January 2010 Newsletter

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-11/10/2009-

Attendance: Ashmen, Bernstein, Desai, Galkin, Goldstein, Krantz, Mir Madjlessi, Prabhu, Rizzi, Savage, Silverstein, Stein, Vora
Acceptance of Minutes-vote unanimous.
President’s Report-Scott Galkin
I was approached by one of our members to see if we can run some sort of “vaccine fair” for the H1/N1 (swine) flu vaccine, since it very hard to obtain and we have increased chance of exposure as healthcare providers. I spoke to NJDA and they said that they have no special access to the vaccine and that the H1/N1 (swine) flu vaccine will be offered through local governments and we are eligible to get it as healthcare providers. The number to schedule an appointment with the Middlesex Public Health Department is (732) 565-3788. Please consult your physician if you have any questions about whether you should receive the vaccine or not.
Treasurer’s Report-David Stein
See full report on page 3.
Website Editor’s Report-Bob Silverstein
The web hosting company for our web site was bought out by another company (Hostway). This new company does not allow 2 character passwords, so I will need to change the Member area password. I will make the announcement of the new password in the January 2010 newsletter and at the January General Meeting, and then make the change. In the mean time, the password protection for the site has been removed.
Educational Coordinator-Nainesh Desai
Our first full day course by Dr. John Svirsky on Oral pathology was well attended. More than 150 dentists and staff members attended the general meeting on Tuesday evening followed by the all day course on Wednesday. The next speaker for our general meeting will be Mr. Jeff Weiss (of High-Tech Innovations LLC). He will be addressing the technology needs of today’s dentists.
ADA Delegate’s Report-Daniel Krantz/Richard Kahn
See full report on page 5.
NJDA Council Reports:
Annual Session-Nainesh Desai/Araceli Ziemba
The next council meeting is scheduled for Dec 10th, 2009. The NJDA-annual session meeting has been officially renamed “The Garden State Dental Conference and Expo”. The 2010 meeting will be held over the weekend (June 11-13) at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino and Resort in Atlantic City. For 2011, the Garden State Dental Conference and Expo will be weekend event as well to be held at the Ocean Place Resort in Long Branch, NJ.
Dental Education-Bob Ashmen
The Council on Dental Education met on 10/21/09. The Weekend Study Club has had maximum attendance, as well as reserved seats at the remaining lectures this Fall. The Council is still developing the concept of an interactive treatment planning seminar with a panel of specialists for a future Weekend Study Club presentation. There were three applicants and recipients of dental assistant $500 scholarships for this year. A joint meeting, facilitated by NJDA, was proposed by the Council Chairman, Dr. Batastini, for the directors of the dental assisting programs to meet with guidance counselors to brainstorm on ideas to promote careers in dental assisting. The Council also discussed the possibility of inviting the specialty societies to hold their annual events at the Garden State Dental Conference in order to enrich and expand the CE offerings.
Membership-Tara Savage
The Council on Membership met on October 15, 2009. The focus of the meeting was on recruitment and retention strategies. Until the 2008 membership year, the NJDA had experienced a net increase in membership for eight consecutive years. In 2008, the Association lost approximately 1% of its members and this year data is showing approximately a 1% reduction in paid members as compared to this time last year.
In response to this decline in membership, NJDA has organized specific recruitment and retention projects. Council members will be personally contacting non-members and non-renews to see if they have any questions or concerns which are keeping them from joining. Other recruitment activities include visits from the NJDA membership staff to GPR programs and dental schools, including the New Jersey Dental School and Temple Dental School. In mid-June applications for membership were mailed to all recruitable non-members offering half-year dues.
In the spring of 2009, NJDA offered non-members a trial membership package. Forty-four non-members registered for the program and five have signed up as members as a result. These individuals received many member benefits, including access to the website, two editions of the newsletter, access to the employment exchange program, a convention pre-registration guide, the Red Flags materials sent to all members and a personal note from Art Meisel encouraging them to utilize Association services. Patricia DeCotiis, director of membership, also called each of them individually to offer assistance during their trial membership. In June, each individual in the program received a special half-year dues solicitation to join.
NJDA has been selected, along with 8 other states, to participate in the ADA Marketing Collaborative for non-member recruitment. The ADA will be working jointly with the NJDA to market and promote membership, including providing marketing materials such as flyers, brochures and letters.
MCDS Study Club:
The next MCDS study club meeting is scheduled for December 10, 2009 at 6:30pm. The meeting will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison. 2 CE credits will be awarded. The study club is a member benefit available to all MCDS members. Please contact Marlene Glickman, our Executive Secretary, at 732-238-1255 for additional information and registration in advance.
Peer Review-Sandy Goldstein
We had three cases settled last month. One case went to a plenary committee review, one went through a summary committee, and one case was mediated.
Committee Reports:
Mentor-Amit Vora/Nima MirMadjlessi/Ethan Glickman
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, was given on October 29, 2009 at St. Peter’s Medical Center, New Brunswick. 140 dentists and staff were in attendance.
Gerard Iacovano from LLI Advisory Group will present the next Mentor program on December 3, 2009. He will speak about: “Year End Tax Strategies- What’s Right For You” at St. Peter’s Medical Center, New Brunswick.
Two CEU credits are awarded to the Dentists & staff members attending these 2-hour seminars. These seminars are available to our members & staff for $25/pp as a member benefit of MCDS.
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.
Please see the insert in this newsletter for additional information and registration for the Mentor program.
New Business
Motion by Dr. Krantz to combine the reception at the annual session provided that the cost does not exceed the budgeted amount of $1000. The motion was seconded by Dr. Goldstein and was passed by the board.
Respectfully Submitted,
Constantine Simos,
Secretary

