A SHORT MESSAGE FROM YOUR LOCAL, FRIENDLY UDPAC CHAIR

I recently returned from the Annual “ADA Dentist and Student Lobby Day” in Washington D.C. I had the privilege of attending this meeting with Dr. Val Radmall, our UDA Executive Director, Dr. Darren Chamberlain, and six students from the University of Utah and Roseman Dental Schools. Our purpose was to be educated on the ADA’s national legislative agenda and then meet with our Senators and Representatives to share this information with them and seek their support. There were three pieces of legislation we were advocating this year. The first you may be familiar with from our state legislative efforts several years ago. It is called the Dental and Optometric Care Access Act or “DOC Access Act” for short. This act parallels the work we, and over 40 other states, have done in passing “Non-Covered Services” legislation on a state level. By passing a national law, we will effectively be closing the loophole that many insurance companies have used to circumvent the intention of state legislation by requiring plans that fall under ERISA exemptions to honor these laws. The Second Piece of legislation we lobbied for was the Medicaid Dental Benefits Act. The purpose of this Act is to expand coverage nationally to all eligible adults, and importantly, reduce the administrative burdens for participating dentists such as audits and credentialing. Over the past several years, Utah has been expanding access to adult benefits in great part due to the efforts from the U of U Dental School’s leadership and creative funding plan. This has been a resounding success for those who have benefited from this care and has significantly improved the quality of their lives, but as is the case in most states, the majority Utah’s adult Medicaid beneficiaries simply have no coverage available to them. This often means they postpone care, live with pain, and/or end up in an emergency room. By making an investment to secure care for these patients we will ultimately save money while offering a much better quality of life to these patients. It is estimated that this legislation could save our national health system nearly $2.7 billion annually by getting people to more appropriate and cost-effective settings (our dental offices) for care, as opposed to relying on emergency departments to relieve dental pain.

The third and final piece of legislation we advocated for was the Resident Education Deferred Interest Act (REDI Act). While the ADA is advocating for numerous federal loan repayment options, this Act in particular, would allow dental and medical students to defer interest and payments while they are in their residency programs. This bill is bipartisan and bicameral, meaning it has support from both of our major political parties and is sponsored in both the House and the Senate. If enacted this could result in savings of tens of thousands of dollars for our graduating dental students. Having our dental students with us and sharing their personal stories was extremely impactful during our meetings. I wish to acknowledge and thank each of them for the time they took away from their studies to help with our advocacy efforts.

Dr Glenn A Zeh UDPAC chair