Dental Insurance

ACE's Dental Care Plan Gains Traction in Asia Pacific

2011-12-19T04:27:00.000-08:00

SINGAPORE, Dec 19, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ACE Asia Pacific, part of the ACE Group of Companies, global leaders in insurance and reinsurance announced today the successful roll-out of the ACE Dental Care Plan in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, providing more than 700,000 active policy holders with valuable dental insurance. Korea was the first to kick-off the roll-out in 2009 and remains in the forefront of the take-up of this policy.

The ACE Dental Care Plan is part of ACE Asia Pacific's core business line of Accident & Health. This business is committed to deliver innovative insurance products that help to protect the Insured against serious impact from sudden injury or catastrophic illness. These programs range from traditional accident and medical programs for employers and their employees to specialty accident and health products and programs like the Dental Care Plan.

The Plan is unique in that it provides a wellness-based living benefit using a local network of dentists. This approach limits the traditional cost barriers for dental treatment for customers so that they can benefit from a range of preventative treatments, standard procedures and access to qualified dental providers. Customers availing themselves to the ACE Dental Care plan can save up to 20% for non-core treatments.

According to Juan Luis Ortega, Regional Head of Accident & Health ACE Asia Pacific, "Our ongoing objective in Accident & Health is to provide our partners and customers alike with new and innovative products; offering good value protection at an affordable price. The ACE Dental Care differentiates ACE as an Accident & Health insurance provider as it enhances our product offering suite and product touch points with existing policyholders."

Dental Care now makes up a significant portion ACE's Direct Marketing new business activity in the Asia Pacific. This innovative plan is offered to the customers of various business partners ranging from well-known international and local financial institutions to home-shopping channels.

Moving forward the ACE Dental Care Plan, which forms an integral part of the policyholder cross-sell strategy, will be offered to an extensive pipeline of partners in 2012. To sustain its competitive lead further in the region, ACE will grow its business partners and product offering on its Direct Marketing channels in addition to efforts at product enhancement.

About ACE Asia Pacific

ACE Asia Pacific is part of the ACE Group of Companies(R), one of the world's largest providers of commercial property & casualty insurance and reinsurance serving a diverse group of clients. Headed by ACE Limited /quotes/zigman/519506/quotes/nls/ace ACE -0.27% , a component of the S&P 500 stock index, the ACE Group conducts its business on a worldwide basis with operating subsidiaries in more than 50 countries and a strong presence in Asia Pacific.

ACE's franchise in the Asia Pacific comprises an extensive network of operations serving Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

ACE Asia Pacific has a diversified product suite which has two core business pillars: Property & Casualty and Accident & Health. Supplementing these primary lines of business is a growing array of Personal & Business Insurance Solutions.

Across Asia Pacific, ACE is well-respected for its creativity in Direct Marketing which broadens the reach of consumer-oriented products to meet diverse needs. This creativity in direct marketing is tempered by strong underwriting discipline across all lines of business.

For more information, visit www.acegroup.com

Dental Insurance Questions & Answers

2011-11-30T01:32:00.000-08:00

More Dental Insurance quesions please visit : InsuranceQuotesFAQ.com

Best dental insurance?
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Best medicare insurance for dental ?
I just became disabled and qualify for Medicare I hold been comparing plans ie Humana BlueCross and Aetna My question is... What possessor has the best coverage for dental. There are some than now bestow dental and curious if anyone has a great Medicare approved Insurance Agent in Utah Many Thanks Ali None, phone a...

Best robustness and dental insurance for students contained by California?
I've never purchased insurance before. I'm a 20 year old feminine. Currently my wisdom teeth are impacted and that has cause a few other dental issues. The wisdom teeth extraction procedure costs much more than I can afford and other dental work on top of that wishes to be done. My...

Billing For Dental Insurance?(Narrative Perio)?
I am Just recieved a denial back from the insurance company I am trying to help out the dr that I work for the E.O.B states that the is not an iota substancial boneloss on the x-rays and want a narrative for how we determined this pt has periodontal disease can any one please help...

Both my wife and I enjoy insurance from work. can we both report claims for dental work?
yes u can but make sure to be around the limit for that ask the human resources character what plan u got and she can actually explain it to you better. yes, but they will not wage more than the total owed. ...

