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Membership renewal season is here, and there are many reasons why dentists choose to renew their tripartite membership. The ODA is tracking legislation and educating legislators on your behalf. From legislation to create mid-level providers, to legislation to stop insurance companies from setting fees for services they do not cover, to legislation ... [continue reading]

Dr. Paul Casamassimo (center) has been named the 2017 recipient of the ADA Norton M. Ross Award. The American Dental Association announced that Dr. Paul Casamassimo, a past president of the Ohio Dental Association, has been named the 2017 recipient of the ADA Norton M. Ross Award. The ADA has presented the annual award, financially supported by ... [continue reading]

Ohio is deploying a new tool in its fight against prescription drug abuse. The State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy announced an upgrade to Ohio’s prescription drug monitoring program, known as the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System (OARRS), that will provide Ohio prescribers and pharmacists with advanced analytics and tools to promote patient ... [continue reading]

Since the advent of federal privacy regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), dental offices have focused their attention on the security and safeguarding of the health information they gather on patients in the course of treatment. Concerns about patient privacy have forced offices to exercise caution on ... [continue reading]

Late this summer the Ohio Dental Association began receiving second-hand reports of isolated cases of dentists being "required" to accept as payment in full the allowed reimbursement amount from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan even though the dentists had no contractual relationship with BCBSM. These reports also indicated the dentists were ... [continue reading]

The first IKEA superstore recently opened in Columbus, bringing with it access to Scandinavian minimalist design. It also gives us the opportunity to learn to build rather well-constructed furniture, providing that you can properly decipher the Swedish pictograms that pass for instructions. Trust me, read the instructions first, as the design ... [continue reading]

I just came back from the ADA meeting in Atlanta. The topic that took center stage was resolution 30RC, which was to propose a National Commission on the Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards. This was an important resolution that possibly has broad standing impact in the future for dentistry as a whole. Allow me to explain. I ... [continue reading]

Ohio Gov. John Kasich recently announced new limits on prescription opiates that, according to Kasich, "will save lives and fight addiction." The new rules for prescribing opiates for acute pain apply to all prescribers, including dentists, and went into effect on Aug. 31. They generally include the following limits: No more than seven days of ... [continue reading]

Open enrollment for the Ohio Dental Association Wellness Trust 2018 plan runs Oct. 15 through Nov. 15. The ODA Wellness Trust is a self-funded, cost-effective health benefit plan.  It is exclusively for ODA members and their staff and offers traditional benefit plans as well as Health Savings Account plans.  In addition to competitive ... [continue reading]

Many of the 2017 dental student scholarship recipients gathered at the ODA Annual Session to meet the Foundation's trustees and thank them for supporting their dental education. Of the ODAF total awards, $55,500 was awarded in scholarships in 2017. In September, the ODA Foundation awarded its 2017 grants and scholarships. This year, the total ... [continue reading]