May 2007 Newsletter

Wrap-Up

I hope my previous messages have provided food for thought. Several of you have approached me to tell me that they have helped you make your day more enjoyable. This was my goal and I’m glad I could help. For those of you who are interested, information on the seminar that got me started thinking this way is at nybasic.webhop.net.
Two of our Board members who have given a great deal to our Society are stepping down after this May, and I want to recognize them here:
Joel Leizer has been our ADA Delegate since I have been a member, and he has provided many years of dedicated service to our Society. He has represented our interests with the ADA during many Caucus meetings and Annual Sessions. As President, I want to thank him for his contributions and I hope that he will continue to serve in some capacity. His helpful guidance at Board meetings was always welcome. Peter Clemente is our new ADA Delegate and we look forward to his representation and participation on our Board.
Mitch Weiner is ending his tenure as Newsletter Content Editor. Mitch has served as an Editor for over 10 years. As a Co-Editor, I have had the privilege of working with him since 1999 and know first hand all of the work that he has put in on this Society’s behalf. Mitch started out doing the entire newsletter himself - specifying the content and doing the layout and working with an outside printer. He has donated countless hours of his time help create our monthly newsletter and on behalf of our membership, I want to thank him for his years of service in this capacity. I hope we can still look forward to the annual crossword puzzle… I will be assuming the responsibilities of the Content Editor. I apologize in advance for any forthcoming typos.
James Courey is our incoming President. He has served on our Board for many years, and we are in very capable hands. I am looking forward to supporting him as immediate Past-President.
I also want to take this opportunity to publicly thank all of the members of the Board for all that they have contributed this past year. They are all volunteers, and have all donated many hours of their time to benefit us all. Middlesex County is very fortunate to have so many talented and dedicated people contributing to our Society. The job of President has been made so much easier by having such a great support system.
Have a great time at Staff Night! This is a great opportunity to thank our staffs for all they do to support our practices (thank yourself if you are the staff).

