February 22, 2010
Thanks to everyone who took action in support of HB 1144, the bill to address insurers’ practice of dictating fees for non-covered services. As you know, HB 1144 died in a frustrating tie vote earlier this month. However, the CDA is still very committed to addressing this issue. We are reviewing our options and will keep members posted with more information as available.
If you have not already done so, please write your legislator by going to cdaonline.org/ActNow about their vote on HB 1144. This is an incredibly important step in anticipation of future activity on this issue. Our system makes it incredibly easy to write your legislator. It even identifies your legislator’s position for you – giving you a template thank you note for those who were supportive and a letter of admonition for those who opposed the bill.
This session, the CDA has also been active in a bill, HB 1031, to address Medicaid provider participation through bidding the administration of the Medicaid program out to a separate, third-party benefits organization. Many states that have implemented similar programs have reported increased provider participation and increased access rates. HB 1031 was estimated to save the state about $1 million per year once implemented. However, the bill also had upfront costs of about $3 million. In a desperate fiscal climate, we expected a challenging environment in moving the bill forward. Unsurprisingly, the bill was postponed indefinitely by the committee last week.
We continue to advocate on your behalf at the statehouse. This year the CDA is involved in over 35 bills. View a synopsis of the bills directly applicable to dentistry by clicking here.
