On the Protecting Access to Healthcare (PATH) Act

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

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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Even if the M-F is repealed, here is an example of truth in dental care that I bet ADA leaders still won’t be able to share with Americans: Unfair downward pressure on contracted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.

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On Delta Dental and the National Association of Dental Plans

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

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ADA News Tries Sarcasm

[By D. Kellus Pruitt DDS]

For fear of retaliation, ADA officials are reluctant to admit that Delta Dental and other members of the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP) have traditionally used the FTC as a tool to intimidate our professional organization. This means that for decades, the federal government has prevented the ADA from adequately representing the interests of dentist members. Something interesting happened in the ADA just days ago that is related to this tyranny. I assume frustration in the ADA’s unfair struggle against both Delta Dental and the FTC caused the editor of the ADA News to recently permit sarcasm for the first time in history – perhaps to attract attention to Delta’s policies?

A Humorous Article 

On August 9, ADA reporter Kelly Soderlund was given the green light to post an uncharacteristic, tongue-in-cheek introduction to her article, “Decision supports Massachusetts Dental Society insurance challenge.” http://www.ada.org/news/4558.aspx She sold it: “For nearly 40 years, Massachusetts dentists have had to abide by a regulatory order that allowed Delta Dental Plan of Massachusetts to receive an additional 5 percent discount off reimbursement fees in addition to other plan discounts.” Soderlund continues, “More than a decade ago, the Massachusetts Dental Society tried to get the order lifted but was unsuccessful. But now, after a reinstated five-year battle, the New England dentists can claim victory.”

OK. I lied.

In spite of her unintentionally humorous description of the Massachusetts Dental Society’s ineffectiveness, Soderlund was actually not sarcastic. That’s right. The ADA indeed hails this (very qualified) success as a long-fought glorious victory for dentists in Massachusetts where 95% of them are Delta preferred providers. That can’t be good for the health of Massachusetts dental patients. Managed care dentistry is dentistry by the lowest bidders with no quality control, and patients notice. Some stop going to the dentist, causing Delta Dental to reap even more profit. That is why it is not in Delta’s interest to satisfy their clients, and the employers who purchase Delta’s plans are clueless. This makes Delta Dental unaccountable to anyone.

The Delta Business Model 

Delta’s business model helps make the company one of the most unfair discount dentistry brokers in the nation, in my opinion. If you want proof, go to doctoroogle.com and visit any major city.

http://www.doctoroogle.com/dentist_ratings.cfm/pageID/2 Then compare dental patients’ ratings of Delta’s preferred providers to fee-for-service dentists’. In the numerous studies I’ve performed, Delta’s dentists’ average satisfaction level as determined by their patients is consistently inferior to fee-for-service dentists. (See Managed Care Report Card from November 10, 2008).

http://community.pennwelldentalgroup.com/forum/topics/transparency-and-managed-care?commentId=2013420%3AComment%3A19577

Delta Accountability? 

As you can see, since the FTC inhibits the ADA from honestly telling our story, dental care principals desperately need the ADA to open our Facebook so Delta can be held accountable to dentists and patients. Otherwise, Delta will never assume responsibility for the dental homes its preferred provider lists break apart – more often than not, sending their clients to less satisfying offices. What’s more, even Delta officials admit that “changing dentists causes fillings.” (See “Managed Care or Dental Homes – You can’t have both,” September 30, 2008)

http://community.pennwelldentalgroup.com/forum/topics/2013420:Topic:14014

FTC Fear 

If dentists and patients are not permitted to tell our story ourselves through the nationally recognized American Dental Association, we will always be 40 years behind Delta Dental and 5% short of what they owe us. Even though ADA leaders will forever be handicapped by fear of the FTC, individual Americans have nothing to fear. The failure of the Massachusetts Dental Association shows us that an ineffective ADA is worse than no ADA at all because a victory after 40 years is defeat.

MDA Victory 

One can read from Soderlund’s words that the Massachusetts Dental Association’s “victory” didn’t even slow Delta down. She writes “Delta Dental of Massachusetts has informed the ADA that the new reimbursement methodology will include the development of regional fee schedules. Information on exactly how those regional fee schedules will be developed and how that will affect dentists’ reimbursement has not yet been made available.” Whatever methodology Delta’s actuaries come up with, you can be sure it will be biased against their clients’ interests and will more than make up for the 5% of principals’ money that they conceded after 40 years. We simply must face the fact that the ADA isn’t helping. Soderlund continues: “The company also announced a new voluntary program to compensate dentists for successfully managing the care of higher risk patients. Delta Dental has not yet explained how that compensation would take effect.”

Assessment

Do you trust a Delta Dental consultant – who works on commission – to decide what is best for your patient? Or are you ready to demand that the ADA open our Facebook so we can all tell Delta Dental what we think of their unfair practices on an individual basis guaranteed by the First Amendment? Our patients depend on us to protect them from harm caused by greedy stakeholders. As Soderlund describes it, we’re losing, but not without humor.

