May 2012 Newsletter

President's Message - Dr. Robert Ashmen

Well we have come to the end of another year of MCDS, but I am excited to remind everyone that we’re only halfway through our centennial year of proud existence. Please remember to mark your calendars on Saturday, October 13th, 2012 for our Centennial Celebration Dinner at the East Brunswick Hilton. We’re planning an exciting evening of food, drink, music, dancing, reminiscing, and honoring the rich tradition and success of MCDS and its Past-Presidents. It is sure to be an evening to remember.
As I look back on my year as president, I have so many fond memories of collaboration and effort from all my colleagues and friends on the Executive Board of MCDS. And I look forward to such insightful and productive experiences in the future after my presidency. I’d like to thank everyone on the Board for their efforts, help, and support throughout this entire year. I’d particularly like to thank Dr. Devang Modi, our Education Coordinator, for an outstanding job organizing our meetings and continuing education program for this year. We were certainly happy to have Dr. David Lederman, this year’s Sy Symanski Lecturer Award recipient, wrap up our lecture series with an excellent presentation on early cancer detection. This was truly a topic that benefits all of our membership.
I also look back on this year, and I am compelled to mention a topic that is of personal nature. Although this may have touched my life closer that others, I feel it is something that deserves great awareness. This topic is organ donation. It is amazing and joyous to see and hear of the great number of lives that are saved annually through organ donation, but is it is as sad to hear of the number of lives lost by patients waiting for that heart, lung, kidney, or liver. Or remember the blind patient whose sight is a cornea away and the diabetic patient whose non-insulin dependent life is a pancreas away. All these possibilities of a happy, highest-quality of life exist through the miracle of organ donation. My wife is the recipient of a kidney and pancreas transplant, and we now have a happy, healthy 23-month old daughter. If not through the generosity of organ donation, this could not be. If you’re not an organ donor, please consider the difference you could make if you were. I have been one since I was 17 years old and checked “yes” when I first received my driver’s license. Little did I know how much I would come to know magnitude of this generous offer. Thank you for your all of your wishes and support, and thank you for your consideration.
I look forward to seeing you all at our annual staff night on May 17th at the Pines Manor. Dr. Modi has planned and organized a country western party that will be sure to please. It is also that night that I will pass the honor and role of President of MCDS to my friend and colleague Dr. Constantine Simos. I have no doubt that he will be an outstanding leader for our society and will lead us proudly through the remainder of our 100th anniversary year. I would like to thank you all for allowing me to serve as President of this great organization. It has been my honor and privilege.