Braces ...is have insurance or dental insurance cheaper than going to a private orthodontist ?
I want to have braces done i just wanr to know where on earth would it cost me less to have braces have dental insurance or just going to an orthodontis if u have experience surrounded by this field i would be really happy...

Broken Wisdom Tooth and No Dental Insurance within Delaware?
I was just sitting on the couch playing online after I put my kids to bed when adjectives of the sudden I noticed that something inside my mouth was poking the inside of my cheek. I feel with my tongue and discovered that the sharp thing be where one of my wisdom...

Can a 23 year elderly grasp clothed Ortho coverage contained by their dental insurance?
I know it is difficult to find ortho coverage when older than 19... I currently have a Blue Cross HMO plan that will cover me- but not much. And I am have a terrible time trying to find someone to accept this. Is nearby something...

Can a 23 year hoary catch clothed Ortho coverage within their dental insurance?
I know it is difficult to find ortho coverage when older than 19... I currently have a Blue Cross HMO plan that will cover me- but not much. And I am have a terrible time trying to find someone to accept this. Is in attendance something...

Can a dental bureau submit claims to insurance LATER?

I went to my dentist yeaterday. I supposed to have dental insurance trough my wife's work (actually we rewarded for it), and HR ar her work told her that the insurance will kick in Nov 01/2007. Yes, but when I go to the office they checked with the insurance company and said...

Can a dental department not submit claims to insurance by choice?
I saw a dentist in 2004. I had dental insurance and provided this information to the dental bureau. I never heard anything after that but changed dentists due to location. I get a copy of my credit report second month and see there is a collection for this dentists...

Can an hand hold robustness or dental Insurance through his/her spouce's employer and also through his own?
YES, IN THIS CASE DENTISTRY SHOULD COST YOU NOTHING OUT OF POCKET Yep its called primary and subsidiary insurance. But just use the one with the better coverage while you can. Yes, the insurance you have for yourself, through work, would be your...

Can an individual enjoy more than one dental insurance policy to assist pay envelope for dental work?
Yes, you will have to pay the deductable on respectively plan, then they two pans split the cost. Or at most minuscule what the plan says they pay for unshakable procedures. No. When one finds out about the other then they will of...

Can any one recommend cheap dental insurance?
If it matters, I'm in NJ and a moment ago looking for basic services... Thanks Most dental insurance is costly. If it is cheap you will get paid remarkably poor benefits and coverage. Source(s): A dentist The best place to compare dental plan rates is at Dental Plans Reviewed. They compare...

Can anybody suggest individual inexpensive dental insurance?
I have no dental insurance through my work and I went to the dentist today and call for some major work done but can't afford it. You own four options with dental. 1. Visit a local dental institution. You can get many procedures done for a reduced price if you're...

Can anyone describe me if near is any dental insurance and prescription med abet for ppl below 55?
I know a couple who have young children and both work. They net too much money to get any help from the command but not enough to carry dental insurance for it is road out of their budget. Does anyone know of any...

Can anyone recommend a well-mannered dental insurance plan for implant?
I need about 20k of work surrounded by implants and cannot afford it. I need to find a flawless dental insurance plan that would provide some coverage to help me pay for this. Hi my nickname is Jeffery M Salerno DDS Unfortunately, there are very few insurance plans which give...

Can anyone within the US recommend a upright dental insurance?
I need one that will allow pre-existing conditions. Thanks. I would encourage you to call in this great website: www.healthsavings.ourperfectcard.com I signed up online over 5 years ago when I was in college and they enjoy saved me thousands of dollars on all of my dental services since. From exams,...

Can dental insurance (DPO and DMO) be used together to run down the copay? How does it work? ?
Yes, a dual insurance can help reduce co-pays. It depends on which one is your primary though. DMO is kinda similar to a really good discount plan, a DMO doesn't really pay your dentist for treatment but will...

Can i acquire braces if my insurance doesn't cover dental?
My parents have a Chrysler insurance, and we got a sense in the mail that they will no longer cover dental and delirium starting July 1st 2009. I was planning on getting braces. If i get braces previously July 2009 since it's not the dentist that work with braces will...

