Dr. Arthur Bilenker attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick and earned his dental degree from Fairleigh Dickenson Dental School in 1982. After serving with the United States Navy and in other private dental offices, Dr. Bilenker opened his own practice in Cranford in 1990. Dr. Bilenker is an Assistant Clinical Instructor at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine in the Department of Restorative Dentistry. He serves our country as a Dental Officer in the National Guard. He is also active with the New Jersey Dental Association in the area of dental insurance. He serves as the current Chairman of the NJDA Council on Dental Benefits.

This lecture offers an in depth examination of the current Dental Insurance Marketplace. The evolution of the Dental Insurance Marketplace over time will be explained. Furthermore, Dr. Bilenker will discuss the different types of Dental Insurance in existence and their market penetration. The practical and economic effects of insurance payment for services in private practice will be outlined. An added feature to this lecture is an insight of the future of Dental Insurance in light of the Affordable Care Act. Lastly, insurance fraud and the increased scrutiny of the dental industry will be discussed.

Our primary goal has always been to give back more to the members that support the growth and existence of this organization. Ours is a leading component society at both state and national level, in providing high quality continuing education courses at reasonable fees, informative newsletters and being a true liaison between members and national/state dental associations. Our Dental Shadowing and Mentor programs have helped many students and member dentists alike. Recently, we have revitalized MCDS study club, which is an added member benefit. Time and again wheels have been reinvented to improve processes. We started in-house printing of our newsletters more than 15 years ago. A few years ago, as economy took a downturn, the Board took new steps to become fiscally more conscious. Coupling this with the fact that we have excellent support from our sponsors, we have been back in a more stable position. Once again there will be no dues-increase. Over the last 3 months, I had reached out to a few long time member dentists who did not renew their membership in 2014 for various reasons. I am pleased to announce that most of them called me back and have renewed their membership for 2014 and continuing to 2015. Their primary purpose was to be able to be part of our component and to attend MCDS meetings.
However, achieving this goal has only been possible due to years of dedicated efforts by the leaders on the Board of Trustees. And to continue this trend we need new faces with fresh ideas and enthusiasm. I invite all of you to attend our board meetings (please call Marlene Glickman, our Executive Secretary, at 732-764-MCDS (6237) for more information); it’s your society and those of us on the Board welcome your input.
The Bill for non–covered services was approved by both houses of our state legislative branch and is off to Governor’s desk. Garden State Dental Conference and Expo (annual session) will have a changed face at Princeton Marriott on May 1st and 2nd, 2015.
At the October General Meeting, Dr. Michael Messana, provided many interesting facets on providing early and adult orthodontic treatments for a variety of malocclusions. It was wonderful to see many new attendees (existing members who don’t regularly attend) at the general meeting. Next month, Dr. Arthur Bilenker, will provide us with important insights into what’s gravitating in the field of dental insurance. On April 22nd, 2015, Ms. Lisa Philp RDH (President, Transitions Group) will provide a full day course on communications for dentists and staff. See you soon.