NJDA Noteworthy News

Governmental Affairs- Mr. Jim Schulz reported that the General Supervision bill passed in the Senate 39-0 It still has to pass in the Assembly which will reconvene in May. He feels that it should be on the Governor’s Desk by July 1st. On the health insurance exchange there are pros and cons. We support the legislation that allows for dental only insurance plans. This has to be put in place by January 1, 2014. Mr. Schulz reported that Governor Christie has made some new appointments to the State Board of Dentistry. Both Dr.s. Alexander Hall and Arnold Rosenheck were not reappointed. Dr. Roger M. Kriete replaced Dr. Hall and Dr. Richard Riva replaced Dr. Rosenheck. Dr. Nicholas Corrado DeRobertis has filled the vacant seat of Dr. Jack Ricciani. Dr.s. Shelia M. Dashkow and Herbert B. Dolinsky have been reappointed. He added that all appointees are NJDA members. The Governor wants a bi-partisan balance on Boards. The subject of fluoridation is very engaged and getting more so. This legislation ends in January 2014. We plan to send letters to the editors. We continue to broadcast what good dentists are doing.
Continuing Education- Ms. Tricia DeCotiis distributed to the Board a discussion draft of an annual continuing education model. Following discussion, the Board decided to form a committee. It asked Dr. Tom Rossi to Chair the Committee. Members of the Committee are Dr. Jeffrey Delson as Chair of the Council on Annual Session; Dr. Frank Batastini as Chair of the Council on Dental Education; Dr.s. Mike Messana and Mark Vitale and staff, consisting of Eric Elmore, Tricia DeCotiis, Maureen Barlow and Jim Schulz. The Committee will report back to the Board with a recommendation when it completes its review.
Membership- Ms. DeCotiis reported that we have 180 fewer members than at this time last year. NJDA will be identifying those that paid last year but have not this year and will ask them to participate in a payment plan. Component involvement is needed with retention and recruitment. At Annual Session, ADA staff will be at the Street Fair and Membership Pavilion along with NJDA staff. Membership is producing another Continuing Ed record keeping form that will be distributed at the Conference. We will host a non-member luncheon on Saturday, June 23rd. We have sent a marketing piece to every prospective member. Dr. Rich is working on re-activating the New Dentist Committee. If you know of any younger member that might be interested, please contact Tricia or Dr. Rich.
Meeting and Events-Ms. Maureen Barlow announced that sales for the annual session are picking up steadily. The Linda Miles course is selling; rooms are almost sold out, however, 25% of the booth space is not sold. We will continue to sell booth space and table tops. Ms. Barlow reported that the hotel has changed hands again. It really does not affect anything except the GM is new, no other changes were made. Moving forward, we are seeing a great deal of component support this year. Eight components have supported the $500.00 sponsorship in which they can place a 250 word ad/article in the Conference Newsletter that will be distributed. The components that have supported the sponsorship are Atlantic-Cape May, Bergen, Central, Middlesex, Monmouth, Passaic, Southern and Tri-County, with a promise from Hudson. Dr. Gerard Chiche will be speaking at the 2013 Annual Session. Dr.s. Vitale and Messana have been instrumental in securing the funding for this CE program. In addition there will be a speaker showcase including Nainesh Desai, Maya Prabhu, Purnima Hernandez, Eric Weiss, Anthony Sallustio, Hillel Ephros and Cavan Brunsden.
Dental Benefits and Peer Review- Ms. Mary Moskal reported that on February 9th she and Art Meisel met with Peter Hartt, the new Director of the Division of Insurance, and some of his senior staff. The meeting was cordial and touched on a few topics, but the majority of time was spent discussing the problems with MetLife and its lack of compliance with prompt payment and other rules. Contact information for a complaint resolution specialist at the Department was provided, but the Department will not examine the overall problem; rather, it will investigate specific problems as they arise. That remedies the instant problem (if the plan is a fully insured plan in New Jersey) but does nothing for the overall problem. It is only when the Department receives a “pattern” of complaints that it will conduct a performance audit. Some Board members reported they had experienced similar problems with MetLife. Ms. Moskal also reported that the Department of Health and Human Services released the final rule establishing the minimum standards that states, employers, and insurance carriers must meet to operate in the insurance exchange. Several provisions directly affect the mandated “essential pediatric oral health benefit”, including the fact that the oral health benefits, even if offered by a stand-alone dental plan, must not include annual and lifetime maximum coverage. If the essential benefits are determined to include orthodontics, the premiums would have to reflect the risk. Further, there is no requirement that qualified health plans price the pediatric oral health benefits separately, which would make it difficult for stand-alone dental plans on the exchange to be competitive.
Communications- Mr. Eric Elmore distributed the 2012 Program Review of GKAS and remarked that on page 5 of the national report, participating locations and volunteers were down. However, the number of participating chilDr.en was up; this could be a problem if it persists. This was the 10th anniversary and again, we were the 2nd largest program in the country, second only to California who had 65 fewer locations this year from last year. The GKAS National Advisory Committee had more than 30 members tour NJ. A question was raised concerning the Head Start Programs and how they get involved with GKAS. Seventy percent of the chilDr.en in Head Start go to a GKAS program. Head Start has their own vans which is very helpful. As this was the 10th Anniversary, eleven individuals will be honored for their work over the last ten years. To date, we have signed agreements with twelve Partners and are in the process of receiving eight more. The Committee on Partners has expanded to include Drs. Barbara Rich, Mark Vitale, Nancy Villa and David Monokian. The Committee plans to meet in May and to discuss the status of a few partners and review others.
We will be repositioning the NJDA brand due to information gleaned from the membership survey and Membership’s focus on the value of NJDA as well as social media and Constant Contact. The plan is to have mock-ups available by the September Board meeting. Prior to last year, we gave four $500 scholarships to dental assisting students and received little response. In 2011 we changed to presenting two $1000. scholarships and the response of applicants increased significantly.
Additional Business- Dr. Michael Messana reported that SmileCheck is ongoing. Approximately twenty schools and some 700 students have been screened. They are experiencing a bump in the road in that the schools that agreed to be screened had already been screened. He acknowledged that Dr. Ethan Glickman and Dr. Bob Giantomas have been very helpful in assisting with this project. They have been talking about the budget and process but still do not know what it will cost; it could be around $8,000. Delta gave SmileCheck $10,000 and Delta had to change its specifications to accommodate us. We did pledge $2500 to the program as well. Dr. Mark Vitale, Chairman of the Council on Dental Benefit Programs, reported that as chair of this Council, he is also on the Committee on Medicaid that is chaired by Dr. Sid Whitman. The Medicaid Committee meets as needed and it was his opinion that the information discussed at these meeting was redundant with that of the Council on Dental Benefit Programs. Dr. Vitale suggested that a change be made to the Rules of the Board and remove the Committee on Medicaid from page 8 of the Rules and incorporate the Committee as a Subcommittee of the Council on Dental Benefit Programs. Dr. Vitale has discussed this with Dr. Whitman and Dr. Whitman had no objection. A motion was made, seconded and unanimously ADOPTED by the Board (Vote #2 BT-12-2-7) to remove the Committee on Medicaid from the Rules of the Board and incorporate it as a Sub-Committee of the Council on Dental Benefit Programs.
Dr. Bryon Roshong asked the Board to approve a $300.00 expenditure for NJDA to join the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors so that NJDA would become an Associate Member of this organization. He felt that this would be a great resource to NJDA as they also work with the ADA and we would not be in conflict. A motion was made, seconded and unanimously ADOPTED by the Board (Vote #3 BT-12-3-8) to join the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors as an Associate Member and to take the $300. from the SmileCheck funds.
Dr. Walter Chinoy is on the ADA Council on Ethics, Bylaws & Judicial Affairs (CEBJA) and he distributed a copy of the ADA Member Conduct Policy. He reported that when you become an ADA member, you agree with the Code of Ethics and if that code is violated and you have a hearing, there are four prescribed alternative punishments: Censor, probation, suspension or expulsion. The Member Conduct Policy has five punishments; the four listed above and/or removal from office. It is Dr. Chinoy’s intention to make changes to the NJDA Bylaws to enforce this, have it approved by the Board and then send it to the House of Delegates in June to be adopted.
Annual Audit- The auditors from Eisner Amper, Heather Taylor, Director and Amy Anderson, Manager, reviewed a printed presentation and financial statement that was distributed to the Board. She explained that they look at the risks in areas of revenue recognition; override of internal controls and auditing standards. In summary, they felt there were no specific risks. Ms. Anderson ran through the listing and explained each line. The footnotes were very comparable with last year; there were no deficiencies.

