The ADA put antitrust reform at the top of its legislative agenda for 2010, the organization announced in an online bulletin February 16. In a meeting in Washington, DC, last month, the ADA Council on Government Affairs selected repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson Act -- which exempts health and malpractice insurance companies from U.S. antitrust laws -- as a key goal.
Among the association's other legislative priorities:
- A prohibition on insurance policies that cap fees providers can charge for services not covered by the policy: The ADA signaled that this might be accomplished through the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the statute the federal government has used to regulate employee health plans and other benefits.
- An initiative to publicize access to care barriers, "such as inadequate funding of public programs, oral health literacy, health status, geography, health behaviors, etc."
- Workforce issues: The ADA has provided support to state dental associations as they have fought off legislation that would expand the scope of duties of hygienists and set up new categories of midlevel providers who can do extractions and restorations.
- A continued effort to get the FDA to scrutinize teeth-whitening products
- Lobbying for "sound oral health policies in federal nutrition and food assistance programs"
- Opposition to increases in fees imposed on dentists by the Drug Enforcement Agency
- Continued involvement in the discussion over initiatives to digitalize health records
- Reform of malpractice laws
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