Dr. Marjorie Jeffcoat, former dean and current professor of Periodontics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, chaired the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Dental Materials advisory panel on December 14 and 15, 2010 to review scientific studies relating to the safety of dental amalgam. Dr. Amid Ismail, dean of Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry, was a member of the panel. The panel included representatives of universities, private practice, industry and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The ADA offered testimony supporting the FDA’s 2009 Ruling on the Safety of Dental Amalgam and stated its case as to why the Association believes there is no reason to revisit that ruling.
Dr. Jeffcoat was recognized for her eminent status as a dental educator and researcher in Dental Products Report’s Top 25 Women in Dentistry, published in September 2010.
In March 2011, the New Era Dental Society hosted a general meeting, “Strengthening Our Professional Alliances” along with members of the Eastern Pennsylvania Medical Society, South Jersey Medical Society and Hispanic Dental Society. The topic was Economic Empowerment for Health Care Professionals - Retirement and Estate Planning. Drs. Peter J. Carroll and Jay M. Goldberg, along with PDA media consultant, Sean Connolly, were invited guests.
Dr. Jay M. Goldberg, president of the Philadelphia County Dental Society, was named the recipient of Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry alumni award.
PCDS Members served on Reference Committees at the PDA Annual Session in April 2011: Dr. John DelGaiso (For-Profit Subsidiaries); Dr. Jay M. Goldberg (Organizational Affairs); Dr. Thomas P. Nordone (Budget, Property and Finance). Dr. Stanley W. Markiewicz was a standby teller.
Dr. Kevin J. Klatte is the new chair of the PDA Membership Committee.
On March 31, 2011 City Council passed legislation (by a vote of 13-4) that would block most employers from asking about job applicants’ criminal histories until after an initial job interview.
The Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards Bill (Bill 110111) prevents an employment application from asking about any previous arrest or criminal record, and prohibits the prospective employer from asking about this in a first interview. It affects all public and private employers, except those that are required by state or federal law to make such an inquiry (i.e., federal banking laws and state laws regarding casinos). The law does not prohibit criminal background checks. An employer is allowed to do a background check at any point – as long as the employer does not ask certain questions of the prospective employee in the first interview.
The measure was sponsored by Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller to help increase employment opportunities for ex-offenders. Similar legislation has been passed in a number of cities including Chicago, Atlanta and Boston. “People with criminal records are discriminated against in many ways,” Miller said. “This legislation will promote the capacity of ex-offenders and allow them to take care of themselves and their families.” Read the entire bill at http://legislation.phila.gov/attachments/11273.pdf and pay special attention to §9-3503 (1) and §9-3504 (1) (2).
On June 16, by a vote of 9-8, City Council approved Bill 080474, Promoting Health Families and Workplaces. On June 28, Mayor Nutter formally vetoed the bill (Council needs 12 votes to override the veto). The bill would have required all employers in Philadelphia with six or more employees to provide paid sick leave to all full- and part-time employees.
Early in March, City Council’s Public Health Committee held a hearing regarding the bill. PDA’s local lobbyist, John Hawkins, kept the Philadelphia County Dental Society aware of the progress of the bill, and Society president, Dr. Jay Goldberg, immediately sent an e-mail Legislative Alert to members in Philadelphia. A summary of the bill, as prepared by the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and the proposed amendments were attached to the Alert. Dr. Goldberg asked members to share with City Council members their opinions about the impact this legislation would have on them as business owners. He also noted that this mandate would add another impediment to those who might consider opening a practice or business in Philadelphia.
The bill and others like it have been vigorously launched by various national civic and women’s groups around the country. So far, we believe that only San Francisco and Washington have passed similar bills.
In two follow-up e-mails, Dr. Goldberg wrote that the sponsors did not have the votes to assure passage in March.
The Society was notified at that time that Council had created a new parliamentary procedure, “referring the ordinance to the suspension calendar,” which is a sort of legislative purgatory.
