Insurers BF&M yesterday said Government’s payments are up to date and all civil servants have been fully covered for dental treatment.And the Progressive Labour Party called for One Bermuda Alliance leader Craig Cannonier to sanction Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley over his claims dental coverage was suspended because Government fell into arrears with premium payments.The OBA has shared documents showing many patients’ status on the Government Employees Health Insurance plan is described as “inactive — customer must contact their employer” — Senator Dunkley yesterday said he maintains this was a significant step.But BF&M yesterday said the inactive status was only in place because BF&M had not yet applied the most recent premium payment, which was made to BF&M within 30 days of being billed.CEO John Wight said in a statement yesterday: “BF&M considers matters between our company and our clients to be confidential, and thus it is the company’s standard policy not to comment through the media on such matters.“Having spoken with our client regarding the disinformation in the media, we would like to put to rest any concerns that Government employees have about their dental insurance coverage.“GEHI premiums are paid up to date, and all Government employees have been, and will continue to be, fully covered for dental treatment provided under the policy.”Asked why the documents given to The Royal Gazette indicate GEHI customers have an inactive status, Mr Wight responded: “In accordance with new requirements of local insurance companies who provide dental coverage that take effect August 1, BF&M is implementing a new information systems portal which will provide customer plan data not currently provided to dentists.“This new system will not officially be in use until its ‘go live’ date of August 1.“The status of the GEHI plan was in ‘inactive’ status because the company had not yet applied the most recent premium payment, which was made to BF&M within 30 days of being billed.”Sen Dunkley claimed the suspension meant dentists were entitled to ask patients for their full fee at the time of service, instead of only asking them for the co-pay.Premier Paula Cox has dismissed Sen Dunkley’s claims the coverage was suspended as untrue and reprehensible.Responding to Mr Wight’s comments, the PLP said in a statement: “Today, the Progressive Labour Party called on One Bermuda Alliance leader Craig Cannonier to publicly apologise for Michael Dunkley’s false comments about GEHI dental coverage.“On Sunday Michael Dunkley said, ‘Dental insurance coverage for Government employees has been suspended because the Government has failed to pay the premium for their coverage.’“We now know that statement to be completely false, and we call on the OBA to retract the statement and apologise for the unnecessary alarm caused to civil servants.”PLP chairman Anthony Santucci said: “Craig Cannonier claims to be in charge of the OBA and the buck stops with him.“BF&M rejected Michael Dunkley’s false and reckless attack. The BPSU said they’ve heard no complaints. The fact of the matter is, Michael Dunkley is so thirsty to regain power that he lied to Bermudians and put at risk the private information of innocent civil servants in the process.“This is frightening. The PLP will wait to see if the OBA leader will take his deputy to task for his irresponsible and reckless comments.”Sen Dunkley said yesterday: “We are pleased this situation has been resolved following BF&M’s statement that GEHI premiums are paid up to date.“BF&M has since shifted GEHI policy holders from ‘inactive’ to ‘active’ status, meaning there should be no coverage issues for Government workers.“We appreciate that certain parties want to put this matter behind them and move on, but it should not be dismissed as a non-event.“For an insurer to shift the status of so many policy holders to ‘inactive’ is a significant step, particularly when it’s the Bermuda Government.“Interestingly, BF&M’s second official statement of the day raises the question why an insurer would render their policyholders ‘inactive’ before their 30-day bill paying period was up?“Regardless of the answer, we are just pleased that this matter has been cleared up promptly in the interest of insured civil servants.“Some people question why we exposed this situation, but there was no hesitation on our part. It was clearly unfair to Government employees who had already had their premium payments through automatic pay cheque deductions.”OBA Leader Mr Cannonier, in response to the PLP’s call for an apology, said: “There is no need to apologise.“Michael exposed a situation in which the insurer had changed the status of government employees dental coverage from active to inactive a very serious issue.“Within 24 hours of us bringing it up, BFM said the situation was cleared up.“This matter was brought to our attention by dentists and confirmed by BF&M sources.”He added: “We saw civil servants’ insurance status brought into question that cannot be disputed because of premium payment issues with the Government. So we raised the matter and we did so in good conscience, to make sure working men and women did not pay the price for the action or inaction of others.”