September 2009 Newsletter

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- 5/12/09 -
Attendance: Ashmen, Bernstein, Brunsden, Chustkie, Fertig, Galkin, Goldstein , Kahn, Mir Madjlessi, Prabhu, Rosenheck, Savage, Silverstein, Stein, Villa, Vora, Weiner, Marlene Glickman
Acceptance of Minutes-vote unanimous.
President’s Report-Mark Vitale
I am attending the ADA World Leadership Conference in Washington DC from May 11 through May 13 and will report back to the MCDS BOT at the September meeting. In the meantime I would like to thank Scott Galkin for chairing the May BOT meeting in my absence. All of next year’s meetings have been booked with the Pines Manor. They assured Maya, Scott and me that all meetings will be held on the main floor, as the lower level rooms are not conducive to CE programs with sponsors. They also told us that the pricing will not exceed 50 cents more per person on meals. The owners of Kuwata Pan Dent thanked us for the opportunity to sponsor Dr. Kokich and look forward to sponsoring Dr. Tarnow next year and Dr. Tanaka the following year. They were a bit disappointed in the room set up for the Kokich course and have been reassured that future programs will not present the same problem.
If you have not yet registered for the NJDA annual meeting please do so. The President’s Dinner Dance honoring Danny Krantz will be held on Thursday evening and the House of Delegates meeting will be held Friday morning. I am hoping for a great showing by MCDS. If you are interested is sitting with your colleagues from MCDS at the dinner dance please let me know as we are arranging tables. Those attending the House of Delegates meeting can be reimbursed up to one nights lodging upon presentation of a receipt to the MCDS treasurer. Officers attending the dinner dance can present a paid receipt to be reimbursed for one ticket.
As discussed and approved at the April BOT meeting, the following resolution is being presented to NJDA:
Resolved that The New Jersey Dental Association refrain from endorsing, sponsoring or co-sponsoring any Continuing Education Program or Course that uses verbiage in the title and/or marketing materials that expressly states or implies that a benefit to the attendees would be a financial benefit to the dentist.
Eric Elmore has provided us with a list of email addresses for MCDS. At the April general meeting many members added their email addresses to that list enabling us to send the MCDS newsletter to many more members electronically. We will provide these additional addresses to NJDA. Marlene has developed a registration form for the general meetings where members can add their email addresses. This form will be used at all future meetings, allowing us to compile a fairly comprehensive list. Hopefully this will reduce the cost of our newsletter.
Thank you to all of the BOT members for their support and hard work this past year. It has been a pleasure to work with such a talented group. A special thank you to Maya for her hard work on our program.
Treasurer’s Report-Robert Ashmen
See full report on page 3.
Editor’s Report-Bob Silverstein, Constantine Simos
We have obtained a list of list of MCDS email addresses from NJDA. Marlene will be contacting these dentists to ask if we can sign them up to receive the newsletter electronically.
NJDA Council Reports:
Annual Session-Nainesh Desai/Araceli Ziemba
Nearly 1000 registrations were done in last 20 days taking the total number to nearly 1600. This number will increase in the last 3 weeks. Sponsorship levels are highest this year. Extra booths had to be added to meet a sudden surge from various companies to setup exhibition booths. There are 5 prizes for students presenting in Table clinics. MCDS has two tables reserved for President’s Dinner Dance and our society is also holding a reception at the annual session. The 2010 meeting has been renamed as “2010 Garden State Dental Conference & Expo” and marketing plans have been made.
Dental Benefits-Mark Vitale
Claims Resolution Program (CRP): During calendar year 2008, the department received a total of 109 formal written complaints regarding dental benefit plans. Of the 78 CRPs closed in 2008, 12 CRP’s were for data purposes, 15 were not resolvable due to contractual exclusions, and 51 were satisfactorily resolved. Thirty-one (31) of the complaints are pending. The vast majority of these complaints involved inappropriate carrier requests for refunds. Staff will continue to stress the importance of knowing the rules that apply to insured plans so that unnecessary delays or denials can be avoided.
According to the ADA, NJDA is the only constituent association that has a formal program in place to assist members with third party payer problems. NJDA provides this data to ADA to assure that dentists’ problems are discussed during meetings the ADA schedules with the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP). It is clear that NJDA is in the forefront of this issue.