-April 10, 2007-

Attendance: Ashmen, Brunsden, Clemente, Fahsbender, Galkin, Glickman, Kahn, Krantz, Nandra, Patel, Prabhu, Savage, Silverstein, Simos, Stein, Villa, Vitale, Weiner, Marlene Glickman (Executive Secretary)
Acceptance of minutes: Vote unanimous
President’s Report: Bob Silverstein
I am still working on the AGD application. This should be finished soon.
Treasurer’s Report: Scott Galkin
See full report on Page 3.
Program Chairperson’s Report: Bob Ashmen
Dr. Susan Calderbank will be speaking this month at the Tuesday night meeting. She will be the recipient of the Sy Symanski Memorial Lecture Award. Our final all-day lecture will take place the following day (4/18) at the Pines Manor, featuring Dr. Vafiadis and Dr. Lauciello. The topic is overdentures and implant-supported removable prosthetics.
NJDA Trustee’s Report: Nancy Villa
See full report under NJDA Noteworthy News on page 6.
A motion was passed to donate $150 to the silent auction at the Annual session in Atlantic City. The proceeds will benefit the Special Olympics.
NJDA Council Reports:
Annual Session: Araceli Ziemba
Pre-registration for the Annual Convention at Atlantic City is strongly encouraged to avoid a $25 on site registration penalty. Please go to www.NJDA.org for information on the Annual session.
Dental Benefits: Mark Vitale
Insurance Company Overpayments- Recently, there have been a number of requests made by insurance companies, predominantly Aetna, asking provider dentists to return “overpayments”. If you receive a request to remit such an overpayment you may take one of the two following actions:
- if you are a participating dentists you must return the amount requested.
- If you are NOT a participating dentist you do not have to return the amount requested so long as the following requirements are met:
- you are an innocent third party creditor
- you acted in good faith when submitting the claim
- the overpayment was not induced by any misrepresentation on your part
- you had no prior knowledge that an overpayment was made
NJDA is prepared to assist it’s members in dealing with this situation, by sending a letter to the insurance company on behalf of the dentist. Please call NJDA with any questions.
Governmental affairs: Mitch Weiner
Legislation is being proposed that will mandate that insurance companies use UCR as a basis for determining payments to non-participating healthcare providers. This is to counter a proposal put forward by the NJ Department of Banking and Insurance that would tie non-participating provider reimbursement to the Medicaid/Medicare fee schedules.
The next COGA meeting in May will be an information session with legislators held in Trenton along with the NJDPAC.
Membership: Scott Galkin
The membership committee will be hosting a continuing education program entitled “After Dental School 101: What Do I Do Now?” This program was originally given as part of the NJDA’s weekend study club in December 2006. Three of the presenters at his program will be MCDS members; Drs. Cavan Brunsden, Hugh Habas, and Mitch Weiner. This program will be co-sponsored by AFTCO, dental practice consultants and Mid-Atlantic Insurance Resources, a provider of all types of insurance for dentists and dental practices. Kim Iannotte of AFTCO will be giving a short presentation as well. This program will be held on Thursday, May 3rd, starting at 6:00 p.m. at the NJDA headquarters in North Brunswick, NJ. The program will be given at no cost to our newer and younger members due to the generosity of the sponsors previously mentioned.
Peer Review: John Fahsbender, Mark Vitale
Three cases were successfully mediated by the Peer Review Committee this past month.
Committee Reports:
Mentor-Ethan Glickman
Our next program satisfies the OSHA standard on Occupational Exposure to Blood Borne Pathogens, which is required annually for dentists and staff, will be given on May 17, 2007, Thursday; 6:30 - 8:30PM. Each office person trained will receive certification that they have been properly instructed for this OSHA regulation on Infection Control. Two CEU credits will be awarded to those attending this 2-hour seminar. This seminar is available to our members for $15/pp as a member benefit of MCDS. See the OSHA insert in this Newsletter for additional information and registration. A big “Thank You” to Dr. Joe Fertig for arranging all our room accommodations for the MCDS-OSHA programs at St. Peter’s Medical Center in New Brunswick.
MCDS Study Club - Dr. Ethan Glickman, facilitator; Subcommittee report:
Membership Committee - Dr. Scott Galkin, Chairman
The next meeting of the MCDS Study Club will be on Thursday, May 10, 2007. We will be meeting on the main level of the Clarion Hotel on Rte 27, Edison, NJ. This is our 6th meeting of MCDS members. The format is a dinner meeting [each member attending pays for their own meal], starting at 6:30 PM, in a roundtable discussion group. We have had five very animated and enjoyable meetings.
The plan is to start a new MCDS Study Club [2] as new MCDS members join the group so that we can have viable group discussions at each meeting in this round table format.
We discuss cases that our members are actively treating and share information on everything from starting a dental practice, associating or retirement concepts with everything in between that is informational and practical in running a quality and efficient dental practice.
Please consider joining your fellow colleagues in this new type of Study Club at MCDS. This is a very valuable member benefit for all our members of MCDS. Please contact Marlene Glickman, our Exec.Sect’y for MCDS, at # 732-238-1255 for additional information and registration in advance.
Oral cancer: Report by Nandra
The WE (Women’s Empowerment) organization will be holding a local health fair in the town of Montgomery, which is in Mercer County.
I will have a table and discuss oral cancer and also dental health education. I am trying to get a hold of Colgate products to give out and will also be distributing literature on oral cancer. From the reaction of the public and the interest they show, I will be able to determine how far we should take the oral cancer activities, and by this I mean that we either continue with education or start a screening program.
New Business:
Dr. Silverstein requested that a committee be formed to investigate setting up our website for online payments using Paypal/Credit Cards. This was approved. The committee consists of Drs. Silverstein, Galkin, Rosen, Courey and Ashmen.
Dr. Constantine Simos, our incoming Program Chairperson, reported on the courses that he is working on:
This is the prelimary program for 2007-08:
September- Cathy Jameson, PhD, “Critical Factors of the Business of Dentistry”
September 19th, 2007 Full Day CE Cathy Jameson, “Building Your Practice the Old-Fashioned Way :One Patient at a Time”
Frank Celenza is scheduled to speak in October. He will speak on the use of ‘microanchorage”.
November- Thomas R. Flynn, DMD, Harvard University, “ Update on Odontogenic Infections and Antimicrobial Therapy”
February-Kenneth S. Kurtz, DDS, New York University, “Biological Consequences of Clinical Intervention”
March- John C. Cranham, DDS (topic to be determined).
March 19th, 2008 John C. Cranham, DDS Full Day CE, (topic to be determined).
April- Elliot V. Hersch, DMD, MS, PhD, University of Pennsylvania Pharmacology (topic to be determined).
Good and Welfare
Drs. Jamie Leizer and Jason Wasserman are the proud parents of a baby girl and have named her Andie Jayne Wasserman. We congratulate the young parents and wish them well. We also extend our best wishes to Dr. Joel Leizer, the proud grandfather.
Respectfully submitted,
Maya Prabhu,
Secretary