Subsequently, in May, the Coalition for Healthy Families and Workplaces announced at a press conference that the group would continue to push for passage of the bill. The bill was moved to the “active” calendar on May 26, and Dr. Goldberg sent additional e-mail Alerts to members that the bill appeared to be moving toward passage in June. He encouraged members to contact their Council members with their comments, and he wrote to Council on behalf of the Society about the negative impact of the bill. To access Bill 080474, visit http://legislation.phila.gov/attachments/11107.pdf
cc This is just another instance where the e-mail Alerts to members have proven effective in getting dentists to share their opinions and concerns (as Philadelphia business owners and taxpayers) with City Council, and we encourage members to continue to respond to these Alerts.
E-mail Alerts are sent to all Society members for whom we have e-mail addresses. If you have not received our electronic messages, please send your e-mail address to philcodent@aol.com
Both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives approved legislation to relieve dentists and other small business employers from tax reporting requirements that were scheduled to take effect after December 31, 2011. The two versions of the legislation were sent to a House/Senate conference where differences were worked out. On April 5, the Senate passed H. B. 4, the bill to fully repeal the expanded 1099 reporting mandate.
The American Dental Association and other advocacy groups like the American Society of Association Executives exerted their efforts to tell Congress with one voice that repealing the new 1099 requirement was a top priority and one of the most important issues for all small business employers. The expanded 1099 requirements would have forced all businesses and tax-exempt organizations to issue a Form 1099 to vendors from whom they buy goods totaling $600 or more annually. Our associations argued that the change would have required associations and small business owners to issue hundreds or even thousands of forms each year, track cumulative payments to vendors and obtain tax identification information from each vendor.
The President signed the bill in mid-April, and the 1099 reporting requirement has been repealed.
ADA News staffer Craig Palmer reported on April 19 that the federal budget finally approved by Congress prohibits funding during the current fiscal year (through September 30, 2011) for midlevel dental health care provider demonstration projects authorized by the health care reform law. The ADA opposed funding for these demonstrations, which could support projects allowing midlevel providers to perform surgical/irreversible procedures. Public Law 111-148 Title V Section 304 authorizes grants “to establish training programs to train, or to employ, alternative dental health care providers in order to increase access to dental health care services in rural and other underserved areas.”
The Obama FY 2012 budget proposes funding for six alternative dental provider pilot progams at a total cost of $4,928,000.00, but Congress has yet to act on the FY 2012 budget. The midlevel providers in these pilot programs could be community dental health coordinators, advance practice dental hygienists, independent dental hygienists, supervised dental hygienists, primary care physicians, dental therapists, or dental health aides. The ADA supports only one model provider – the community dental health coordinator.
ADA Executive Director Kathleen O’Loughlin reported on May 20, 2011 that Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) introduced the "Dental Coverage Value and Transparency Act" (H.R. 1809). The bill will require that all health plans that offer dental benefits would, among other provisions, be prohibited from dictating fees for procedures that the plans do not cover and be required to provide uniform coordination of benefits. This bill would help consumers receive the full value of their dental coverage, ensure transparency and improve health plan efficiency.
Follow the progress of this pending legislation online at ada.org
Did you know that by monitoring thousands of bills introduced in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, PDA effectively lobbies for legislation that has a positive impact on dental professionals and the oral health of Pennsylvanians? PDA members can monitor the Association’s legislative activities on the PDA website at www.padental.org and then log in to the members only section; select Advocacy and you will be able to access items such as PDA’s Advocacy Goals, the 2011-2012 Legislative Session, Regulatory issues, and more.
Bob Opperman, account executive for Willis of Delaware, passed along the following information about current activities in the state of New York. New York’s Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) is currently auditing numerous dental offices and is seeking recovery of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Last year, the OMIG formed a Dental Unit comprised of a dentist, hygienists, investigators and auditors to focus exclusively on dental investigations. The Dental Unit seeks to identify dental providers delivering quality of care which fails to meet recognized professional standards, or unnecessary services, or who are defrauding the Medicaid system; and audits are being conducted to identify possible overpayments.