Conclusion

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A New Survey on Dental Insurance

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

Come on out Kim E. Volk – CEO of Delta Dental

By Darrell K. Pruitt; DDS

Today, Julie Frey posted “Dentist & Dental Insurance: No Love Lost” on Jim Du Molin’s Blog.

http://www.thewealthydentist.com/blog/1186/dentist-dental-insurance/

Frey hosts dentists’ frank criticism of dental insurance – their harsh sentiments backed up with fresh results from yet another of the blog’s timely studies that nobody else can compete with. Frey writes “Half of dentists have mostly or completely stopped accepting dental insurances, according to this survey.”  One dentist captured the mood of the dentists with the statement, “Do the math … somebody is making hell of a lot of money on these plans, and it is not the dentist!” I smelled blood and posted the following comment.

Bloody Sunday

Anonymous members of the obscure National Association of Dental Plans (NADP) are losing the fat, collective thumb they once oppressed us with – even using our own ADA News to present their non-negotiable terms. Apart from common sense appearing in the marketplace about the same time as transparency, multiple other interconnected factors are causing dental insurance companies to lose business. The bad economy, corporate greed and pride are a few of their more serious handicaps that come to mind. Wasteful, deceptive insurance practices have aggravated my patients and me for decades before modern networked recourse became available on the Internet through progressive Websites like Jim Du Molin’s Blog. I’ll go out on a limb and say it is not unprofessional for us to enjoy protecting those we serve by showing no mercy to unfair stakeholders like the NADP.

There. I said it. In fact, as US citizens and taxpayers I think blowing the whistle on unneeded expense and danger in the nation’s healthcare delivery is the least we can do for meaningful healthcare reform. I say do your part. Make an insurance CEO like Delta Dental Plans Association’s Kim E. Volk feel discomfort on the Internet. Do you know that Kim E. Volk is the only person who has ever refused to accept me as a friend on Facebook?

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Assessment 

We really don’t want to allow Delta Dental, UnitedHealthcare, United Concordia and others to dictate fees for non-covered dental services, do we? I also don’t think they deserve continued protection from FTC anti-trust litigation. I say we punish the NADP hard every chance we get until the repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson Act and finally make such in-your-face collusion illegal for crying out loud.

Conclusion

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Direct Reimbursement [DR] and RiskManagers.Us

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

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Transparent Dental Benefits versus Confusion

[By Darrell K. Pruitt; DDS]

pruitt

“If you are not a part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.” 

Company slogan- www.riskmanagers.us

Meet Mr. William Rusteberg

Today, I met William Rusteberg on the PennWell forum when he replied to the thread, “Why the long NPI, BCBS-TX?” which I copied below, along with my response which includes a plug for Direct Reimbursement [DR].

http://community.pennwelldentalgroup.com/forum/topics/why-the-long-npi-bcbstx?page=1&commentId=2013420%3AComment%3A26976&x=1#2013420Comment26976

Mr. Rusteberg represents a company called RiskManagers.Us, whose specialty involves the benefits market, yet it is not exactly an insurance company – just like there is no such thing as true dental insurance.  RiskManagers.us is a firm that works directly with businesses to identify and develop cost-effective benefits packages – emphasizing transparency and fairness.  Now that is refreshing, friends! 

Defining RiskManagers.Us 

Here is how RiskManagers.us describes itself: 

“We do not work for an insurance company, we work for you. As an independent brokerage, and consulting firm we can represent any licensed insurance company in Texas, Colorado, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Illinois & Florida.”

If one visits the Web site’s “Reference Library,” here are some of the topics offered:

·         Self Funding – Need a second opinion?

·         Texas leads in transparency issues

·         Can’t get claim information? HB 2015 May Solve Your Problem

·         Medical Stop Loss Through a Captive

·         PPO Discounts – Games People Play

·         PPO Networks – Shell Game

·         Can Hospitals waive Deductibles in Texas?

“What is a NPI number?” 

Mr. Rusteberg’s initial question on the PennWell forum simply asked, “What is a NPI number?”  Following my explanation, he wrote: 

 “It seems that many of those in your profession would do well in accepting cash only, or directly working with employer groups who sponsor dental/medical plans on a direct pay basis. We have had good success in doing this for our clients – we have one employer in San Antonio who pays medical care providers directly and quickly – providers like it and the plan pays a fair and reasonable rate, not relying on a PPO network to “re-price” claims. We have done the same on dental plans, eliminating the insurance company, PPO network and paying dental care providers submitted charges directly and quickly. We see little or no trend increases on dental charges using this method. In my view, insurance companies interfere in patient – provider relationships in a financially detrimental way.”

Thanks for your reply.