New business- Dental students interested in attending an externship program in the Dakotas asked if NJDA would help sponsor this event. A motion was made and unanimously adopted by the Board to support this trip to the Indian Health Services Externships in the amount of $5,000.
Regarding the two recent cheating scandals at UMDNJ, three students withdrew from the school, one student is challenging the recommendation of dismissal. Other students are being handled depending on their individual culpability. At the recent NERB Exam, the school did exceptionally well.
Dr. Bob Shekitka was alerted that the southern part of the state is not getting volunteers for the DDS program. The problem is compounded that too few dentists are willing to treat children with special needs. Dr. Barbara Rich has spoken to those in charge at the Burlington County facility and they would be more than willing to work with DDS and they could use its clinic.
GKAS- 750,000 patients were seen nationally; New Jersey treated 2,600 children with 950 volunteers. Healthcare professionals were entitled to 3 CE credits and everyone received a certificate of appreciation. We had four TV news coverage spots from our two largest sites, UMDNJ – Newark and Burlington County College.
Annual Session-- This year the alumni from Columbia, Temple and UMDNJ will be holding separate cocktail receptions. To date $1,050 in monetary donations has been made to support the Silent Auction. She also asked the Board and Components to consider a donation to support the charity.
Membership- The association made a full membership mailing to collect member e-mail addresses for delivery of CAPSULE electronically and to provide urgent e-mail alerts and advisories. The Committee on the New Dentist has submitted a proposal for a half-day course followed by a reception at the 2008 convention and also a New Dentist CE course for September co-sponsored with Bank of America on managing debt.
Dental Benefit Programs- The death of a 12 year old boy in Maryland from a brain infection caused by an abscessed tooth has focused a spotlight on access to dental care, both in Washington and on the state level. The Washington Post article that originally reported the death was not critical of the profession, but rather the inadequacies of the Medicaid dental program and the need for fluoridated water. NJDA wrote to the Commissioners of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, Education, DEP, Human Services and Health and Senior Services concerning the incident and the need to work together to improve access to dental care in New Jersey and to move forward with fluoridating drinking water. Dr. Lou Kay, a pediatric dentist – and a good friend of Dr. Fred Jacobs, Commissioner of NJ Department of Health and Senior Services – requested some financial help from the Department for the DDS program. Commissioner Jacobs rejected the offer. The Health Care Consumer Information Act, requires the disclosure of any disciplinary action, malpractice judgment, settlement or arbitration award and any criminal conviction for physicians, podiatrists and optometrists. The Division of Consumer Affairs has recommended to Mr. Codey that dentists and chiropractors be included. Due to our relationship with Mr. Codey, the NJDA has been able to slow the advancement of this legislation.
The State Board of Dentistry has written a draft rule proposal to allow local anesthesia to be administered by a dental hygienist who has had proper training. Many states allow this and there have been no reports of adverse incidents.
Dr. Barbara Rich has been nominated for the position of Treasurer.
The NJDA’s parking lot has to be repaved and after 3 bids a request of $50,000 was approved.
Mr. Meisel has been assisting a member against Aetna pertaining to the recovery of an overpayment to a non-network, innocent third party creditor, dentist. He will also seek a declaratory judgment on behalf of the member and the NJDA.

A Message from your Newsletter Content Editor

As this is my last official newsletter as your content editor, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank the general membership for your support and encouragement over the past decade. It has been my goal to make this newsletter a blanket statement: How can you NOT be a member of this organization! I have tried to highlight over the years all of the tangible membership benefits that MCDS and NJDA have to offer, while highlighting the major regulatory and legislative obstacles that we are faced with in our day to day practice in order to ‘rally the troops’ and stir up member support for our PAC. Non-members usually receive our September issue annually to drive home to them what they are missing by not supporting organized dentistry, and we have been successful over the years attracting new members in this manner.
This newsletter was transformed three years into my tenure with the addition of Bob Silverstein as Layout and Design Editor. Through Bob’s stewardship, in-house layout and printing of the newsletter was born, allowing us to make the newsletter timelier, more professional in appearance and VERY cost-effective. Through the early work of Ross Kline and Jeff Chustckie, later passed on to Constantine Simos, corporate sponsorship of the newsletter brought us consistent annual sponsors, further helping defray the costs of newsletter production.
The newsletter has become such a ‘well oiled machine’ that most of my content work in recent years has been proofing the issues and editing down submissions when space is tight. Personal obligations have left me proofing the newsletters over the past two years too late at night for my comfort. Knowing that I could no longer give 100% to the newsletter, I informed the MCDS Board in September 2006 of my decision to step down after the May 2007 issue. I will continue to contribute to the newsletter as your representative to the Council on Governmental and Public Affairs, as well as serving as your NJDA Alternate Trustee. As Bob Silverstein has been doing the vast majority of the labor involved in putting together the newsletter, my departure as content editor will not affect the quality of the publication whatsoever.
I must give recognition and thanks to my predecessors: Sy Symanski, our late Editor Emeritus, for his commitment to a monthly membership publication; and Cavan Brunsden and Joe Perlmutter, who initiated the newsletters evolution to the professional publication that it is today. It was Cavan’s guidance and mentorship during the editorship transition over ten years ago that helped me to build upon the solid foundation he established.
I thank you again for entrusting me with such an important responsibility over the years and wish you all a professionally productive and personally relaxing summer.
- Mitch Weiner

