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Dental Care - Your Practice
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.
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Action Summary from the Dental Care Council's Fall 2008 Meeting
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ACTION SUMMARY
Academy of General Dentistry
Council on Dental Care
October 3-4, 2008
1. The council met with Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA) representatives for the second time in two years. Specifically, the council sought follow-up from the DDPA on the booming problem of overpayment refund requests and utilization review. While challenges remain, the council was pleased to learn that at least one state’s Delta Dental affiliate had enacted a guaranteed eligibility system, whereby the third party payer would be barred from seeking refunds of claims payments on ineligible patients if the dentist utilizes real-time eligibility verification software that verify patient eligibility at the time of service. The council also engaged DDPA about today’s controversial issues including dental tourism and the dangers of the practice of dentistry by non-dentists. The council urged DDPA and the third party payer industry to implement consumer awareness programs to alert patients of the pitfalls of exhausting their plan benefits on non-dentists or on services received in other countries by foreign-trained dentists.
2. The council was pleased to receive a presentation from Ms. Jean Narcisi, Director, Informatics for the American Dental Association (ADA) on the integration of dentistry in the movement toward Electronic Health Records (EHR), including through the development of Systematized Nomenclature in Dentistry (SNODENT), a diagnostic code set of over 10,000 codes. While the council, led by its Code Subcommittee, expressed serious concerns regarding proprietary, privacy, technological, and third party payer issues that may arise out of a diagnostic code set, it valued Ms. Narcisi’s presentation and concurred that a greater understanding and involvement of the council in SNODENT and EHR efforts would benefit the AGD. Presently, the AGD has a representative working diligently on the ADA SNODENT Editorial Panel on behalf of general dentistry.
3. The council reviewed present AGD House of Delegates (HOD) policies to ensure current applicability. Among its suggestions to the HOD, the council recommended that a policy requiring the AGD to take action to “oppose any efforts to ban” the use of materials be rescinded in favor of expanding another HOD policy that requires the AGD to take action to ensure that safe and effective materials are approved for use.
4. The council convened with the Legislative & Governmental Affairs (LGA) Council to entertain a presentation by a Community Health Centers (CHC) representative. Additionally, each council reported to the other on items of interest to both councils.
5. Further, the council reviewed and discussed numerous issues, including: Code on Dental Procedures & Nomenclature, universal healthcare and healthcare reform, practice management, bisphosphonates, amalgam and the FDA, evidence-based dentistry, dental tourism, Bisphenol-A, specialty advertising, and anesthesia reversal drugs.
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