Initiative to Educate Members on Dental Benefits: The council discussed ways in which NJDA’s grassroots members can expand their knowledge of dental benefits. The council ultimately decided to present a course on dental benefits issues at the Annual Convention in Atlantic City. The idea was approved by the Council on Annual Session and scheduled for Wednesday, June 3, 2009 and will be offered to members and their staff at no cost. If successful, this course may become an annual event.
Delta Dental Plan: Adding to the ongoing dental office confusion over the Delta processing policies, some out-of-state Delta plans have adopted “local variations” which are being applied to New Jersey dentists, and most of these must be addressed on a case-by-case basis. For example, some dentists encountered a problem with Delta of Pennsylvania denying crowns that were cemented in January because its plans “incur liability” on preparation date. However, the Delta Dental Handbook states that Delta “member plans” use the completion date for procedures requiring more than one visit, which is incorporated by reference into the Delta contract. After writing and speaking to Delta of Pennsylvania personnel, Delta agreed to honor the claims for those NJDA members who were affected. Staff will continue to stress to participating dentists the importance of familiarizing themselves with the policies and procedures contained in Delta’s Participating Dentist Handbook.
Universal Health Coverage: The council is closely monitoring the developments with regard to health care reform legislation in Washington. On the state level, the council has also been vigilant with regard to proposals to mandate health insurance coverage for New Jersey residents. At the current time, no employer assessment is envisioned, but low income residents would be subsidized by the state. Benefits of the plan would be based on the mid-range standard plan in New Jersey, which means that dental treatment would be limited to extraction of impacted wisdom teeth, accidental injury of teeth and jaw not caused by biting or chewing, and surgical and non-surgical treatment of TMD. Similar laws have been enacted in Massachusetts and Vermont, and have been proposed in the vast majority of states.
Contract Dental Organizations: Council staff continues to provide general information and specific contract analyses and assistance to dentists, reporting to the council on new plans and other significant issues. Given the dramatic cost increase for medical coverage, the group dental plan market is just holding its own, and many commercial dental plans (including Delta Dental of NJ) have begun to focus on individual product offerings that are not insurance but really a “referral plan” in which patients pay the dentist directly at a reduced fee schedule.
Dental Education-Bob Ashmen
The council selected the speakers for the fall 2009 Weekend Study Club Series. There will be 2 courses for 2 CE credits and 2 courses for 3 CE credits. Tri-fold mailers will be sent to the NJDA membership when the dates are confirmed for each speaker. We will be reviewing applications for the dental assistant scholarship in June. Dr. Tom Rossi of the Essex County component will be stepping down as chairman of the council after completing his 5-year term of service. We thank Dr. Rossi for his dedicated service, and he will be missed. Dr. Frank Batastini of the Southern component will be the new chairman of the council.
Membership-Tara Savage
The last membership council meeting scheduled for April 16, 2009 was cancelled. There are no future meetings scheduled at this time. NJDA will be sending out soon an update on membership activities.
The next MCDS study club meeting is scheduled for May 14, 2009 at 6:30pm. The location for the meeting has been changed to the Pines Manor in Edison. The format of the meeting will be an interdisciplinary treatment planning seminar moderated by Dr. Ira Rosen. Dr. Suzanna Lekht will be presenting a case. 2 CE credits will be awarded. The study club is a member benefit available to all MCDS members.
Peer Review-Sandy Goldstein
We had one new case assigned for review during the month of April. It was mediated successfully.
Committee Reports:
Mentor-Amit Vora/Nima MirMadjlessi
Kim Iannotte from the Aftco Company presented at our Mentor program on April 30, 2009. She spoke about: “Analyzing Practice Numbers, Adding an Associate, Practice Mergers & Practice Transition Options” at St. Peter’s Medical Center, New Brunswick. Two CEU credits were awarded to the 14 Dentists & one staff member that attended this 2-hour seminar. This seminar was available to our members & staff for $20/pp as a member benefit of MCDS.
Our bi-annual OSHA program that satisfies the OSHA standard on Occupational Exposure to Blood Borne Pathogens, which is required annually for dentists and staff, will be given on June 11, 2009. To date there are 201 dentists and staff registered and the seminar is closed to new registrants since the room is filled to capacity. Each person will receive certification that they have been properly instructed for this OSHA regulation on Infection Control. Two CEU credits will be awarded to the staff members attending this 2-hour seminar. This seminar is available to our members & staff for $20/pp as a member benefit of MCDS.
