Message from the ODA President

Robie Herman, DDS ODA President

WOW! 2022 has been an incredible year for your Oklahoma Dental Association, and 2023 promises to offer another year filled with great opportunities. As we reflect on the pandemic and its effect on every aspect of life, I am proud of the job our profession has done continuing to serve our patients’ needs and the job our organization has done serving our members. Our ODA is resilient and renewed with energy, passion, and mission as we enter the next year and focus on the many ways we will strive to SERVE our patients and our members. Like many of you, I am very proud of the hard work our ODA did over the last year in pulling off myriad events, happy hours, member functions, strategic planning, meetings, and an in-person annual meeting, all while continuing to navigate the complex and ever-changing environment of the past year. Zoom meetings continue, and COVID even forced a postponement of the 2022 OkMOM. Despite those challenges, 2022 will be remembered as a very successful year with a great number of wins! Our legislative efforts at the State Capitol were intense as we sought a change in laws regarding insurance downcoding, bundling, and non-covered services. As a profession AND an association, we recognize our role to advocate for our patients and their right to see paid premium dollars spent on dental care. Ultimately, our bill was not heard by the legislature after some significant opposition from the dental insurance industry. Although our bill was not heard this time around, our efforts were not in vain, as many legislators are now more aware of our priority: to see more of the dollars paid by patients and employers for dental care actually spent on dental care. We remain focused on this goal and will continue to endeavor to see it come to light. We have continued our involvement in the state’s managed care initiative, and after some high-level assurances that the managedcare proposal would indeed become law, we worked diligently to ensure that dental patients’ needs were at the forefront of any new dental managed-care entity. We have continued meeting with the leadership of the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority and others and are actively involved in the development of the new proposed contracts with managed care coordination companies. We expect there to be multiple companies, specific to dentistry, coordinating dental care for the SoonerCare population beginning in 2023, and we have been advised that a number of measures are in place to avoid the access to care problems that many of these patients previously experienced under managed care. Our councils and committees are quite active in carrying a great deal of business and in creating even more value for our members. Our relationship with the students at the OUCOD remains vibrant, and we continue to develop an appreciation for the value of organized dentistry with dental students. Continuing with our theme that “our tent is big enough for all,” we are actively learning from a wide variety of dentists about the ways that organized dentistry, and particularly your ODA, can best serve all in our profession. We are fully expecting to finally celebrate OkMOM in Shawnee on February 3 and 4, 2023. Our community partners in Shawnee have been great in working through the pandemic with a clear mission to serve that community, and we are eager to get our OkMOM volunteer community together. Concerning OkMOM, there are some changes on the horizon. Beginning in 2025, your ODA, along with the Oklahoma Dental Foundation (ODF), will assume exclusive responsibility for producing and underwriting the event. This is a change from the previous years and will present an entirely new opportunity and challenge for the association and the foundation. To underwrite the mission, we will strive to create an endowment. Some of the BEST news I have to share is that we have kicked off this campaign with a remarkably generous pledge of $448,000 from a member dentist and their spouse! This game-changing pledge is in the form of a matching funds donation. Every dollar pledged until June 30, 2023, will be matched up to $448,000. This significant campaign is the cornerstone of the future of OkMOM and will ensure that the magnificent work of the OkMOM Legacy will live on. I ask each of you to consider a pledge to the OkMOM Legacy Fund. Your gift will be matched, multiplying its benefit. I am excited as Dr. Nicole Nellis and the 2023 Annual Meeting Planning Committee continue to put together an extraordinary meeting for your ODA in Tulsa, April 2729. There are some exciting and fun ideas coming to light, and the CE lineup that Dr. Richard Brown has assembled features some of the most sought-after speakers, covering a variety of topics, and will even feature FOUR hands-on courses! I am particularly excited to bring Mrs. Kate Germano to our opening session. I served with this marine while on active duty, and I must tell you, she is a SHOW-STOPPER! I assure you that you will be captivated and motivated after her presentation. I invite each of you to join us in Tulsa for what will be a terrific annual meeting; and don’t miss Friday night’s ODA Party. As you prepare to celebrate the holiday season with your families and teams, I offer you my best wishes for a vibrant 2023!