We are not aware of any similar dedicated action in Pennsylvania. Members who participate in the Pennsylvania Medicaid system should be especially vigilant about their treatment planning, record keeping and billing procedures. Depending on New York’s success in recovering funds, other states may decide to follow suit.
As reported on ada.org by Craig Palmer on March 31, a six-organization dental coalition urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to determine that a new medical device excise tax “does not apply to dental devices manufactured by dental laboratories and orthodontic manufacturers.”
The tax applies to sales of taxable medical devices after December 31, 2012. The 2010 health care reform law provides that the term “taxable medical device” does not include eyeglasses, contact lenses, hearing aids, or “any other medical device determined by the (Treasury) Secretary to be of a type which is generally purchased by the general public at retail for individual use.”
The Academy of General Dentistry, American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, American Association of Orthodontists, American Dental Association, Dental Trade Alliance and National Association of Dental Laboratories sent a joint letter to the IRS that can be viewed at http://www.ada.org/sections/newsAndEvents/pdfs/110330_ltr_to_irs.pdf
“We urge the (Treasury) Secretary to exercise the authority in Section 4191(b)(2) of Public Law 111-152 to determine that the excise tax does not apply to dental devices manufactured by dental laboratories and orthodontic manufacturers,” the dental letter said.
“Devices from dental laboratories, such as crowns, bridges, dentures and other appliances are made and customized and then are delivered directly to the patient by the dentist as part of an overall treatment service. This is also true of orthodontic appliance systems. These devices are designed, fabricated and delivered only for that individual patient’s use. We believe that, for purposes of the excise tax exemption, delivery of a device from a dental laboratory by a dentist to the patient should be categorized as a ‘retail’ transaction. These items are not intended for resale.”
The six organizations also offered guidance on applying the new tax to other devices regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and requested a meeting with IRS officials to identify certain dental medical devices “which we believe should be exempted from the tax.”
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) introduced two bills aimed at repealing provisions in the health care law that limit consumer-directed health savings plans.
The ADA-supported bills (H.R. 605 and S. 312) would remove the limit of $2,500.00 that consumers currently may place in a tax-free flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs). The legislation would also remove the health law’s provision prohibiting the use of the funds for over-the-counter products unless prescribed by a health care professional.
In the March 21, 2011 edition of ADA News, staffer Kelly Soderlund reported that the goal of the federal government is for health professionals to be utilizing electronic health records (EHRs) by 2014, and the American Dental Association continues to help on the dental portion of that goal.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorized up to $27 billion in incentive payments to encourage providers to adopt EHRs and $2 billion to develop a national infrastructure for the adoption of EHRs. The ADA has positioned itself as the expert resource and advocate for dentistry’s portion of the EHR.
The ADA’s EHR workgroup has established advisory groups dedicated to different areas to oversee the development of standards for the EHR, formulation of vocabularies needed to document clinical activity, the provision of education for members, advocacy for dentistry at the federal and state level, liaison activities with other standards development organizations globally, and participation in the certification of compliant EHR systems for dentistry.
For more information on EHRs, visit www.ada.org/paperless
In November 2010, the American Heart Association (AHA) published updated guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiac care. The guidelines were last updated in 2005. The updated guidelines were published in the AHA publication Circulation (Vol. 122, Issue 18, November 2, 2010) and may be viewed online at
In 2010, United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) held three Town Hall meetings in Minneapolis, Boston, and Los Angeles to provide the public with a new venue to discuss issues of interest with the Center. Any person may provide comments to or ask questions of CDRH participants about health related devices. Due to positive feedback, FDA planned to continue this activity in 2011 in three different locations.
Two recent meetings were held in Irving, Texas, (in March) and Orlando, Florida (in May). Chaired by Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D., CRDH director, the panel heard testimony in both locations from professionals and members of the public on a variety of topics: orthopedic joint replacements; surgical mesh; radiologic oncology devices; diagnostic sonography; labeling; and, of course, dental amalgam.
General Information, Questions, Comments: info@philcodent.org
©2000-2010 Philadelphia County Dental Society Disclaimer