May 1998 MCDS Board Meeting

-May 12, 1998-

Attendance: Bloom, Brunsden, DeSciscio, Engel, Fahsbender, Fertig, Glickman, Habas, Kahn, Kline, Krantz, Livanos, Perlmutter, Prabhu, Rosen, Schambra, Silverstein, Villa, Weiner

Acceptance of Minutes-4/14/98-Unanimous

NJDA Council Reports:

Membership Council-N. Villa

NJDA is about to print a new member directory. Member dues must be paid to be listed .

New Dentists-M. Weiner

NJDA approved funding for “lunch chats” with dental school students to discuss member benefits. Council members will be able to participate at schools near their own region.

A course will be sponsored by the New Dentists Council on June 3, 1998 at the Annual Session.

Council members voted via fax 8-2 opposing the ADA publicity campaign.

Peer Review-Fahsbender

Six cases have been submitted to peer review in the last few weeks.

The two most important factors in winning a peer review case is communicating with your patients and keeping good, legible records.

Annual Session-P. Engel

The Annual Session will be held at the convention hall next year to enable it to go back to a weekend event. A block of rooms will be reserved at the Sheraton. A shuttle will be available between the hall and the hotel.

NJDA Board of Trustees-Perlmutter

The Board of Trustees voted to oppose hygienist monitoring of nitrous oxide.

The application for relicensure will be modified to enable listing of carry-over CE credits.

NJ dental schools have outside clinics to continue dentist training, treating primarily Medicaid patients. The clinic in Northfield is understaffed by students, and the school wants to hire dentists to operate the clinic.

NJDA made a recommendation to ADA to discontinue it's efforts for the Direct Reimbursement program. The program is costly and there has been very little response to it.

The NJDA employee manual is being revised.

NJDA Board of Trustees-Krantz

The dental office employee manual is available from NJDA to all member dentists.

A member resource directory is being created that will include all of the necessary information for agencies and sources pertaining to a dental practice, including licensure, CE requirements, x-ray registration, medical waste, OSHA, etc.

Sharps containers must be labeled with name, address and phone number. Containers on countertops must be fixed units, otherwise they must be kept under the counter.

MCDS Committee Reports:

President Elect's Report-Rosen

There will be a brief board meeting on June 9th, 1998 followed by committee meetings.

The focus for next year will be as follows:

1) Continuing all positive steps that we have worked on this year, especially membership, the newsletter, and the website.

2) Refining the way MCDS is run through changes in the bylaws and the Rules of the Board. Dr. Fertig will chair the committee for this.

3) Address the accumulation of funds in the treasury and focus how money is spent. Dr. DeSciscio, the incoming treasurer, will chair finance committee.

4) Restructure the way officers rise through the chairs. Dr. Engel will chair the committee.

5) It is time for a dinner dance. Dr. Habas will chair the committee (he did a great job last time!). Honorees of the dance will be decided.

Membership Committee-N. Villa

There have been 20 new members this year. MCDS is expecting $8-10,000 more in dues this fiscal year.

Continuing Education Committee-P. Engel

The Seltzer course will be presented next week. 95 people are registered for the program. There will be four exhibitors. Dr. Schambra is arranging for the audio-visual equipment. State Board credits have been approved.

Mentor-E. Glickman

Fourteen people attended the program on medical savings accounts. Another OSHA course will be presented in October for 3 CEU's. A computer course is being scheduled sponsored by Marcy Dental Lab at St. Peter's Hospital.

Editor's Report-Weiner

Thanks goes out to everyone who contributed information for Sy's obituary in the last newsletter.

The newsletter is getting quite large, and there are not yet many sponsors to defray the cost of a growing publication. Soon the website must be utilized for spill-over information. The newsletter will be a showcase for the most important information. There is concern about the number of members who may not have internet access, but hopefully if the website has valuable information that can only be obtained there, more members will be anxious to get access to the web.

Program-P. DeSciscio

260 people are preregistered for Staff Night. The publicity was tremendous thanks to the newsletter (it appeared in three editions). Drs. Fromkin, Engel, Rosen, and Schambra will do 50/50 tickets. Dr. Huberman will take care of registration. To shorten registration lines, door prize tickets will be left on the tables and seat assignments will be posted on the entry doors. There will be three $50 gift certificates for door prizes, 50/50 money, and a prize for the person who solves the murder mystery.

Dinner Dance-Habas

The last dinner dance was a great success and will be used as a model for this year's dance. It will be held in the spring and the location to be determined. The dinner dance committee consists of (but not limited to) Drs. Bloom, Prabhu, Livanos, Fertig, Brunsden, Glickman, Perlmutter, and DeSciscio.

Old Business

A motion was made and passed to send $100 to the Masonic Home in the name of Sy Symanski.

The ADA has a new dues structure. Changes at the state level will be voted on at the Annual Session. We will look at the county dues structure in October with the rest of the changes to the Constitution & Bylaws.

New Business

There was discussion about what can be done with a practice when a dentist dies. Since according to state law a surviving spouse cannot employ an associate dentist to see patients until a practice can be sold, the value of that practice can rapidly drop. This issue will be brought up with one of the NJDA councils, most likely beginning with Relief.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Schambra, DDS

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