Position: Executive Director, Specialty Benefits Professional Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA

Organization: Instructor, Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM)Executive Director, Specialty Benefits Professional Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MAPrivate Practice, Boston, MAPrivate Practice, Boston, Massachusetts

Biography Text: Dr. Robert Lewando Narrative Curriculum Vitae Bob Lewando, DDS, MBA is the Executive Director, Specialty Benefits Professional Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA). BCBSMA provides dental insurance to more than one million dental members. Bob had spent approximately twenty years at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates (HVMA), a multispecialty medical and dental group practice in Boston where he combined a clinical practice and administrative responsibilities. Bob was Chief of HVMA’s largest fee for service dental practice in Boston for most of that time. Bob still maintains a practice limited to periodontology approximately one day per week with the rest of his time spent at BCBSMA. Bob has helped to develop BCBSMA’s strategy of helping to improve the overall health of its members through identification of medical conditions where dental care is particularly important for health management. This has led to the development of condition-specific, member centric dental benefits or the Total Health program. Bob graduated from Tufts University with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. He then attended Columbia College of Dental Medicine and received specialty training in Periodontics from a combined program between the VA and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Bob also received a MBA from Boston College and is the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association voting representative on the Code Maintenance Committee of the American Dental Association. Bob is a Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology and consultant to the AAP Patient Benefits and Advocacy Committee. He maintains a clinical appointment at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and is chair of HSDM's Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine.. Bob is a Certified Dental Consultant and Past Chair of the MDS Foundation, the charitable arm of the Massachusetts Dental Society.