January 11, 2011
In late December, President Obama signed and passed legislation exempting certain businesses, including dental practices, from the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Red Flags Rule. In a measure to protect the public, the FTC and federal financial institution regulatory agencies established the “Red Flags Rule,” which would require certain businesses to develop and implement a written identity theft prevention program to combat identity theft in new and existing customer/patient accounts.
The original law was intended to apply to financial institutions and creditors, but it was broadly applied to all businesses that obtain the personal information of consumers. This over broad interpretation would have adversely impacted many small businesses, like dentists, who were never meant to be included in the law.
This law can save your practice hundreds of dollars in implementation costs for reviewing and understanding the identity theft rules, and for training your staff on compliance. In fact, the ADA estimates the nationwide savings associated with this exemption to be $72M for dental offices alone.
Thank you to all the CDA members who submitted comments to Colorado’s legislators lobbying Capitol Hill on the ADA’s behalf. The collective voice of dentistry was heard loud and clear; tens of thousands of ADA dentists who took action helped get the Red Flags exemption legislation through Congress.