NJDA Council on Governmental and Public Affairs

Governmental Affairs Update:
General supervision Legislation- Passed in the Senate Commerce Committee and Senate. It is currently in the Assembly awaiting action. Three steps left to passage. We need the Assembly Regulated Professions Committee to move the bill, a successful vote in the Assembly and for the governor to sign the bill. The NJ State Board of Dentistry voted unanimously to support the bill.
NJ Health Insurance Exchange Legislation – Goals are transparency, consumer freedom of choice and portability. In NJ, we want to add dental only plans to the pool and mandate that medical and dental plans are priced and sold separately. There will be a mandatory pediatric dental benefit but no adult dental benefit as of now.
Immunity from AED Usage Legislation- Provides immunity from civil liability to certain individuals who acquire or use an automatic external defibrillator.
Community Water Fluoridation- Although NJDA faces heavy opposition from environmental groups and water companies; we are working on accumulating data sets through local studies to support our position for community fluoridation. We have until the end of this legislative session in January 2014 to move this legislation. In cooperation with UMDNJ grad students and Delta Dental, in-state research that analyzes caries rates, cost centers, flow of water between municipalities, and systemic health issues related to water fluoridation is being done. In addition, the community of Perth Amboy is being looked at with great detail as it does not share its water supply with any neighboring municipality and is the perfect town to focus on in such a study. Although Perth Amboy is fluoridated, it is at a substandard level than recommended. We will be pushing to get them up to the designated level.
Lawsuit Updates:
Horizon Assignment of Benefits Suit- This suit was ruled against us even though it is allowed on the medical insurance end. Our next step is going legislatively to move the issue. The problem we had when we tried this last time was that if the insurance company accepted assignment for non-par dentists, they demanded the right to perform chart audits at will.
Non Covered Services Suit- This suit was ruled against us as well. We filed a petition for certification with the NJ Supreme Court and they are considering whether they will take the case up. Non covered services may be looked at differently in regards to frequency limits, after reaching the annual maximum and truly uncovered services by the courts.
Beach Bum Tanning Suit- Successful ruling in Appellate Division reversing the trial courts decision. The issue will now be settled by a ruling from the State Board of Dentistry.
Recovery of Overpayments- This suit is being argued in the Appellate Division.
State Board Appointments:
Dr. Dick Riva replaces Dr. Arnold Rosenheck
Dr. Nick DeRobertis replaces Dr. Alex Hall
Dr. Roger Kreite replaces Dr. Jack Ricciani
Dr. Herb Dolinsky and Dr. Sheila Dashkow reappointed.
Pro Active Legislative Ideas:
Expungement of Records- Our desire is a bill that would help expunge the public record of dentists that have past violations (primarily advertisement violations) that do not involve clinical misconduct. The Attorney General’s office, due to the number of state boards, wants a general bill that would encompass all professions and licensing boards under its jurisdiction. Due to the differences between advertizing legality and regulations in the different regulated professions, this may be very difficult to achieve in one single piece of legislation and may be an uphill battle.
Hospital-Based Dentistry Requirements- Many large community hospitals do not have a dental service or dental residency program yet receive a high volume of ER visits that are beyond their scope to address adequately. Some hospital affiliated programs have cut days even though they have volunteer dentists providing care because they do not want to pay the salaries of the assistants or hygienists. As dental therapists (mid-level providers) have become a hot topic nationwide and possibly an unavoidable fate for NJ, pushing for more of these community hospitals to start dental residency programs will help strengthen access to care, alleviate some of the burden on the ER’s that are currently filling the void, and assure that licensed dentists (and not mid-level providers) are providing the treatment. Legislation that requires a community hospital that serves a certain defined population density to equip and staff a dental service/residency program is being considered.
New Business
We will be paying the membership dues for NJ to join the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors. Our ongoing Smile Check program, which is conducting screenings on children throughout the state and gathering examination data for analysis, will benefit from access to the associations resources.