Can I attain dental insurance to cover slice of a nightguard?
I grind my teeth pretty bad at night, and since I'm going to be getting two crowns put on teeth I have root canals on, my dentist strongly reccomends I get a nightguard so I don't do further disfavour to my teeth or to the crowns once they're put in....

Can I be added to my bf's health/dental insurance from work?
Hi. I was wondering if I am actually competent to be added to my boyfriends benefits he gets from work. We live in Las Vegas, Nevada and he works at the Clark County Detention Center so its the County. My payrol hand at my work told me...

Can i be denied a dental procedure that have be repeated more than twice near insurance?
i have had 2 composite filling placed over the same chipped tooth with a week of eachother. when the tooth chipped, i be having breakfast. when the first composite filling broke, i be eating dinner. when the second composite filling broke, i be stressing about...

Can I bring back dental insurance for myself if I am a dependent?
I'm 19 and I live at home with my parents. I am still a dependent. We don't have dental insurance and I required to know if I can buy dental insurance for myself. I am unemployed, will that make a difference? Yes you can, you'll just have...

Can i catch a crown replaced? will it be covered by dental insurance?
i had a really bad tooth abscess develop on a tooth that i have a crown put on 2.5 years ago. Apparently, the filling was done and after a crown was applied but the bacteria kept multiplying. The crown be also a little loose i think...

Can I catch dental insurance lacking getting trance and other stuff?
I was wondering if its possible - id close to some dental insurance but i dont need vision or any other extras. Hey... haha. Karen - this is funny... I asked this request for information a few days ago. I tried a bunch of different sites that were recommended. ...

Can i catch individual dental insurance through the state somehow for my suitability teeth?
I have impacted wisdom teeth and requirement them out by this summer at the latest. I don't have any dental insurance and my strength insurance expired a few months ago... I'm 16 years old and I need to come up next to 2000 dollars somehow. Is there...

Can I catch my own dental insurance?
I need dental work done, and I want to buy dental insurance as it is not offered through my company. Can I do that? How much will it cost? What do they look at in writ to decide the cost? Where do I look for dental insurance? Sure you can, but they...

Can I enjoy more than one dental insurance provider?
I want to get braces, but I am looking at about $5000 to gain them. The dental insurance provider pays only up to $1000 total for orthodontic work. Is it legal for me to acquire 5 dental insurance providers so that I can have braces paid for? I numeral...

Can I Get Dental Insurance?
I have suffered from gum disease for most of my adult duration. I have a bridge for my front 2 teeth. Now I have an abscess contained by my lower jaw and lower front 4 teeth feel loose. There is plentifully of receding gum showing. I have (NHS) appointment next week. I am anticipating dentist will..

Adviser Surgery: Dental plans

2011-03-09T02:31:00.000-08:00

Q. HOW DOES A CORPORATE DENTAL PLAN WORK?

A. Denplan operates under a community-rated pricing structure so is able to offer a more stable premium and avoid fluctuations in cost. Denplan offer dental payment plans through a variety of funding methods from fully and part-funded plans through to flex or voluntary products. Plans can also be tailored to meet individual companies’ needs, so there’s a plan for everyone.

Q. WHY CAN IT BE MORE COST EFFECTIVE THAN INDIVIDUAL COVER?

A. Costs for a dental plan start from as little as £4 per employee per month and many providers offer a wide range of value-added services for both companies and employees – not to mention broker-specific benefits.

Q. ARE ALL DENTAL BENEFITS THE SAME?

A. No, dental benefits from specialist providers offer meaningful levels of reimbursement for dental care, whereas dental insurance schemes and cash plans will usually offer just a contribution (say £50 per policy year), which is just a small amount towards average dental costs in the UK.

Q. DO EMPLOYEES VALUE DENTAL BENEFITS?

A. Corporate dental benefits provide a financial incentive to employees, ensuring they receive the very best in preventive dental care. With some payment plan specialists offering money back for NHS charges as well as private care, dental is a benefit that can be widely used and is therefore more attractive to employees.

