dvocacy. Ten years ago I had a vague idea of what that meant. Now, the spirit and work of advocacy is fully entrenched into my dental soul. Many of us consider it the most important member benefit. About 12 years ago,
I was personally asked by Dr. Rob Tait and Dr. Merle Nunemaker to be a Delegate for Greater Kansas City at the MDA House. It was then that I first experienced what it was like to serve in organized den- tistry. What did it take? It took a one-on-one interaction: a personal call, a personal greeting and a personal request for me to join in as a member of the association. Fast forward to three years ago when I was asked to join the Board of Trustees as the Legislative and Regulatory Committee (LRC) Chair by then President of the MDA, Dr. Prabu Ra- men. The last three years I have learned much about how things get done in Jefferson City, and trust me, I have so much more to learn.
Advocacy is how we keep well-intentioned, but sometimes uniformed, lawmakers—who are people just like us—from doing ill-fated things to, and with, our profession. In better terms, it is about how we get our core values and best-practice concepts out to a world that thinks it has better things to do than listen to a bunch of dentists tell them how our profession should be run.
Advocacy should be as easy as talking with our patients, to whom we impart our values every day. We truly are fabulous one-on-one. In a kind voice we inform them of potential problems we see. We tell them intimately what they need to ensure oral health. We study best practices and we have hands-on experience. We are passionate about the care we give our patients.
Similar to our relationship with patients, we need grassroots ad- vocates in our state just as passionate about our profession. I am one and you should be, too. When it comes to talking to legislators, you can be the voice we need to consistently remind them that our knowledge, sincerity and expertise are powerful and spot-on accu- rate. In our profession we do not gain knowledge by sitting around tables with other colleagues thinking big dental thoughts. We do not indulge in lame, non-evidenced based studies. We are the people who, as a group, take action and blanket the legislators with our well-formed points. Legislators and their teams track the volume of response to issues, so our voices truly add up.
We started off this past session with pretty high goals. We wanted to stop insurance companies from paying us with virtual credit cards and stop Prior Authorization claims denials. Deciding to battle the insurance companies and bankers is no small feat. But this was im- portant to our members, according to survey results we collected, as it was affecting them greatly. However, last January when we had our
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Legislative Day at the Capitol, I actually heard that some members didn’t want to attend because they thought our agenda was weak and that there were no “big” items at stake. Hearing this, I must admit, raised my blood pressure just a little! Besides following the directives of our members, we had a huge turnover of legislators from last year, with many new freshmen in both the House and Senate. Therefore, we needed members there to introduce our Association as THE voice for the dental profession, as well as advocate for our issues.
I want to thank all those who did attend, because it had a major im- pact in laying the groundwork in relationships being built, our voices being heard, and our legislation passing several months later. To all those who didn’t come, or should have, would have, could have—we really DO need you! We need you to come next year and be heard! I made many personal connections, friendships and relationships by shaking a hand and conversing with the legislators one-on-one. Building those relationships was so important this session so that we could rely on many of you being at the ready to make a call, answer a question or even testify at the many hearings. We have a great team from our MDA staff to help keep the ball rolling, but we need our member dentists to step up to the plate.
Congratulations to all for a very successful legislative year. We suc- ceeded in that both bills are waiting signing by the Governor into law. We were able to force insurance reimbursement methods to be in a form that the provider could choose so they would not have to pay virtual credit card fees. Also, if an insurance company has already ap- proved a prior authorization they will not be allowed to retroactively deny that claim since it had already be given approval. The MDA was also successful in once again securing funding for Dental Medicaid in the state’s budget. This included more than $5.1 million for services and a 1.5 percent increase in the provider reimbursement rate. We also were there voicing our concerns of restrictions that would be imposed regarding dentist’s prescribing habits. We do support com- bating the opioid crisis, but it’s imperative that our member dentists