Attendance: Drs. Desai, Bernstein, Modi, Vora, Fernandes, Silverstein, Schambra, Weiner, Prabhu, Rosen, DeSciscio, Brunsden, Villa, Stein, Satwah, Tauk, Mir Madjlessi and Marlene Glickman
Acceptance of 9/9/14 Minutes- vote unanimous.
President’s Report-Nainesh Desai
No report.
Treasurer’s Report-Amit Vora
See detailed report on page 3.
Secretary’s Report- Genevieve Fernandes
A request is made to all Board Members to email the google groups their report before the Tuesday board meeting. This will ensure review and timely submission to our newsletter editor.
Education Coordinator’s Report- Sanjeev Satwah
Next week’s lecture will feature Dr. Michael Messana (Immediate Past President of NJDA). The subject is Orthodontics and the title is “What to Treat, When, and Why”.
ADA Delegate Report- Daniel Krantz
Dr. Carol Summerhays from California is the new President-Elect, and Dr. Maxine Feinberg from Cranford NJ is the new President. There will be no dues increase, and there were no contentious issues.
NJDA Trustee Report-Mitch Weiner
See full report on page 6 under “NJDA Noteworthy News”
Website Editor’s Report- Robert Silverstein
I am working on an updated web site, with input from the committee that was established at the last Board meeting.
Executive Secretary Report-Marlene Glickman
35 attendees have registered for the OSHA course in November. JFK hospital’s General Practice Residency director, Dr. Devang Modi, sent a “thank you” note to MCDS for the generous contribution of a digital camera for their residency program.
NJDA Council Reports :
Annual Session-Nainesh Desai
The council on annual session met on September 18, 2014. Dr. Jeffrey Mermelstein was elected unanimously as the vice chairman of the council.
2014 Wrap Up-Final figures for 2014 showed a surplus of $36,000 which was the result of cost savings in areas such as in- house printing and increased sponsorships. For 2015: 1) Many changes have been made to ensure that we do not have a second year of disappointing attendance, both in the exhibit hall and in the classrooms. 2) the destination aspect may have played a role. There were more than 500 no shows in 2014, yet the room block was oversold. 3) Major decisions were made by the Board in the best interest of the conference, including moving to a non-destination setting, to only have sponsored speakers and to remove the dinner dance from the conference. Exhibits-1) More than 40 booths and 10 tables have been sold. There will be tote bags, door prizes, badge holders and coupon books (instead of map-guides). Projected Time Line-1) the speaker packet has been presented to the State Board of Dentistry and marketing has been started. 2) There will be a $25 fee called conference or weekend pass with the Bank of America card tie-in only for members of the host groups (NJDA, NJDHA, NJDAA) and the conference packets will be held for pick up on site. 3) Significant savings have been made by purchasing sign stands and in-house printing. FRIDAY events-1) Door Prizes will be drawn throughout the day and announced via white board (or similar) at the NJDA membership booth 2) Welcome Reception will be replaced by targeted receptions at the coffee break areas with different menus at each location, EBAs, NJDPAC membership and exhibitors. 3) Ticketed dinner event will be at Nassau Inn, with time to explore downtown Princeton (dessert not included). The later one was approved unanimously as the location of choice. Council Assignments-The Council is encouraged to share the meeting minutes with their board and to report back to the Council. Review of the Rules of the Board-1) President’s Dinner Dance-Dr. Roshong has decided to hold his presidential event on June 19, 2015 at Seasons Restaurant in Washington Township. The Thursday evening welcome dinner will be hosted by Art and Linda Meisel at their home in Princeton. Per Dr. Chinoy, the Board voted to limit the definition of VIP for the purposes of complimentary events to President or President-Elect only.
Dental Benefits-Devang Modi, Antoinette Tauk
The Council on Dental Benefit Programs met on September 10, 2014 in the office of the Association. As a special order of business Dr. Keith Libou, Chief Clinical Officer, Delta Dental Plan of NJ was present and provided some information on his background prior to joining Delta. He also discussed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the pediatric dental plan developed by Delta to meet the requirements of ACA, but no enrollment figures were available.
United Concordia “Elite” EFT Requirement: The council reviewed, as informational, a letter sent by United Concordia (UCCI) to members of its “Elite” dental network, notifying them of its new requirement to enroll in Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) by November 1, 2014. NJDA has had some discussions on this issue with UCCI, but no resolution has been reached. The trend toward mandatory EFT is growing due to the cost savings it can generate for the insurance company.
Governmental Affairs- Mitch Weiner
The next Governmental Affairs Meeting will be Nov 5th and will be reported on at the Nov MCDS BOT Meeting.
Membership- Genevieve Fernandes, Nima Mir-Madjlessi
The ADA Strategic Promotional Incentive (in which New Jersey can participate) is a one-time 50% dues reduction for nonmembers that are 5-10 years out of dental school and are otherwise ineligible for existing reduced dues programs. The ADA has modified the SPI program to target the identified groups for three years. This SPI will, therefore, be extended to eligible non-members from 2015 through 2017. This will give the ADA, and state and local societies the opportunity to work on recruiting a target market for a longer period of time which we know yields greater success.
The NJDA Board met on July 23rd, 2014 and agreed that the NJDA should match this SPI at the State level. Since the Board would not meet again until the middle of September, this was presented to the Board prior to the council reviewing the program so that the components could be afforded a reasonable amount of time to get this on an agenda and determine if the component will support the SPI; making it possible for us to offer the one-time 50% dues reduction at all three levels of membership.
The final list of eligible non-members will come from the ADA, but an approximate number of eligible non-members were provided on the call to give each component a sense of the scope of the program. The numbers are: Atlantic/CM-4, Bergen-55, Central-7, Essex-18, Hudson-26, Mercer-18, Middlesex-46, Monmouth/Ocean-32, Passaic-31, Southern-45, Tri-18, Union-11.
MCDS component approval was attained, and I notified NJDA in order that both the ADA and NJDA have adequate time to prepare marketing materials and promote the incentive before the end of the calendar year to eligible non-members.