Q. WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR NHS DENTISTRY?

A. With funding getting tighter across the board and £20bn of efficiency savings for the NHS to take into account, it seems unlikely that the NHS can support further investment in dentistry. Professional regulations also mean that dental costs have risen over the last few years – making budgeting for dental care more difficult for individuals. This makes access to a dental benefit though an employer all the more appealing.

Q. I’M NEW TO INTERMEDIATING DENTAL BENEFITS. WHAT SUPPORT IS AVAILABLE FOR ME?

A. It’s important that brokers have a good knowledge of the dental industry. Expert dental companies, unlike general insurance providers, can provide experience based on the latest developments in the dental industry and specifically tailored to promote preventive dental care. Some providers can also offer value-added services such as broker-specific newsletters, annual research and a range of sales-aids to give you all the latest dental news and product information.

It will be easy to claim dental insurance

2011-03-09T02:30:00.000-08:00

In order to make it easier for people to claim dental insurance, the Indian Dental Association has decided to ask all dental practitioners to standardise dental procedures to arrive at the average cost of treatment.

At present, lack of standardised procedures means that people who undergo expensive dental treatment find it difficult to get their claims settled.

There is no standard cost for dental procedures and insurance companies turn the claims down.

“If all doctors follow the same procedure, it will be very easy to get an average cost acceptable to insurance companies… We are going to standardise the costs to get rid of the problem,” said Dr Ashok Dhoble, secretary of IDA.

The IDA plans to look into every aspect of insurance, given that charges may vary across cities.

Tricks to tame dental bills, insured or not

2011-02-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

Nearly half of Americans lack dental insurance, and every visit carries the threat of a bill for thousands of dollars.

Even those with insurance can face steep costs for major work.

Patients often have to pay about 50 percent of the bill after meeting their plan's deductible.

On top of that, many plans also have limits of about $1,500 for how much they will pay in a year, and some insurers won't cover pricey procedures like a dental implant.

Here are a few tricks for saving money and trying to manage dental work costs:

Can I negotiate a bill with my dentist?

If you have insurance coverage, the dentist has already shaved 10 percent to 15 percent off his price in order to get into the insurer's network, so don't expect another discount on top of that.

If you don't have insurance, you might have some wiggle room on the price, as long as you negotiate before you have the care done.

That's when you still have the power to take your business elsewhere.

Are there discount cards or other coverage options available for the uninsured?

Some practices are so big they offer their own dental plans that give patients discounts in exchange for monthly premiums. Dentists also can connect patients with a third-party to set up a payment plan, which will tack on interest and other fees.

Some insurers and companies that form dental networks offer discount cards. Patients should learn how the discounts apply and make sure their dentist participates.

What about care from dental students?

Dental schools charge less for care ranging from a routine cleaning to root canals or even oral surgery.

The Indiana University School of Dentistry, for instance, charges half what a private dentist might charge for preventive care like a cleaning. Students also do filings, crowns, bridges and dentures under instructor supervision.

The tradeoff for these discounts is time. Students generally work slower than dentists, and supervisors must check their work.

What are some other money-saving options?

Overseas dental clinics, some of which cater to foreign customers, can offer care at a fraction of U.S. costs.

But follow-up care can be tricky, the patient needs time off work to travel and liability issues can be cloudy if something goes wrong.

Some dentists also are open to bartering too, where a patient can trade a skill like Web design for care.

Bill proposes new dental care provider

2011-02-16T20:52:00.001-08:00

A bill up for discussion in both the Kansas Senate and House could create a new mid-level dental care provider to combat a statewide shortage of dentists.

House Bill 2280 and Senate Bill 192 would put in place a foundation for registered dental practitioners to perform some basic dental services. The new care provider would function similarly to the role physician assistants provide in the medical field.

Shannon Costoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children, which is advocating for the legislation, said 91 Kansas counties have some form of a dental shortage with 14 counties having no dentists at all.

"Right now, it's an issue that primarily affects the uninsured," she said. "But in a few years, it will affect all of us, even those of us who have private dental insurance."

The move to enact a mid-level of dental care is being sponsored by the Kansas Dental Project, which consists of the Kansas Action for Children, the Primary Care Association of Kansas and the Kansas Health Consumer Coalition.

The proposed dental practitioners would provide services such as fillings, drilling, basic restorative care and extractions of baby teeth and already loose permanent teeth, leaving the most complex services to dentists and oral surgeons.