MCDS member seeking part-time associate position in and around Woodbridge,NJ area.
Please contact:
Sumathi Chandrashekhar, DMD
Phone: 607-341-1172(Cell)
email: [email protected]

Dental office
space available for rent to a
SPECIALIST only.
Office is modern and fully
equipped with 3 operatories available Mon., Wed., and Thurs.
Please call Dr.
Modi at 201-679-0262

MCDS Newsletter Online
If you would like to receive the newsletter electronically in lieu of receiving a printed copy, please visit our web site. Click on the “Member” link, then the “Of Current Interest” Link. By registering for this, you will be able to view the newsletter about a week before it would get to you in the mail, and this will also be saving us money.

Please register your email address with us!

If you have not done so already, go to our web site and register under the “Membership Info” link.

Great Member Benefits:

MCDS Video Library — at St. Peter’s Hospital. All you need is a valid ADA membership card to access the extensive video collection.
Lawline — Remember LAWLINE if you have a legal question related to your dental practice. As a continuing member benefit, NJDA’s General Counsel, Arthur Meisel, Esq. and Assistant Counsel Patricia DeCotiis are always available to confer, at no cost, with members. If you have a question or need assistance, call Mr. Meisel at (732) 422-2730 or Patricia DeCotiis at (732) 422-2717 or send them a fax at (732) 821-1082.

St. Peter's Medical Library
Members of the Middlesex County Dental Society are allowed to borrow dental materials from the Medical Library at Saint Peter’s University Hospital. A valid ADA ID must be presented in order to borrow materials. Here is a list of some of the materials in the dental collection:
• Excellence in Cosmetic Dentistry-Video Series; • Gordon Christensen Video Tapes;
• Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery; • Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontics.
Information about the Medical Library,
including hours of operation, can be found at www.stpeterslibrary.com

(2/28/07-3/31/07)
Checking	$8,002.90	$1,196.84
Savings	$39,389.14	$24,482.76
CD (5.22%)	$25,000.00	$25,000.00
(matures 12/18/2007)
CD (3.70%)	$0.00	$25,000.00
(matures 6/15/07)
TOTAL:	$72,392.04	$75,679.60
P&L STATEMENT CHECKING ACCOUNT
(2/28/07-3/31/07)
INCOME
CONT. EDUC.-INCOME		4,865.00
CORP SPON- CONT ED.		8,000.00
CORP SPON- MEETINGS		250
CORP SPON- NEWSLETTER		200
DUES		10,140.50
INTEREST		4.31
MENTOR COMM- INCOME		1,020.00
TOTAL INCOME		24,479.81
EXPENSES
ACCOUNTANT FEES		275
CD DEPOSIT		25,000.00
CONT. EDUCATION		11,437.48
DINNERMEETINGS		7,668.66
EXEC. COMMITTEE DINNER		277.79
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY		550
NEWSLETTER		1,514.98
OFFICE SUPPLIES		48
TELEPHONE		75.95
WEBSITE		203.45
TOTAL EXPENSES		47,051.31
TRANSFERS
FROM CD - 3 month – matured 3/16/07		765.44
FROM Savings MCDS		25,000.00
TO Savings MCDS		-10,000.00
TOTAL TRANSFERS		15,765.44
OVERALL TOTAL		-6,806.06
P&L SAVINGS ACCOUNT
(2/28/07-3/31/07)
INCOME
INTEREST		93.62
TOTAL INCOME		93.62
TOTAL TRANSFERS		-15,000.00
OVERALL TOTAL		-14,906.38

May 2007 Newsletter

Program:

President's Message - Dr. Robert Silverstein

MCDS Board of Trustees Report

Treasurer's Report

Announcements/Articles