Support our online development, and advance our onground research initiatives in free market economics, as we seek to showcase the brightest Next-Gen minds.
THE ME-P DISCLAIMER: Posts, comments and opinions do not necessarily represent iMBA, Inc., but become our property after submission. Copyright © 2006 to-date. iMBA, Inc allows colleges, universities, medical and financial professionals and related clinics, hospitals and non-profit healthcare organizations to distribute our proprietary essays, photos, videos, audios and other documents; etc. However, please review copyright and usage information for each individual asset before submission to us, and/or placement on your publication or web site. Attestation references, citations and/or back-links are required. All other assets are property of the individual copyright holder.
ADA Makes Progress Against McCarran-Ferguson
By D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
The ADA makes real progress against McCarran-Ferguson. I’ve watched the American Dental Association fight long and hard against the unfair McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945. ADA leaders and I still don’t agree on the need for transparency in the professional organization instead of proud unresponsiveness, but nevertheless, I’ve always been publicly supportive of their efforts to repeal the M-F Act.
Insurance Industry
The insurance industry is powerful in Washington. Over the short term, common sense has proven to be far less influential than their generous campaign contributions – making this a long haul for ADA officials. Yet the amendment to H.R. 5, Protecting Access to Healthcare (PATH) Act, which was offered by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), a dentist, is finally scheduled to come up for a vote on Thursday, March 22, 2012
Good Work – ADA
http://www.ada.org/news/6926.aspx
If passed, the legislation will restore the application of antitrust laws to the business of health insurance. Makes sense, right? After all, if every other business in the nation, including professional organizations, can be prosecuted by the FTC for collusion, why should Delta Dental, BCBSTX and other members of the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP) be exempt from antitrust laws which protect their clients.
I and others are hopeful that this will end many of dental insurers’ current business practices which unfairly force dentists to accept take it or leave it terms that would be unacceptable in a fair market. Maybe the repeal will also make insurance lawyers think twice before alerting the FTC when ADA News speaks honestly about the harm caused by suspiciously similar policies of numerous NADP members.
Assessment
Even if the M-F is repealed, here is an example of truth in dental care that I bet ADA leaders still won’t be able to share with Americans: Unfair downward pressure on contracted dentists’ payments always hurts clueless dental patients the most. Delta Dental’s greed will never be satisfied and dentists’ ethics aren’t free.
NADP, meet the FTC.
Conclusion
Your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.
Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos
Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:
Health Dictionary Series: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko
Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752
Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790
Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421
Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com
Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com
Subscribe Now: Did you like this Medical Executive-Post, or find it helpful, interesting and informative? Want to get the latest ME-Ps delivered to your email box each morning? Just subscribe using the link below. You can unsubscribe at any time. Security is assured.
Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos
Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.
Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise
Share this:
Filed under: Health Insurance, Health Law & Policy, Insurance Matters, Pruitt's Platform | Tagged: ADA, amendment to H.R. 5, BCBSTX, D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, delta dental, FTC, McCarran-Ferguson, National Association of Dental Plans, Protecting Access to Healthcare (PATH) Act, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) |
The Leading Business Education Network for Doctors, Financial Advisors and Health Industry Consultants 
McCarran-Ferguson must die
It has become very easy to tell your Congressperson what you think of insurers’ exemption from antitrust violations.
http://www.capwiz.com/dental/issues/alert/?alertid=61114076&type=CO
Act Now
Support elimination the federal antitrust exemption given to health insurance plans
Please act immediately to support passage of legislation to eliminate the federal antitrust exemption given to health insurance plans (an amendment to the McCarran-Ferguson Act)!
Today, the House of Representatives will debate and vote on adding Rep. Paul Gosar’s McCarran-Ferguson amendment to medical liability reform legislation (the “Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011,” H.R. 5).
Please take action by 3 p.m. Thursday, March 22, and ask your Member of Congress to support the Rep. Gosar amendment to H.R. 5.
The Gosar amendment would repeal the current unfair exemption and restore application of the federal antitrust laws to the business of health insurance to protect competition and consumers by fostering greater federal antitrust enforcement against the insurance industry where state regulators fail to act. – ADA
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
LikeLike
R.I.P. McCarran-Ferguson – We won at last, you bastard!
