HISTORIC LEGISLATIVE SESSION DRAWS TO A CLOSE
The 135th session of the Ohio General Assembly will draw to a close at the end of December 2024. Each legislative session in Ohio lasts for a two-year period or biennium, and 2024 is the second year of the current legislative session biennium. The 135th session of the General Assembly will go down as one of the most successful legislative sessions for dentistry and the ODA ever.
Historic Increases in Dental Medicaid Reimbursements
Even before the 135th legislative session began in January 2023, the ODA worked behind the scenes meeting with Gov. Mike DeWine and his staff and other policymakers to make the case that the dental Medicaid program was in need of serious reforms, especially as it relates to reimbursements where Ohio ranked 42 out of 50 states.
The 135th session of the Ohio General Assembly began in earnest in February 2023, when Gov. DeWine introduced his proposed state budget for fiscal years 2024-25. DeWine’s initial budget proposal included a 15% increase for the dental Medicaid budget. The ODA expressed appreciation for Gov. DeWine’s initial proposed increase but continued to advocate for additional funding throughout the Spring of 2023 including through testimony before relevant legislative committees and lobbying during the ODA’s Day at the Statehouse. We argued that after nearly 20 years of neglect, more needed to be done to reform Ohio’s dental Medicaid program.
The Ohio House of Representative and Ohio Senate heard our message and passed a state budget bill that included a 93% increase in funding for the dental Medicaid program, which Gov. DeWine signed into law on July 4, 2023.
The new dental Medicaid rates went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, and on average the reimbursements increased by 93% per procedure. This translates into Ohio’s dental Medicaid reimbursements now ranking eight out of 50 states overall – a dramatic improvement. While this is a tremendous victory for the ODA and a benefit for Ohio dentists, the biggest winners are Ohio’s vulnerable populations who are now experiencing better access to dental care as more dentists are able to treat Medicaid patients and existing Medicaid providers are able to treat more Medicaid patients.
Non-Covered Services Reform
In the last several years, many dental insurers have been dictating what dentists can charge for services the insurers do not even cover. This practice creates significant hardships for dental offices as often times those allowable amounts do not even cover the cost of overhead for the dentist to provide the service and interferes in the dentist-patient relationship on procedures the insurance companies have nothing to do with. The ODA has led the charge in seeking to end this abusive practice for several years.
Our message finally broke through during the 135th legislative session as the Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate passed legislation prohibiting dental insurers from forcing dentists to accept their fee limitations for non-covered services. On July 24, 2024, Gov. Mike DeWine signed this new law, providing dentists with some relief from dental insurers overstepping their bounds.
For more information about this new law and how to opt out of insurance companies’ non-covered services mandates, contact ODA’s Director of Legal and Legislative Services Eric Richmond at eric@oda.org or (800) 282-1526.
Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact
Ohio has long been a national leader in promoting freedom of movement for dental professionals and dental licensure reform. We continued that trend during the 135th legislative session when the Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate passed the Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact, which Gov. DeWine signed into law this past summer.
The Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact is a legally binding agreement among states that provides a pathway through which dentists and dental hygienists can obtain Compact privileges which authorize practice in states that pass the Compact law.
Ohio is the 10th state to pass the Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact law. The other states that have passed the dental Compact law are: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. The goal for organized dentistry is to get as many states as possible to pass the Compact law so dentists and dental hygienists have true practice portability across state lines.
Keys to Success
The ODA is committed to advocacy on behalf of the dental profession and dental patients because our members demand it. Our surveys regularly reveal that ODA members’ most appreciated benefit of membership in organized dentistry is the advocacy we do on their behalf.
There are three key pillars to our successful advocacy approach. First is our daily presence at the Ohio Statehouse. ODA staff and lobbyists are present at the Statehouse attending committee hearings and building relationships with legislators on a daily basis. These relationships are important so when an issue arises that involves dentistry, legislators look to the ODA and its professional advocacy team for input.
The second key aspect of our successful advocacy program is grassroots advocacy. When a dentist builds a relationship with his or her legislator either at home within the legislator’s district or through the ODA’s annual Day at the Statehouse, that dentist becomes an important source of information for that legislator. Legislators know that dentists are leaders in their communities, respected professionals, and often business owners and employers. Legislators care what you think about issues related to dentistry, and when grassroots dentists are delivering the same messages that ODA lobbyists are delivering, it is incredibly effective.
The third key aspect of our successful advocacy program is an effective political action committee. Through your support of the Ohio Dental Association Political Action Committee (ODPAC), we are able to pool the individual contributions of member dentists together to provide substantial support for the campaigns of those candidates for office who support our issues and understand the importance of oral health. This past election more than 90% of the candidates supported by ODPAC won their races.
As you renew your membership in organized dentistry for 2025, please give to ODPAC as well. Support for ODPAC was integral to the success we experienced during the 135th legislative session at the Ohio Statehouse and will be critical for future successes as well.
For a list of all the members who supported ODPAC at the Capital Club level or above for 2024, see the December ODA Today.
