You asked for information about the CIGNA Dental Care network of dentists in the Bridgeport area due to concerns about not being able to find a pediatric dentist.

CIGNA offers a range of dental plans, including traditional indemnity, preferred provider organization (PPO), and health maintenance organization (HMO) plans. CIGNA Dental Care is the dental HMO plan, which requires plan members to select a dentist from the network to receive plan benefits. All network dentists complete a credentialing process and participate in a CIGNA quality management program.

A plan member in the Bridgeport area may select from a network of 475 dentists. So far this year, all dentists who have applied to the network have been accepted, according to Katharine Wade, Vice President of State Government Affairs for CIGNA. If he cannot locate a participating dentist in a particular specialty within 25 miles of his primary or referring dentist, then CIGNA Dental care will cover a nonparticipating dentist’s charges based on an out-of-network provider fee schedule.

For more information, contact CIGNA Dental Care’s member services at 1 (800) 367-1037 or log onto www. cigna. com.

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