Kansas is among seven states considering a new classification of dental provider to fight the national shortage of dentists. Alaska already has a similar program, calling the providers dental health aide therapists.

As proposed, the practitioners would have to first complete an associate-level dental hygiene program at one of the state's five colleges offering that coursework. Kansas' model would require the practitioners to take on an additional 12 to 18 months of education from the dental hygiene institution before receiving a practitioner's license from the Kansas Dental Board.

To ensure that dental care is delivered to the areas with the greatest shortage, the dental practitioners would be required to practice in a designated shortage area, a safety net clinic or a correctional facility. They would be required to work 500 hours under the direct supervision of a dentist before working under general supervision.

Uninsured to Receive Free Dental Assistance

2011-02-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Free Dental Assistance Report — Free Dental Sealant Day – San Angelo Dentist Offers Sweet Spot For Community. Pan De Vida provides pancakes, services for Sun Valley Estates. Dental assistance and oral health education are part of Give Kids a Smile event. Etobicoke dentist donating assistance for second year. Openings Remain For Dental assistance.

Free Dental Sealant Day – San Angelo Dentist Offers Sweet Spot For Community

San Angelo pediatric dentist Kelly Sawyer, DDS, offers free dental assistance to children of the local community on February 18th. Pediatric Dentistry of San Angelo is hosting the third annual free sealant day this Friday, February 18th, at 3013 W. Loop 306 in San Angelo. Services are being offered to children ages 6-18 years. This special community service is offered to families who do not have insurance coverage in an effort to help local children maintain good oral health and prevent decay.

This free dental sealant day is sponsored by the Concho Valley Dental Hygiene Association. Dr. Sawyer hosts and supervises the entire day – with dental professionals from various local offices coming in to provide community kids with the sealant care they need.

Is dental insurance going the way of the company pension plan?

2010-11-04T06:02:00.000-07:00

Are we about to become a toothless nation?

Once upon a pre-recessionary time, dental insurance -- along with matching 401k's and other now long-forgotten benefits -- was a pot-sweetener among American corporations trying to lure the best and the brightest to come work for them. Now, it seems that dental insurance may fall the way of the company pension -- just one more thing employers used to provide but are increasingly sacrificing because of cost-cutting and bottom-line greed.

The pity is that history shows that dental insurance is the only thing standing between healthy teeth and a nation of folks dining through a straw.

According to a recent Gallup-Healthways poll, almost 35% of Americans haven't seen a dentist in the past 12 months. And that may be because 45% of the population doesn't have any type of dental coverage, says the National Association of Dental Plans. More than 33% of employers aren't providing dental coverage and those that do offer limited benefits. In some places, like South Dakota, only 19% of all employers offer dental insurance.

The state with highest percent of companies offering both health and dental insurance was Alaska -- 80.8%. The lowest was Vermont at 43%.

Once you leave the corporately employed arena, the picture worsens quickly. Many corporate retiree plans provide medical benefits until a retiree turns 65 and is eligible for Medicare. But not many have dental insurance as part of the package. The same is true for vision care. These services aren't covered at a time when many need them most -- as we age, our teeth and vision weaken.

For the millions who were laid off from jobs, COBRA provides a dental and vision care continuation (assuming you already had those benefits while working). It lasts, with extensions, for up to 18 months in most states. Then, assuming you haven't found another job to provide dental insurance, you are out on the limb alone hoping the tooth fairy stops by. Insurers do write dental policies for individuals and family but, as a rule, they cost a lot and limit what they cover.

An example: Delta Dental in California writes an individual family policy that maxs out what they'll pay for at either $1,000 or $1,500 per year depending on the plan. These policies cost about $2,000 a year and won't cover any major procedures for the first 12 months. So basically you can get your teeth cleaned and treat the errant cavity (at 50%) but don't even think about a root canal, bridgework or braces for the kids.

There are also dental plans -- not insurance -- which negotiate what they consider "deep discounts" starting at 10% with dentists who agree to cut you a break. The deal is you have to go to those dentists. Some of these plans are capped at $2,200 per family as well.

