Tennessee dental billing changed on November 1, 2025, when TennCare moved its dental benefits from DentaQuest to Renaissance. Practices that still route TennCare claims the old way are collecting denials. PracticeAlpha provides outsourced dental billing for Tennessee practices from our base in Philadelphia: TennCare and CoverKids through Renaissance, Delta Dental of Tennessee, and the national commercial carriers, worked every day by one team.
Last updated November 2026 · Reviewed by the PracticeAlpha billing team
Get a free AR analysisMost Tennessee practices bill three kinds of payers. TennCare and CoverKids dental runs through a single dental benefits manager. Delta Dental of Tennessee is the in-state Delta company, with its own Premier and PPO networks. And the national carriers (MetLife, Cigna, Aetna, Guardian, UnitedHealthcare, Humana and others) each have their own claims rules. A billing team has to switch between all three without treating them the same.
Two things make Tennessee different right now. TennCare changed dental benefits managers on November 1, 2025, so claims are split by date of service. And Tennessee has laws on how fast insurers pay and on what dental plans can make you charge for services they do not cover, both covered below.
TennCare covers dental for every enrolled adult through its dental benefits manager, a benefit added on January 1, 2023. Children get comprehensive dental care as medically necessary until age 21, and CoverKids covers dental up to age 19 with no copays on preventive care. Some adults in ECF CHOICES or 1915(c) waivers can get extra wraparound dental benefits.
The dental benefits manager is now Renaissance. TennCare states that as of November 1, 2025, Renaissance manages TennCare dental benefits. Renaissance's provider line is 866-864-2526 (Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT), and its Dental Office Toolkit (DOT) portal handles claims and utilization management. Claims for dates of service on or after November 1, 2025 go to Renaissance. TennCare's notice says DentaQuest denies claims for those dates.
Enrollment comes first. To become a TennCare dental provider you must first get a Medicaid ID through TennCare provider registration (Provider Services 800-852-2683, provider.registration@tn.gov), then contract and credential with the dental benefits manager.
Enter the date of service on a TennCare or CoverKids dental claim to see which dental benefits manager handles it.
Delta Dental of Tennessee is the state's Delta company. Paper claims go to P.O. Box 24810, Nashville, TN 37202, and Delta Dental's national claims lookup lists payer ID CDTN1. Delta Dental of Tennessee says its Dental Office Toolkit is the preferred way to submit claims, and its customer service line is 800-223-3104. By its own count its Premier network has more than 2,800 dentists at 2,132 Tennessee locations, and its PPO network more than 2,200 dentists at 1,767 locations.
Remember the Delta rule: a patient with a Delta card from another state is billed to that Delta company, not to Delta Dental of Tennessee. Full details are in our Delta Dental of Tennessee claims reference.
For the national carriers, our claims references list each one's address, payer ID and provider phone: MetLife, Cigna, Aetna, Guardian, UnitedHealthcare and Humana.
Prompt pay. Tennessee's prompt pay law (T.C.A. 56-7-109) requires a health insurance entity to pay or deny a clean claim within 21 days if it was filed electronically, or 30 days on paper, with interest of 1% a month on late payments. A claim filed more than 90 days after the date of service does not count as a clean claim under that section, which is another reason to submit within days, not weeks. The law is written for health insurance entities; how it applies to a stand-alone dental plan depends on the plan, so treat it as a lever to ask about, not a guarantee. TennCare's dental benefits manager is held to prompt pay standards under its own statute.
Non-covered services. Under T.C.A. 56-7-1017, a dental plan cannot require a participating dentist to accept a plan-set fee for a service the plan does not cover. A service counts as covered if the plan would pay for it but for a frequency limit, an annual maximum or a waiting period, so those services can still be held to the contracted fee. Know the difference before you write off or bill a patient.
Dental billing is done remotely, so where we sit does not change how your claims are worked. We log in to your practice management system, work the claims and aging every day, post payments, appeal denials and report the numbers monthly. Tennessee practices get the same team on their accounts every day, and the payer details above built into how we work.
Pricing is published: 3.5% of net insurance collections or $1,995 a month, whichever is higher, with no setup fees and no long-term contract. See what that works out to on your collections.
Renaissance, since November 1, 2025. It replaced DentaQuest as TennCare's dental benefits manager.
To Renaissance, through its Dental Office Toolkit (DOT). TennCare says DentaQuest denies claims for dates of service on or after November 1, 2025.
866-864-2526, Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT.
Yes. TennCare has covered dental for all enrolled adults through its dental benefits manager since January 1, 2023.
First get a Medicaid ID through TennCare provider registration (800-852-2683, provider.registration@tn.gov), then contract and credential with Renaissance.
P.O. Box 24810, Nashville, TN 37202, payer ID CDTN1. Delta Dental of Tennessee prefers claims through its Dental Office Toolkit.
Tennessee's prompt pay law (T.C.A. 56-7-109) requires health insurance entities to pay or deny clean claims within 21 days electronic or 30 days paper. How it applies to stand-alone dental plans depends on the plan.
No, under T.C.A. 56-7-1017. But services limited only by frequency, maximums or waiting periods count as covered, so the contracted fee can still apply.
Yes. Dental billing is done remotely inside your practice management software, and we work with practices across the country.
Free AR analysis. We pull your aging report, check your Tennessee payer mix and TennCare routing through Renaissance, and show you exactly where claims are getting stuck. 30 minutes. No commitment.