G ove r n men t Re lat ions
Harkening back to the days of former Governor Ed Rendell, the
General Assembly and Governor Tom Wolf haggled over the
state budget long after it was to have passed by the
constitutionally-mandated deadline of June 30. While legislators
were in town most of the summer and conducted some
business, PDA’s issues stagnated along with everyone else’s, a
casualty of contentious budget negotiations.
• Supporting programs and policies aimed at improving oral
health.
• Representing dentistry’s interests on issues pertaining to the
Affordable Care Act.
Call to Action: Contact your Senator to Request
Support for Assignment of Benefits Legislation
We will spend the remainder of the fall session fighting for our
assignment of benefits legislation, and more funding for the
primary care loan forgiveness program and other important
programs to improve access to dental care. We also continue to
monitor and respond to a number of other bills introduced this
session that impact dentistry, including opioid prescribing and
monitoring measures, legislation allowing for health care services
provided remotely (commonly referred to as “telemedicine” and
“teledentistry”) and Affordable Care Act reforms. The Issue
PDA’s Legislative Priorities PDA has a commitment from Senate leadership and staff to move
SB 373 out of the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional
Licensure Committee this fall. We are asking you to contact your
Senator immediately and request support for SB 373.
The legislative session, which commenced in January 2017,
allows PDA two years in which to advocate on members’ behalf
for these important insurance and access to care initiatives:
• Assignment of benefits for non-participating providers
• Health practitioner student loan forgiveness and tangential
loan mitigation issues.
• Increased funding in the Medical Assistance program for
dental providers.
• Representing dentistry’s interests on issues pertaining to
implementation of the Affordable Care Act (or its repeal) at
the state level.
While PDA takes a focused approach in limiting its primary
advocacy efforts to these three issues, we continue to monitor
and address these issues:
• All insurance issues, such as balance billing, coordination of
benefits and credentialing.
• Prescription drug prescribing authority, abuse and patient
monitoring.
• Maintaining funding for the Donated Dental Services
program.
• Protecting the current dental team model and patients’ safety
by limiting or restricting the unsupervised practice of
non-dentists.
• All other workforce and scope of practice issues.
Rep. Stan Saylor (R-York) and Sen. John Eichelberger (R-Blair)
introduced companion (identical) assignment of benefits
legislation in the House and Senate. HB 823 and SB 373 would
require insurers to honor patients’ requests to directly assign
benefits to dentists, regardless of whether the dentist
participates with the insurer. Requiring assignment of benefits
would reduce administrative and financial burdens for both
patients and dentists.
PDA is aggressively lobbying for enactment of assignment of
benefits legislation, having spent much of 2016 and the
beginning of 2017 working with Senate and House leaders and
staff on language that satisfied their concerns about adequate
consumer protection safeguards in place when it comes to the
issue of non-participating dentists accepting the assigned benefit
and balance billing patients. Stay tuned for more information
in upcoming editions of the Pennsylvania Dental Journal.
Take Action
Look to see if your senator cosponsored SB 373 and thank them
for their support. Cosponsors include: Sens. Greenleaf, Regan,
Rafferty, Costa, Brewster, Browne, Argall, Mensch, Ward, Vogel
and Boscola.
Talking Points on Assignment of Benefits
• Patients should have the right to decide where to direct payment
for dental care. Some patients cannot see their preferred
dentist because some insurance companies do not directly
pay the non-participating provider and they cannot afford to
pay for services upfront. Dentists who do not require advanced
payment may never be paid for services rendered. This
insurance practice unfairly inhibits patients from seeking care
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