Cardiac Care & Safety is now offering Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), in addition to CPR training and recertification. Contact Nick Spaulding at 215-886-9280 for more information.
An online article published on Medscape, a part of WebMD Health Professional Network, was aimed at young physicians and may prove helpful to young dentists.
Young doctors may have taken the same hit as most Americans – in 401(k) and other retirement plans, but they are most likely saddled with huge medical/dental school loans, credit card balances that won’t go away and perhaps a crushing mortgage coupled with the real estate downturn, along with lower incomes.
“Younger doctors are coming out of residency with much greater student loans than their predecessors,” says Todd Bramson, C.F.P., financial planner and senior partner with NorthStar Financial, Madison, WI. “Younger doctors’ income is lower and, until recently, the cost of housing was higher.”
The Medscape article states that, according to 2008 data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the typical medical school graduate has an educational debt of $141,751.00.
The ADA’s 2007 Survey of Dental Graduates reports that the percentage of dental graduates with debt has been consistent over the last 5 years. In the class of 2007, 93.4% members had educational debt and 66.6% had other debt, such as mortgage, automobile loans, credit cards or other areas besides education. However, the average total debt for 2007 dental graduates was $241,849.00, the largest of any other graduation year.
The article notes there is a difference between “good” debt and “bad” debt. Bad debt includes credit card balances and depreciating assets like cars and boats, and these should be paid off as soon as possible. Good debt helps increase long-term net worth and security and includes real estate, home, rental property, student or business loans and investment in a practice
The article offers hints on strategies to pay down debts, ways to reduce loans and how to make a budget. To access the article, visit http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/707937?src=mp&spon=21&uac=6692MX
There are risks associated with the simple act of sending an e-mail to a patient, warns Dan Schulte, legal counsel for the Michigan Dental Association. In the July 2009 issue of Journal of the MDA, Mr. Schulte wrote that dentists who communicate with their patients should ensure that they are in compliance with HIPAA’s Security Rule, which includes certain standards and requirements that protected electronic communications must be encrypted.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has delayed its enforcement of the Red Flags Rule until June 1, 2010. The Rule was scheduled to become effective November 1, 2009.
ADA executive director, Dr. Kathleen O’Loughlin, noted in a message to members that, “All of your hard work on protecting your profession from the requirements of the FTC’s Red Flags Rule is paying off. ”
The ADA succeeded in getting Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, to sign on to a letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, urging him to enact the latest delay.
Dr. O’Loughlin said, “We are convinced that neither the FTC nor lawmakers would have responded to this looming problem without a push from the tens of thousands of dentists who contacted their representatives in Congress.”
At press time for this issue of The Journal, ADA reports that Senate leaders told ADA lobbyists that they plan to bring the House version of legislation exempting small businesses from the Red Flags Rule to the floor under “unanimous consent” soon. Given FTC’s announcement supporting the legislation, ADA expects that when the Senate does act, the president will sign it immediately, thereby eliminating the threat of a new regulatory burden for most dental practices. Follow the latest developments in this situation online at ada.org
On November 20, 2009 the ADA petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish appropriate classifications for tooth-whitening chemicals.
Citing concern about the safety of whitening products that are often administered without the benefit of professional consultation or examination by a dentist, the Association said that the application of chemically based tooth-whitening or bleaching agents can harm teeth, gums and other tissues in the mouth.
The ADA pointed out that such concerns have prompted many states to prevent application of tooth-whitening products in non-dental settings.
"The tremendous expansion of products available directly to consumers and application of products in venues such as shopping malls, cruise ships, and salons is troubling since consumers have little or no assurance regarding the safety of product ingredients, doses or the professional qualifications of individuals employed in these nondental settings,” said ADA president Dr. Ron Tankersley and executive director Dr. Kathleen O'Loughlin, in a letter to the agency.
“Application of whitening/bleaching materials is not risk-free and may not be appropriate for all dark or discolored teeth,” they wrote.
The 2009 ADA House of Delegates adopted Resolution 59H-2009 supporting legislative action to prevent dental plans from capping the amount dentists can charge for services a plan does not cover.
The resolution sets ADA policy that opposes any third-party contract provisions that establish fee limits for nonscheduled dental services.
The resolution states that the ADA will continue to actively pursue federal legislation to prohibit ERISA covered plans from applying such provisions, and it directs the ADA to encourage individual states to pursue legislation to prohibit plans from applying noncovered services provisions.
ADA’s Council on Dental Benefit Programs prioritizes the noncovered services issue as one of dentists’ top concerns and is working with the Council on Government Affairs to introduce federal legislation that would get directly at the issue for ERISA plans. Since ERISA supersedes state plans, state legislatures cannot effect changes to ERISA..
The Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) is working to get legislation passed, as reported by Marisa Swarney, PDA director of Government Relations in the October/November/December 2009 issue of The Journal of the Philadelphia County Dental Society.
Many dentists provide free dental services to their staff as an employment benefit. This seems like a good idea at first blush, writes Dr. Michael Maihofer, in the Journal of the Michigan Dental Association’s September 2009 issue.
But there are potential pitfalls to this arrangement, he writes. “One possible problem is that the dental services for the employee are limited to only those that the employer provides. For example, a general dentist employer who doesn’t perform periodontal surgery is not likely to pay a periodontist to perform surgical services on this employee.” This, Dr. Maihofer, notes, could be argued as limiting the patient’s autonomy. In other words, the patient’s right to determine where to receive dental services could be compromised in such an arrangement.
Another concern in such an arrangement, he writes, is the blurring of the patient and employee records. Other employees, for instance, could have access to patient records of their coworkers. Another concern is the extent to which employment decisions could be based on medical history rather than performance.
Disagreements over treatment options or outcomes could make an otherwise amiable employment relationship quite awful, Dr. Maihofer says.
“There have been actual cases where former dental staff have filed peer review complaints against former dentist/employers for treatment rendered during their employment,” he writes.
The decision to offer dental services to employees is up to the individual dentist, according to Dr. Maihofer, but it would be wise to consider all the potential pitfalls in such an arrangement.
Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are taking on more prominent places in Society. The job of flight attendant involves much more than pointing out exit rows and fetching an occasional pillow or blanket. Often, it requires saving a passenger’s life. Recently, while waiting for a connecting flight, a 57-year-old man suffered a heart attack in the boarding area of Chicago’s Midway Airport. A flight attendant who was nearby rushed for a defibrillator and ultimately stabilized the man until he could be taken to a hospital where he underwent quadruple-bypass surgery.
In 2001 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulated that every airline be equipped with a defibrillator. Since that time, the lives of more than 400 people have been saved.
In August of 2009, a woman who just happened to have a defibrillator in her car helped save the life of a stranger who collapsed at a supermarket in Florida. The 33-year-old mother of three has a 9-year-old child with a medical condition that could send him into arrhythmia at any time. So she keeps an AED in her car. While she and her children were at a supermarket in St. Petersburg, she noticed a man on the ground outside, ran to her car, fetched the defibrillator, followed the instructions on the machine and jump-started the heart of the 73-year-old stranger, all before paramedics arrived.
Some days, people just don’t want to go to work. A recent survey from CareerBuilder.com on absentteeism revealed that 33 percent of employees skipped work last year, telling their bosses they were sick when they really weren’t. Thirty-four percent of those just didn’t feel like going in that day; 9 percent were avoiding meetings, overdue projects or a boss or colleague. Here are just a few of the “excuses” for absence:
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