MDAA LEGISLATIVE AUGUST 2008 UPDATE

Dear MDAA Members,

I am honored to serve once again as MDAA Legislative Chairman for 2008-2009.  President Sprague has appointed the following members to the Legislative Committee as either a Committee Member or a Consultant until May 31, 2009:  Deb Burch, Holly Keim, Sandy Angott, Kelly Roos, JoAnn Buchheister, Nellie Graves and Julie Dumas.  I thank each one of these members for their time and talent. Below is an update of activity.

MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY HEALTH
PUBLIC HEALTH DENTAL HYGIENE PERMIT PROPOSAL

The Public Health Dental Hygiene Permit Proposal presented by Sheila Semler, the Oral Health Director of the Michigan Department of Community Health is currently stalled. This special permit proposal addresses the significant unmet need for preventive dental hygiene care for children and adults eligible for Medicaid or who are uninsured in public health settings. MDAA was asked to support the proposal during its development.     Currently written the permit allows the utilization of a dental assistant to assist the hygienist in providing direct preventive services.  It is unclear at this time if this “assistant” will be a dental assistant or a Registered Dental Assistant.  When the Proposal is reactivated the Legislative Committee will be proactive in assuring that the assistant named works within the confines of the law.  It may be necessary to work with the state to allow this assistant to work under the “Assignment” category, meaning they may work without a dentist being present on the premises.

  
Community Dental Health Coordinator

 On April 19, 2008 the MDA House of Delegates passed the original Community Dental Health Coordinator (CDHC) resolution. The position of MDHA is that the Dental Hygienist is the person most qualified to fill this position. As it is, the CDHC person will be a person trained for only 18 months with the focus being on being a community health worker. The CDHC would be able to work under the supervision of a dentist in their local community health care clinic and would provide health information, palliative care and preventative services. The original proposal developed by the ADA and the ADAA was that the dental assistant was the person best suited for this type of position.  MDAA was approached about pursuing legislation to include the dental assistant in the current language, however, the MDAA Board voted to only monitor the progress of this endeavor and that due to the low number of RDA’s (1300) in the state, the fact that we did not feel dental assistants would be interested in these types of jobs (possibly $10/Hour) and ultimately because the MDAA has to be very selective in where it spends its legislative dollars we have chose to observe its progress and to step in only if the legislation threatens the profession of the dental assistant or if we feel that the public would be receiving substandard care.

MDAA/MDA DENTAL ASSISTING TASK FORCE

 
A couple of years ago a task force with MDA was created to look at the non-licensed dental assistant. It was MDAA’s primary objective to name the dental assistant in the Public Health Code, create a registry/data base, and to mandate CPR and continuing education for all dental assistants, not just the RDA. The task force failed to come to a consensus.  This year the MDA desired to renew the task force and we are pleased to see their enthusiasm and support in this endeavor.  New task force members were appointed by the MDAA board and our task force members are:  Carol Stamm, Tina Sprague, and Julie Dumas.  JoAnn Buchheister serves as chairman. The Task Force has held one productive meeting and further information will be forthcoming regarding their efforts.

BOARD OF DENTISTRY

 
MDAA Members Julie Dumas, RDA and JoAnn Buchheister, CDA, RDA, BS are serving as RDA representatives on the Michigan Board of Dentistry.  Future meeting dates are:  October 9 and December 4 and are held in the Ottawa Building, 611 West Ottawa, Upper Level Parking, Lansing, MI.  All meetings are at 10:00 AM in room 3.  Meeting minutes of the Board of Dentistry and the Boards Disciplinary Subcommittee are available on line.  Go to www.michigan.gov     type Board of Dentistry into the search box in the upper right corner.  Several state websites will come up, you might have to select a couple before you find the right one, but when you do go to the middle section under licensing, scroll down to Minutes and Meetings, Board of Dentistry. Click on the date you want to view.

RDA SURVEY

Members of the Legislative Committee are currently calculating the responses to the survey.  A wonderful response was received from assistants as well as employers and results will be published in the next

MATRIX.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding legislative activities please feel free to contact met at (810)621-4551 or by email at   SLSBARN@power-net.net. 

Sincerely,
Lori Barnhart, CDA, RDA