Rural Health Transformation Program Lead

Job Summary

At Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, we work to improve oral health through benefit plans, advocacy, and community support. We are one of the largest dental plan administrators in the country, and are part of the Delta Dental Plans Association, which operates two of the largest dental networks in the nation. This position is funded by a five-year grant and is expected to continue for the duration of the grant funding, up to five years.

Position Description

Leads the implementation and ongoing management of dental and value-based care programs that support rural and underserved communities. Oversees program execution, cross-functional coordination, stakeholder engagement, and performance improvement to ensure operational success and compliance with business, contractual, and regulatory requirements.

Primary Job Responsibilities

• Leads implementation of assigned dental and value-based care programs from initial planning through go-live, ensuring timely execution, alignment with business objectives, and readiness to support successful operational and clinical outcomes.
• Develops, maintains, and manages detailed project plans, timelines, deliverables, and key milestones, while proactively identifying risks, resolving barriers, and coordinating activities needed to keep implementations on track.
• Covers system configuration, benefit setup, testing, and operational readiness activities to ensure business processes, workflows, and supporting systems are fully prepared for implementation and ongoing administration.
• Oversees payer operations related to eligibility, enrollment, claims processing, and program administration, partnering with internal teams to support accurate execution, issue resolution, and effective service delivery.
• Makes sure account and program performance is monitored following implementation, managing updates, issue resolution, and change requests while ensuring sustained operational effectiveness and alignment with client and program expectations.
• Drives continuous improvement efforts by evaluating implementation outcomes, operational performance, and program data to identify opportunities to improve access, utilization, quality, and value-based care results.
• Partners with internal teams and external stakeholders, including operational, clinical, account, and community partners, to support implementation success, strengthen cross-functional alignment, and respond to evolving business and program needs.
• Contributes implementation expertise and subject matter knowledge to proposals, benefit comparisons, stakeholder presentations, and other business development activities that support growth, market readiness, and informed decision-making.

Minimum Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree in business administration, healthcare administration, public health, marketing, communications, or a related field and five years of experience in dental insurance or payer operations, group benefit implementations, project management, or account management.
• Experience with value-based care models, population health, or healthcare transformation initiatives is preferred.
• Knowledge of dental insurance and payer operations, group contracts, summary plan documents, eligibility processes, claims systems and operational workflows, and dental terminology and procedure codes.
• Experience working with Medicaid programs.
• Project management skills with the ability to manage multiple implementations simultaneously.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to analyze complex issues, exercise independent judgment, and drive solutions.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail in a highly regulated environment.