Dan Callahan, the former public relations director for Delta Dental Plan of Minnesota and editor of Health Care Issues, says that dental insurance has always been regarded as "nice to have, but not essential." It's an attitude that leads many to simply not go for routine checkups and cleanings and only head for the dentist in emergency situations.

Dental insurance, he says, is more of a prepayment system. You have a combination of deductibles and co-pays and premiums that really require you to follow through on all your preventative care and maintenance visits to even get your money's worth.

The best advice may be the simplest. Talk to your dentist and explain the situation. Ask him for a discount and buy yourself a good toothbrush.

Vision and Dental Insurance Premiums To Continue Rising In 2011

2010-10-10T01:49:00.000-07:00

In 2011, federal employees will see an increase in the vision and dental coverage costs on top of a drastic jump in their health insurance premiums. The Office of Personnel Management has indicated that premiums for dental insurance are going to rise by 3.8 % and will reach an average of $15.33 per pay period for every individual, $43.85 for family plans, and $30.06 for self plus one arrangement.

Vision insurance is expected to go up by 3%, thereby costing an individual $4.78 for each pay period, family users $14..11, and self plus one enrollees a total of $9.55 . Dental premiums, on the other hand, increased by 4.2% whereas vision increased by 2.4% in 2010.

OPM indicated that there are no any significant changes in all the plans that are offered through the aegis of the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP). All enrollees have the freedom to choose from seven different dental insurance plans as well as three vision plans.

Although the changes to the FEDVIP appear minimal, all federal employees are going to see, for the third straight year, a rise in health insurance costs by more than 7%. On October 1, OPM announced that there would be an increase by 7.2% in premiums for all enrollees in the Federal Employees Health Benefits

On Monday, John Berry, OPM Director said that he would rather not increase dental insurance premiums, but costs of healthcare are increasing nationwide. For the first time, FEHBP will cover cessation incentives on tobacco, provide preventative screening free of charge to all enrollees, and extend medical coverage to age 26.

Patients flying abroad for dental work

2010-10-10T01:47:00.000-07:00

The price of dental care can be pretty costly. Even if you have insurance, you can be stuck paying thousands of dollars out of pocket -- which is prompting some people to actually leave the country to save money. The practice is called "dental tourism."

In the case of Shelia Liner, she'd had broken, damaged front teeth for years. Even with dental insurance she was quoted around $14,000 to fix them. She couldn't come near to affording that price: "I just thought I'll never be able to have it done," said Liner.

Her alternative was to book a trip through a dental tourism company, which found her a dentist to do the work in Costa Rica. So, on her next vacation, she also took a trip to the dentist for the surgery. Cost for the dental work: $3,600.

"I was just so excited to be able to smile again," said Shelia. "It had been a long time!"

The concept of dental tourism is growing -- with experts citing more cases of people venturing outside the country to get dental work done for much less, in locales like Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Thailand, and Korea. Recent statistics show more than 40% of U.S. residents don't have dental insurance, and many who are actually covered complain about high out-of-pocket costs.

The American Dental Association defends those costs with a pledge of safety -- and high standards of training to get a license, all rigorously maintained by the government. "Our fees here reflect a very robust system of safety," said Dr. Edmond Hewlett of the ADA. He says you get what you pay for; in other countries, dentists may not have the same level of training or safety standards.

David Boucher, the president of Companion Global Healthcare, the dental tourism company Shelia used, says it thoroughly checks out all its dentists: "All our dental clinics have been fully vetted. Somebody from our company has visited all the dentists in our network."

The company says many of its dentists were actually trained in the U.S., but by operating outside the country they can charge less due to less overhead -- equipment, rent and labor costs are cheaper.

Nevertheless, the American Dental Association urges people to carefully consider all options before going to a foreign country for care.

"In these difficult economic times when everybody's looking to save money, and 'What can I cut out?' my own personal opinion, your body shouldn't be the first place to look to start making cuts," said Dr. Hewlett.

More food for thought: Some U.S. insurance companies will indeed pay for dental work performed out of the country.

However, industry experts also raise a good point you should ask your dental tourism company. Who pays to fix it if something goes wrong with your dental work?

Dental Insurance Coverage for Orthodontics

2010-09-18T01:48:00.002-07:00

It is important to know if your dental insurance policy covers care for orthodontic services like braces.