My Response:

I like you, William; 

What you describe sounds like my all-time, personal favorite dental benefits plan. It is called Direct Reimbursement {DR}, and it not only gives the employer the unlimited capability to design a plan which reflects the level of commitment desired by the company, but most importantly, it naturally preserves quality of care by allowing employees unlimited freedom of choice in dentists.  And that’s as good as the market gets. 

http://www.directreimbursement.com/

In addition, since there are no NPI requirements for DR, employees are also permitted see dentists who decline NPI numbers for ethical reasons. That increases employees’ choice by 50% over BCBS-TX clients, according to recent information provided by the Healthcare IT Transition Group.

http://www.npidentify.com/stats.htm#states

Little Management Needed

Just like the benefits plans you mention, with DR, very little money is spent on management because such policies are so simple and transparent that there is no room for profit-enhancing (wasteful) confusion used by unethical companies like BCBSTX, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealth, Delta Dental, United Concordia, and so many other members of the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP).

Assessment

Without transparency and the invisible hand of freedom-of-choice, free-market competition for healthcare dollars disappears as fast as executive bonuses rise. We’ll see where it goes from here. It would sure be swell if a Direct Reimbursement representative takes interest in the conversation; anyone home? 

Conclusion

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Usual and Customary UnitedHealthcare?

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

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More on “Sleazy” Healthcare Stakeholders

1-darrellpruitt

[By Darrell K. Pruitt; DDS]

If the leaders of the American Dental Association have the power and stoic determination to casually sweep aside trouble-making members who might tarnish their image, one would think that they could certainly avoid associating with sleazy healthcare stakeholders; such as UnitedHealthcare.

The Insurance Giants 

Have you ever suspected that insurance giants like UnitedHealthcare, WellPoint, Aetna and Cigna (and other members of the National Association of Dental Plans) lie to patients when the say a dentist’s fees are above “usual, customary and reasonable” levels?  You could be correct.  NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says UnitedHealthcare, WellPoint, Aetna and Cigna lie to physicians’ patients – understating New York state physician’s fees up to 28 percent.  Why would the crooks treat dentists’ patients any differently?

Employing Tapeworms to Control Fat

Cuomo caught UHC and others cheating their customers with smoke, mirrors and Ingenix – its wholly-owned data mining and consulting subsidiary.  Who would have guessed that UHC would tweak Ingenix to manipulate claims data to favor UHC and other insurance companies who subscribe to their services?  These are the same parasites who want to run the nation’s Pay-For-Performance (P4P) mandate – a cornerstone of President Bush’s healthcare reform ideas.  They want to tweak professional reputations for healthcare reform and the common good. 

And of Ingenix 

Ingenix is a full-service consulting business for insurers, backed with the credibility of 14 years of accumulated health claims it is privy to.  The “friend in the business” not only cooks the data to produce profit-enhancing Usual, Customary and Reasonable (UCR) fee schedules, Ingenix is also active in “pay-for-performance program assessment, strategy, planning, design, implementation, evaluation and improvement.” 

http://www.ingenixconsulting.com/about_history.html

So if you like the way UnitedHealthcare dental consultants treat you now, just wait until they are given authority to determine your worth to society using Ingenix leveraging tools.

P-4-P 

I first read about pay-for-performance [P4P] in dentistry in February 2006 in an email from Patrick Cannady who is an employee in the ADA Department of Dental Informatics.  He told me that nation-wide quality control in dentistry is an important benefit of having a HIPAA-compliant, paperless dental practice – and that the Department of Dental Informatics is very excited about the opportunity to help prepare US dentists for the future.  A month or so later, I learned that the NPI number the ADA still pushes on membership is the crucial legal link to government-approved P4P data-mills like Ingenix – a wholly-owned UnitedHealthcare profit center.  Do you think it is odd that the NPI is “voluntary,” yet irreversible?

AMA’s Award 

In January, the AMA was awarded $350 million in a lawsuit against UnitedHealthcare and Ingenix on behalf of physicians, and they plan to sue other major insurance companies as well.  So what has the ADA done to discourage UnitedHealthcare’s and other NADP members’ atrocious behavior that undeniably harms dental patients?  You won’t believe it when I tell you. Here’s more:  In a recent Associated Press interview, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said UnitedHealthcare is nothing but a company of cheats.  He says, “They’re lowballing deliberately. They deliberately cut the numbers so the consumer has to pay more of the cost.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gL4XFckx9sah3eFEMuHYD3V2WGhQD97763800

So if Cannady’s department is all for P4P and other benefits from interoperable digital records, the question on most ADA members’ minds should be:  What does the ADA think of UnitedHealthcare?

ADA News Online

Two weeks ago the ADA News Online posted an advertisement that looks like an article (with no byline) for the spring meeting of the American Association of Dental Consultants (AADC) on May 7-9 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=3493

Since it is so well known that UnitedHealthcare is the major funding sponsor of the AADC, the word in the neighborhood says AADC, like Ingenix, is another UnitedHealthcare profit center awaiting the wrecking-ball.

Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gL4XFckx9sah3eFEMuHYD3V2WGhQD97763800

Assessment

Last year’s annual meeting of the dental consultants – who deny dental claims to protect the ethics in dentistry – featured ADA Senior Vice-President Dr. John Luther as a guest speaker.  Dr. Luther is Cannady’s boss.  He oversees the Department of Dental Informatics.  Yep.  The ADA is tight with UnitedHealthcare. One can tell a person’s character by the company he or she keeps. 

Conclusion

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