Our next bi-annual OSHA program will be presented on Thursday evening, October 29, 2009, at St. Peter’s Medical Center. A very big “Thank You” to Dr. Joe Fertig, Director of Dental Services - St. Peter’s Medical Center, for arranging all our room accommodations for the MCDS-OSHA-Mentor programs at St. Peter’s Medical Center in New Brunswick.
Oral Cancer Screening-Arpan Nandra
April 23rd was the Oral Cancer Screening at RWJ Medical Center. Dr. Constantine Simos and Dr. Arpan Nandra were on site to do the screenings. A few people showed up for the screening. One patient had a swelling that was tooth related and a few areas of hyperkeratinized tissue. He was referred to either JFK or RWJ Medical Center for follow up. We are hoping to make this an annual event in Middlesex County
Dental Hygiene Study Club-Alyssa Bernstein
The Central New Jersey Dental Hygiene [CNJDH] Study Club met on Wednesday May 6, 2009 at the Crown Plaza Hotel. Sponsored by MCDS, the speaker was Dr. Maya Prabhu. She gave a fascinating lecture on Endodontics from the Hygienists Perspective. Two CEU credits were awarded to the 31 Hygienists that attend this meeting. The next CNJDH meeting will be in the fall when the series resumes for 2009-2010. Two CEU credits will be awarded for each seminar. The schedule and registration form will be in the next newsletter. This CNJDH study club is available to our hygienists as a Dentist-member benefit of MCDS.
Respectfully Submitted,
Constantine Simos
Secretary

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NJDA Noteworthy News

TD Bank is a new partner with NJDA and any member who banks with them, either with a personal account or business account, earns money for the association based on an average balance in their account(s). We received a royalty of $13,255.28 this year. ***Existing accts also qualify but the bank must be told that you are a member of NJDA.
The State Board of Dentistry has a surplus of $ due to vacant job positions in their office and will give a credit of $220 toward a $390 license renewal. This will not apply to new licensees and will be a lesser amount for the less expensive dental licenses. Gus Capetta will be the new President and Jack Ricciani will be the Vice President.
Benco is a new NJDA partner and will sponsor the next mailing for our upcoming electronic member directory on the website. They will also allow members to use their “Blue Chips” program for reimbursement with cash after paying NJDA dues.
In August 2009, Doctor of Dentistry magazine will do a feature story with photos of the NJDA convention at no cost, and, for this received a press pass onto the exhibit floor at the convention.
The New Jersey Office of Minority & Multi-Cultural Health has commended NJDA for improving access to care for minorities by organizing our web site directory to help select a dentist by zip code and language spoken. We have 44 different languages represented.
In July, we will be doing a joint press release with the Department of Health & Senior Services to promote this feature, as language barriers are of major interest to the Department. The commissioner has chosen “prevention & management of chronic diseases” as a focus and asked NJDA to help with a program on the links between diabetes and oral health. NJDA has offered to do a second program on tooth decay, the #1 childhood chronic disease in America.
Pfizer Pharmaceutical has developed a drug, Chantix, which competes with Nicoderm. They want to talk about ways the dental profession can help promote the new drug. Mr. Elmore is trying to develop a relationship for the 2010 Partners Program.
The six minute NJDA promotional video is up on the website as is Dr. Fink’s presidential message. A date is being set for new council chairs to record their messages for the website. Many of you have heard about Facebook and Twitter web pages. Several dental associations have these pages; they are free and enable global exposure to those interested as well as a quick and effective way to communicate. This will be discussed at an upcoming Committee on Communications meetings.
The recent amalgam separator courses went very well. SolmeteX covered the cost of the courses. We have heard only great feedback from those in attendance, including 28 non-members who we will actively recruit. NJDA was able to gain $5,300 in non-dues income from the courses.
Mr. Meisel reported on new rules made by Invisalign requiring general dentists and orthodontists to do at least 10 cases per year or they will no longer be certified as providers. He will write a letter to Invisalign because this rule was not in effect when dentists paid for the expensive certification course and it is wrong to deny providers access to their product.
Mr. Greg LaMorte (Essex) recommended that all NJDA past presidents who receive a complimentary room and a dinner dance ticket at the annual session be required to attend the House of Delegates.
The deadline for installation of amalgam separators is Oct 1st this year.