Collaborative Process Concludes and Advances Common Focus on Dental Patients in Washington
June 30, 2026
In 2025, the Washington State Legislature passed Substitute Senate Bill 5351 (referred to as SSB 5351), directing the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) to contract with the Ruckelshaus Center to convene a collaborative process to discuss issues related to dental networks, dental reimbursement, and carrier data reporting in Washington. Bringing together dental carriers, the dental and denturist associations, patient advocates, and other stakeholders, the SSB 5351 Collaborative was tasked with developing recommendations for potential legislative action from their discussions through a report to the Legislature.
Delta Dental of Washington, along with all Collaborative participants, actively engaged throughout the process, which began in October 2025 and concludes with the report to the Legislature by June 30, 2026. Consensus recommendations were reached on several important topics for patients in Washington state, including denturist participation in carrier networks, further price transparency for dental services, a data-informed approach to future policymaking, and additional dental loss ratio-related reporting by dental carriers.
“The patient perspective was front and center throughout this process,” said Mark Mitchke, President and Chief Executive Officer of Delta Dental of Washington. “Patient protections, cost transparency and access to in-network care were all hugely important considerations throughout the Collaborative discussions.”
While the collaborative group reached agreement on several important areas, not all topics resulted in consensus recommendations. Patient advocates, dental carriers, and others within the Collaborative commonly emphasized the importance of maintaining high standards of care, predictable and transparent patient costs, and robust access to care within dental networks. Provider participants stressed the importance of in-network access for patients seeking care from denturists, increased reporting of carrier economics through the dental loss ratio, and solutioning to address economic challenges faced by dental providers.
Delta Dental of Washington appreciates the engagement of general dentists, dental specialists, denturists, patient advocates, and all other participants throughout the Collaborative process.
“We are grateful to the Ruckelshaus Center Collaborative and OIC staff and to every other party in this process for participating in good faith to make oral health care more accessible to more people in our state,” Mitchke said. “We look forward to continuing the conversation with policymakers and others and to incorporating credible, Washington-specific data into the ongoing policy dialogue.”