I just received word that McCarron-Ferguson’s protection of insurers from antitrust suits is history, and the ADA played a critical role in subjecting insurers to accountability for the first time in almost 70 years. Dues well spent.
http://view.adapubs.adamail.org/?j=fe5c157471640c75771c&m=fef61079726005&ls=fde513787c61007e701c7676&l=fe93167472670c7c76&s=fe3115727264007e741078&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe2d15747667007a761c71
Full U.S. House Approves Amendment Repealing Insurance Industry’s Antitrust Exemption
The U.S. House of Representatives this morning approved by voice vote an amendment that would repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act’s antitrust exemption as it applies to health insurance companies. That exemption, which Congress enacted in 1945, was intended to make it easier for states to regulate insurance without federal interference. The ADA and other health care groups have long argued that the exemption gives the insurance industry an unfair advantage in the marketplace. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) offered his legislation as a floor amendment to the ADA-supported Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act (H.R. 5).
H.R. 5, which would reform medical malpractice laws by limiting awards and attorney fees, passed the House today by a vote of 223 to 181.
This email has been distributed to all members of the American Dental Association.
—————————————
Nice work, ADA Advocacy.
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
LikeLike
Watch for Delta Dental employees to improve their manners
Last week, the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 was repealed, and it was consumers acting independently on the internet who should be thanked for stopping Delta from using the law to continue to take advantage of clueless and vulnerable clients. It is my sincere hope that this is a sign that we are beginning to recognize that when those we elect choose to protect huge, influential companies from competition for customers, crappy, wasteful products are predictable. What’s more, the longer federal support persists – the crappier the products become.
Have you ever experienced the workmanship of American automobiles built in the late 1970s when domestic auto makers didn’t have to compete for customers? For about 5 miserable years, import quotas protected sales for huge, politically-connected companies like GM, Ford and Chrysler. Even while Japan was producing cheaper, higher quality products, the value of American cars grew increasingly worse until President Reagan finally stopped the protectionist law.
Compared to the added cost to Americans caused by the short-lived automobile import restrictions, the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 has whiskers. The insurer-friendly law has allowed collusion between members of the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP) for decades, resulting in a product as consumer-friendly as a 1977 Ford Pinto with no brake lights.
NADP member Delta Dental started in 1954 as a west coast dental benefits company led by the Washington Dental Service. Using arguably unfair business practices to take advantage of dentists who soon discover they must please Delta Dental first and their patients second, Delta has become the largest discount dentistry broker in the nation – contracting 75%, or 127,000 dentists – each one afraid to risk publicly complaining about Delta’s tyranny.
When dentists and patients learn that the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 was repealed last week, many might wonder if newfound respect for the FTC will make notoriously rude Delta employees any more accountable to dental patients who pay their salaries. Today, I discovered a baseline number from which to measure Delta’s improvements, and it appears Delta has lots of room. According to GetHuman Reviews (reviews.gethuman.com) – a website on which customers express how much they hate huge, insensitive business dinosaurs – Delta Dental scores an “excuse-me” satisfaction score of 1.9 out of 5.
http://reviews.gethuman.com/ratings/Delta-Dental/
As comparison, according to a January Yahoo! Finance article by Douglas A. McIntyre, Facebook is reported to be the most hated company in America, and it scores a 1.6. (See: “The 10 Most Hated Companies in America”).
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-10-most-hated-companies-in-america.html?page=all
Delta Dental’s GetHuman rating of 1.9 out of 5 is only marginally better than Facebook’s 1.6, but far worse than the 2nd and 3rd most hated companies in America according to McIntyre: American Airlines at 3.9 and AT&T at 3.6. That’s right. Customers prefer prying responses from anonymous AT&T employees than Delta Dental’s!
“Customers report that Delta Dental is not good at supporting customers who have an issue. They sometimes find Delta Dental representatives hard to understand when working with them. Delta Dental customers also report that wait times can be long when trying to get support.” – GetHuman.
Delta Dental, even though your numerous press releases prove that you donate millions of dollars to charitable causes, Americans can no longer afford to protect you from fair, transparent competition. You cost too much.
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS
LikeLike