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Web Site Password Change
Our web site hosting company was recently purchased by another company. This new company does not allow 2 character passwords (“sy”), so based on the password requirements, the password will change to “mcds1912” (the year that MCDS was chartered) effective 1/20/10.

It’s Snowing!!!

If we are experiencing inclement weather and you’re not sure if an MCDS meeting is taking place, check our web site first. Any announcements regarding our general meetings will always be posted on our home page, so you can check there first before you try to call anyone.

NJDA Announcement from James Schultz, Director, Governmental Affairs

We also are very pleased that the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 3763 (10/20) by a 400-0 vote to exempt health care providers from the Federal Trade Commission’s Red Flags rule. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. John Adler (D-NJ), now goes to the Senate, where we are working to see that action occurs prior to November 1, the current deadline for implementation. Implementation of the Red Flags Rule has already been delayed three times. We will update the membership in the event that another delay is necessary.
This is another example of an ADA-led effort - we brought this issue to Rep. Adler’s attention and worked with him and other congressional leaders to overturn this regulatory burden.

Peer Review Update
by Sandy Goldstein

Peer review is an alternative dispute resolution mechanism which addresses differences that may arise between a patient and dentist or a dentist and third party payer. Over the past several months we have seen an increase in peer review cases in our county.
Given that peer review is a wonderful tool to resolve disputes between patient and dentist, it is still in our best interest to keep these cases to a minimum.
The last few cases that have been presented to our committee potentially could have been avoided with better communication between dentist and patient. Try to be empathetic to your patient, listen carefully and if possible resolve your differences at your office.
It is important to keep in mind that your work is being held to a certain standard of care. Proper education and training is paramount. Several recent cases have been resolved in the patients’ behalf due to improper treatment planning as well as clinical treatment below the standard of care. Please refer treatment to the specialty disciplines if you are not comfortable with more complicated cases. This has been most evident in our cases involving implants, endodontics and veneers.
Another way we can hopefully avoid peer review cases is how we discuss our findings when rendering a second opinion on treatment. Notify the patient of your clinical findings and advise of necessary treatment without disparaging the previous dentist. If possible, try to have the patient return to the previous dentist to correct the situation.
When a case goes to the peer review committee, complete and legible records are a must. Please record all conversations you have with the patient, and document all your treatment in depth. Radiographs must be of diagnostic quality and pre operative photographs can often help.
It is important to know that if you have three peer review cases in one year, or four in two years, your dental license can be submitted for suspension.

