prosperity – for the reason that if you never have a balanced smile, you may perhaps have hassle getting and preserving a job, certainly one particular that aligns with your expertise and abilities.”
“A good deal of people never identify how obtain to dental treatment also impacts a further important challenge in Tennessee: rural hospital sustainability,” Piercey additional. “Without a dentist close by, you end up with a lot more people in the crisis home with problems that could and should really have been dealt with by a dentist. And even though the hospital has to – and wishes to – treatment for everyone who walks into the ER, they are receiving reimbursed quite tiny, if anything, for those services.”
Ahead of her appointment by Governor Lee in January 2019, Dr. Piercey, a board-accredited little one abuse pediatrician, expended a 10 years operating in wellbeing systems functions, most not long ago with West Tennessee Health care, a public, not-for-income wellness program with more than 7,000 staff members servicing 22 counties. She has continued to see sufferers in her pediatric follow in Jackson, Tennessee, after a week all over her support as Commissioner.
Piercey is the third recipient of the Smile Electrical power Award. The late Point out Consultant Charles Sargent, a winner of oral health concerns including the denture grant plan, gained the inaugural Smile Ability Award in 2018. Previous Tennessee Insurance coverage Commissioner Julie Blend McPeak was honored in 2019 for her get the job done in aid of the generation of Dental Dental’s Smile180 Foundation.
The Smile180 Foundation has donated extra than $21.5 million to Tennessee’s dental schools, children’s hospitals, totally free and minimized-expense dental clinics, and other like-minded charities due to the fact its development in 2015.
To study a lot more about Delta Dental’s philanthropic function across Tennessee, take a look at the Smile180 Basis web page.
Delta Dental of Tennessee
Delta Dental of Tennessee is the state’s most significant unbiased dental added benefits carrier with just about 1.4 million life protected. As element of the Delta Dental Plans Affiliation, Delta Dental of Tennessee users have obtain to the biggest dental community in the nation with far more than 154,000 vendors serving much more than 437,000 places. With the easy mission of guaranteeing healthful smiles, Delta Dental of Tennessee works hard to support associates of the communities it serves. Together with its company foundation, Smile180, Delta Dental of Tennessee donated extra than $5.4 million in funding and in-sort services to more than 130 businesses in 2021.
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Contact: Ann Waller Curtis
Key word: UNITED STATES NORTH The usa TENNESSEE
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Supply: Delta Dental of Tennessee
Copyright Small business Wire 2022.
PUB: 05/26/2022 05:38 PM/DISC: 05/26/2022 05:38 PM
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