New Dentist Conference will include a Match Program for Sellers and Buyers: Maureen will shortly begin working on identifying locations and dates for the 2015 new dentist conference (there may be two in 2015 – one north jersey and one south). She and Patricia DeCottis are considering concluding the conference with an hour and a half match program for practice buyers and sellers. Although the New Dentist Conference would not be marketed to dentists that would likely be buyers, we will separately market the Match Program to the entire membership. The reason they would not extend the program to individuals seeking to hire associates is because there may be some confidentiality concerns in “advertising” that one is looking for a job or looking to hire. Keeping the program focused on the singular issue is also a good way to pilot the concept.
2014 Non-Renew Strategy for Reinstatement: On Monday, August 25th, 2014 AnnMarie e-mailed each component council representative a meeting agenda which had attached to it each respective component’s non-renew list. These were individuals who were members in 2013 that had not paid 2014 dues and were officially dropped as members in early July. NJDA has continued to reach out to these doctors with e-mails, printed materials and telephone calls. These were the lists from which we worked when each component society sent dues bills in May. At our September executive board meeting we discussed this list to develop a strategy for bringing these members back into membership. Patricia had advised on the conference call that NJDA is available to participate in those discussions with us or provide additional information on the individuals on your list (for example – amount owed, year of graduation, waiver history if any). As we continue to receive payments NJDA will notify us to remove that individual from our list. As our component begins reaching out to these non-renews, we are to also make AnnMarie and Patricia aware of any follow-up they can assist with.
Finally, after the conference call, AnnMarie and Patricia met with Nicole (NJDA marketing and communications manager) to develop an NJDA strategy for reaching out to these doctors in September. They have determined that they will open the on-line payment system (closed since July) for the month of September to make it easier for them to rejoin. They will email the doctors reminding them that they have lost their benefits and that we are reopening the on-line payment option. They may mail them a postcard as well.
Our next Council on Membership meeting is scheduled for November 20th at 6:30 PM at NJDA.
Peer Review-Sandy Goldstein
There was no peer review activity last month.
Relief- Ethan Glickman
Dr. Glickman has stepped down from this position. Ira Rosen made a motion, which was seconded by Dr. Maya Prabhu, to offer the position to Dr. Constantine Simos. The motion was unanimously approved.
Committee Reports:
Corporate Sponsorship-Ira Rosen
We have four gold sponsors that will be attending all six of our scientific meetings: Biomet 3i, Benco Dental Supply Company, Dentsply (Tulsa) and TD Bank. We have one bronze sponsor that will be attending two of our scientific meetings: Kuwata Pan Dent. In addition, AFTCO will be placing an ad in all of our monthly newsletters again.
We want to thank Benco Dental Supply Company for also sponsoring our all-day practice management course on April 22, 2015. Save the date for yourself and your staff and look for the upcoming flyer with all of the specifics.
We are very grateful to all of our corporate sponsors because they enable the Middlesex County Dental Society to provide top quality continuing education to our membership in a local venue at reasonable cost, as well as a wide range of member benefits.
Mentor-Nima Mir-Madjlessi
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 Nov. 6, 2014 at St. Peter’s Medical Center, New Brunswick. 199 members and their staff were in attendance. Two CEU credits was awarded to the Dentists & staff members attending these 2-hour seminars. These seminars are available 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. The next OSHA recertification course will be held on November 6, 2014.
Please see the insert in this newsletter for additional information and registration for the Mentor program.
Membership Hospitality Committee- Genevieve Fernandes, Deborah Brown
Email blasts are being sent about twice a month by Genevieve Fernandes with holiday greetings and to inform our members on the CE meetings within our dental society.
Budget and Finance-Ira Rosen
The 2015 MCDS budget was approved by the executive board (with revisions) and will be published in the upcoming newsletter and presented to the general membership at our meeting on Tuesday evening, October 21, 2014. The final vote for budget approval will be at our November general meeting.
Dental Shadowing- After a unanimous vote by the Board, Marlene Glickman will take over the coordination of this program, since Dr. Maha Kaga has resigned for personal reasons.
Hygiene Study Club- Alyssa Bernstein
The Central New Jersey Dental Hygiene [CNJDH] Study Club met on Wednesday September 17, 2014 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison. The speaker was Dr. Devon Berry and he lectured on “The Effects of Occlusion”. Two CEU credits were awarded to the 29 hygienists that attend this meeting.
The next CNJDH meeting will be on Wednesday November 12, 2014 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Edison. The speaker will be Debbie Sabatini and she will be lecturing on “Probiotics, Are They Helpful?” Two CEU credits will be awarded for this seminar. This CNJDH study club is available to our hygienists as a Dentist-member benefit of MCDS.
Please contact Marlene Glickman, our Executive Secretary for MCDS, at 732-764-MCDS (6237) for additional information and registration in advance for the program.
MCDS Study Club- Genevieve Fernandes, Nima Mir-Madjlessi
Our October study club meeting will be on Wednesday Oct 29th, 2014 from 6:30-8:30PM Dr. Richard Kahn will be our speaker and the topic will be, “ A Review of Periodontal Diagnosis and Therapy”. 2 CEs will be awarded and this will take place at NJDA headquarters. This is offered as a member benefit and there is no charge to our members to attend.
New Business
(Conducted via the MCDS Google Group): Dr. Weiner made the following motion:
That MCDS BOT create a $3000 line item in it’s budget going forward to reimburse our ADA Delegate and Alternate Delegate for any shortfall in receiving full funding for ADA Annual Session representation that NJDA cannot cover up to the $3000/year.
(They will each receive equal reimbursement from NJDA based on the full funding of 14 Delegates dollar amount divided by the number of Delegates that actually go. We just cover the shortfall up to 100%. It is historically unlikely that ALL the delegates and alternates will go every year so we will rarely have to reimburse up to the full $3000 most years.)
The motion was properly seconded and was approved unanimously.
The Board unanimously approved Dr. Gary Heir for this season’s Sy Symanski award.
Good and Welfare
Best wishes to Marlene on her birthday.
Respectfully Submitted, Dr. Genevieve Fernandes, Secretary