Highlights from the ADA Annual Session - Daniel B. Krantz, ADA Delegate

The ADA House of Delegates meeting in Honolulu, with a few exceptions, was very typical. As always, it is amazing how 3-4 hours worth of business can be conducted in 5 days. As usual, there were discussions, taking over an hour, about changing words and punctuation. With almost 100 resolutions to consider, you can imagine how time consuming the process was. Nevertheless there were many items accomplished.
The ADA has for the first time elected an African-American as President-elect. Dr. Ray Gist from Flint Michigan is our new President-elect. Unfortunately, Dr. Richard Riva from New Jersey was defeated by Dr. A.J. Smith from Utah for the position as Second Vice President. Our new ADA Trustee (we are in the fourth ADA district which includes New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, D.C., Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the Armed Services) is Dr. Maxine Feinberg from New Jersey. All other line officers were re-elected and there was no dues increase for this fiscal year.
Some of the resolutions adopted were:
Encourage modification of ERISA to allow consumer protection by States
Encourage the deduction of student loans from taxes
ADA to provide contract loan analysis for students seeking loans
Support for Federal Nutrition Programs
Encourage support to prohibit ERISA covered plans from applying their fee schedule to services not covered by their plan and to encourage State legislation to pass similar legislation fro other insurance plans
There was discussion to eliminate the live patient requirement from part III of the National Board examination (this was referred for further study)
To require a yearly report on the impact of “Baby Boomers” retirement on ADA dues
To allow for more openness and transparency in meeting and reports
Referral to the Council on Dental Benefit Plans for a uniform definition of UCR
To encourage a national policy on coordination of benefits
A uniform ADA policy on Bisphosphonates to inform M.D.’s about dental sequellae of treatment (Our NJ policy goes further)
ADA research and policy on self-applied bleaching agents
Study to create an examination for applicants to post-graduate programs for evaluation of applicant competency (present trend on National Board exams is to grade pass/fail and program directors need a more uniform evaluation process
ADA encourages companies like Invisalign to eliminate volume of cases requirement
ADA to develop a standard for electronic transmission of X-Rays
ADA to review its endorsement of patient financing vendors (i.e. Care Credit).
Other resolutions on the budget, staffing of committees and other “housekeeping” items were also discussed
The 2010 ADA session will be in Orlando, Florida; 2011 in Las Vegas; 2012 in San Francisco
Now for some bad news. The ADA has a subsidiary company called ADABEI, which is involved in for profit businesses. There was an extensive Attorney (ADA attorney)/Client (ADA House of Delegates) session to inform us of some ADABEI improprieties, which when resolved, will leave the ADA with some financial exposure. The amount of exposure and individuals culpabilities is presently being investigated by an outside auditor and outside attorney, under the control of the ADA Board of Trustees. Due to the confidential nature of the Attorney/Client session, I cannot supply any more information at this time. When more information is available, and ready for public dissemination, I will let you know.

Table Clinic Presentations Expanded at 2010 NJDA Dental Conference & Expo

Among the changes you’ll find at the 2010 NJDA Garden State Dental Conference & Expo is the expansion of the table clinic program to include NJDA member dentists. Table clinics will be held on the first day of the weekend convention, Friday, June 11, 2010, within the exhibit hall at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City.
Members may request information on how to submit a topic for consideration for presentation by contacting Tricia DeCotiis, Esq., at [email protected].
In addition, dental students and post-graduate students, dental assisting and dental hygiene students in accredited programs, and members of the New Jersey Dental Assistants’ Association and New Jersey Dental Hygienists’ Association are eligible to present.