National Legislative and Regulatory News

AGD serves as the eyes, ears and voice of the general dentist. We advocate for you on legislation and regulation (including State Dental Boards) in both Washington D.C. and the various states. We also stand up for you with insurance companies and third party payers. Finally, we also represent your interests within organized dentistry, including the American Dental Association.

Current Issue: November 2008 Archives 
  Action Summary for LGA's Fall 2008 Meeting

Action Summary for LGA's Fall 2008 Meeting

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ACTION SUMMARY

Academy of General Dentistry

Legislative and Governmental Affairs (LGA) Council

October 3-4, 2008

 

  1. The council actively planned the AGD’s third annual A Great Dentist Goes to Washington advocacy conference scheduled for Monday – Tuesday, March 9-10, 2009 in Washington, DC.  Look for your invitation in the mail early 2009!

 

  1. The council interviewed the two finalist lobby firm candidates selected from the responses to the AGD’s RFP sent in June 2008 seeking Washington representation. Washington Strategic Consulting and the Carmen Group, LLC came to Chicago for presentations and LGA, in its advisory capacity, recommended to the AGD’s executive director its preference in moving forward with Washington Strategic Consulting.

 

  1. The LGA and Dental Care Councils jointly received a presentation from Mr. Greg Nycz, Director of the Marshfield Dental Clinic, a community health center (CHC) in Wisconsin. A variety of inquiries were posed by council members, many referring to the possible financial viability of CHCs without taking fee for service patients. Closing remarks made it evident that location depends a great deal on how CHCs are perceived by patients and dentists in a given area.

 

  1. The council discussed how state legislative chairs could become more comfortable in their constituent leader roles and correspondingly more active as the eyes, ears and voice of the general dentist. LGA will work on developing further training materials for legislative chairs and encourages communications between its members and their assigned constituent contacts.

 

  1. The Advocacy Award, a $1000 prize given each year at the annual meeting, was reviewed by the council, which will set a point cap for certain questions to ensure a finite total point count for to assist in judging. Don’t forget to apply for this award when the Universal Award Application is sent out!

 

  1. Region 17 brought the council’s attention to an issue where military dentists licensed in one state but stationed being unable to provide volunteer dental services due to restriction by state dental boards on temporary or volunteer licenses. While recognizing that this is an issue to be resolved state by state, the council suggested a policy that would support the issuance of such licenses to military dentists seeking them.

 

  1. Normally at the fall meetings, LGA establishes federal priorities for the next session of Congress, in this case the first session of the 111th Congress to begin in January 2009. While it was clear that lobbying for funding of the Title VII funding for dental residencies would be a priority, the council deferred final decisions until such matters could be discussed with the Washington representation that is yet to be retained.

 

  1. LGA approved the wording of a survey for members inquiring about experiences as Medicaid providers, believing it would be valuable data to know. Please look for this upcoming survey online and share your feedback.  

All actions are unofficial

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