NJDA Noteworthy News

-Dr. Peter DeSciscio was approved by the NJDA Board as MCDS Alternate Trustee. -The NJDA 2015 Budget was approved by the Budget Hearing Committee. The main contentious issue regarding the budget was the funding of NJDA’s ADA Delegates and Alternate Delegates to the 2015 ADA Annual Session in Washington DC. All of the attendees representing NJ on our behalf make significant time and financial sacrifices for the membership. Many of the component ADA Delegates and Alternate Delegates who were present at the Budget Hearing made passionate pleas for full funding of all potential Delegates as a result of these many sacrifices made. Due to ADA restructuring of Delegate numbers, NJ now has 14 Delegates (12 Component Delegates + NJDA President and President-Elect). Adding the 12 Alternate Delegates would have made NJDA financially responsible for fully funding 26 member dentist representatives. After much deliberation, the Board voted in the majority to fund a total of 14 ADA Delegates to the 2015 ADA Annual Session due to fiscal strain and the desire not to raise dues to achieve full funding. The NJDA 2015 Budget will be sent to the House of Delegates for approval at their November meeting and this matter will most certainly be revisited. -The surplus that usually accumulates in the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs budget as a result of our licensing fees and State Board fines/penalties has been re-appropriated by the Governor in his budget to help fund other services. Estimates are that the NJ State Board of Dentistry had approximately $2 million re-allocated. It was these surpluses, that have now been taken away, that resulted in past dues abatements of our biennial licensing fees. This will clearly not be the case going forward. -Non-Covered Services Legislation sailed through Committee in the Senate and was brought to the floor and approved by the NJ State Senate. The bill will now be considered in the NJ State Assembly. Continued PAC support from the membership coupled with member dentists’ grassroots meetings with Jim Schulz to educate new legislators on this issue has been a key driver of this legislation forward. -Shirley Birenz RDH has been named President of the NJ State Board of Dentistry. She is the 1st Hygienist to be elected as President. -NJDA Executive Director Art Meisel, with permission of the NJDA Board of Trustees, represented a member dentist free of charge in a lawsuit that resulted in a just settlement. The member dentist gave a $7000 contribution to NJDA and increased his PAC membership to the highest level. Mr. Meisel was given permission at the Sept. 17 NJDA BOT Meeting to represent another member dentist free of charge in a suit that Mr. Meisel feels should be found in favor of the member dentist. None of these suits are related to dental malpractice. -A large number of people who registered for the June Garden State Expo (‘NJDA Annual Session’) did not show up, costing NJDA significant expenses in processing and putting registration packets together that were not used. For the 2015 Session, the possibility of a nominal $25 registration fee per person (to defray these no-show costs) with a $25 gift card per person in return presented at the show that can be used to buy vendor products was explored and enthusiastically received by the NJDA BOT.

Provide MCDS with your email address!

Provide MCDS with your email address!
As those of you who have registered your email addresses with us know, the Board is becoming more pro-active in notifying you with timely information, such as upcoming early registration deadlines, reminders about the change in date for the April General Meeting, course reminders, etc.
By having your email address, we can get such vital and timely information to you. Register by going to our web site (www.MCDSofNJ.org), then the member page, then “Of Current Interest.” It’s the third link down. The username is mcds, and the password is mcds1912.

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