There are many people who have dental insurance may think that they have orthodontic care coverage when that may not be true.

If you have children may soon need braces you should start the search now for a good dental insurance policy that will help to offset the costs of orthodontic care.

The first thing to do when you start your search for orthodontic insurance is to know what you currently have.

You should look at your employer sponsored or individual dental insurance policy to determine what coverage you have for orthodontic care such as braces.

If you determine that you have no or little coverage you need to research other dental insurance policies.

It isn’t too difficult to research dental insurance policies. You first need to determine if you want a dental discount plan or a dental insurance plan.

With a dental discount plan you usually have to go to specific dentists who accept the discount plan. With a dental insurance plan you will receive a percentage off of your orthodontic care and dental visits. Dental insurance plans work the same way as health insurance.

You might have to pay a co payment for some services and maybe a deductible prior to getting some dental services.

Once you have determined whether you want a dental discount plan or a dental insurance plan, you then need to determine what orthodontic care is covered.

You also need to research the coverage of the orthodontic care and you should research four areas of the dental plan which are Exclusions, Co Payments, Deductibles, and Premiums. Everybody’s situation is different so if you happen to find a dental plan that has an inexpensive premium, that doesn’t mean that it will meet all of your needs.

When you are research dental insurance plans, you should check with your employer to see what dental coverage they offer.

Large Companies More Likely to Offer Dental Insurance

2010-09-18T01:48:00.001-07:00

Larger companies and those in more populated areas of the United States are more likely to offer dental insurance to workers, finds the first comprehensive study on the issue.

The analysis of state-by-state and nationwide dental insurance coverage offered by 6.4 million employers was conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore and the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

They found that 56 percent of U.S. companies offered health insurance, 35 percent offered dental insurance, and 63 percent of those that offered health insurance also offered dental insurance.

Alaska had the highest percentage of firms offering both health and dental coverage (80.8 percent), while the lowest was Vermont, at 42.8 percent.

Businesses that offer dental insurance are more likely to employ a greater number of people, have more than one location and be older, more established companies.

Dental Insurance – For the health of Your Teeth

2010-09-18T01:47:00.000-07:00

Dental insurance is needed nowadays since dentistry could be costly. Regardless of what, adults, children and senior citizens need this since getting great dental well being is important. When somebody does not look after the teeth, the teeth and gum suffer for example getting dentistry issues with cavities or root canal. And each procedures are extra money that most people can’t afford so having dental insurance is essential.

Some major well being insurance providers will also offer dental insurance. And there are other businesses that solely supply dental insurance. If you know that you’ll be needing some main dentistry work carried out, you ought to have dental insurance protection. Otherwise, you’ll have to spend out-of-pocket its your methods, and that can get very pricey. For instance, a root canal on a front teeth can range from $300.00 to $700.00, and on a molar can price as much as $900.00. And to get a porcelain crown, you are able to spend up to $900.00. If you prefer a gold crown, be prepared to spend more, sometimes over $1,000.00. That happens to be a big amount of cash to spend previously. And even if your dentist will accept payments, it is still a hardship to make these funds on the monthly foundation, along with all of your other month-to-month expenditures.

In some instances, there’s also deductibles which is the amount you should pay as a dental member of yearly dental expenditures. In that scenario, the plan was not in effect yet so the member need to wait in order for the dental business every single child spend for the future expenses. And in addition, you have the co-payment and co-insurance. The meaning in between the two are exactly where for co-payment, it’s ether a fixed dollar amount or a proportion for every dentistry visits while for co-insurance are percentage of the fee being charged for every visits.

Importance of dental care insurance to the basic health

2010-08-14T20:31:00.002-07:00

Dental insurance is an option that many people have at work but don't always take advantage of. Getting dental insurance can mean the difference between getting good dental care and letting your teeth suffer the consequences. The problem with that is that when you don't take care of your teeth, your body begins to suffer the consequences. This has been proven in cases such as the

young man that died because he didn't have dental care. There are hundreds of similar cases where people just couldn't afford to go to the dentist.

If you don't go to the dentist on a regular basis, you will likely end up feeling ill in one of several ways. It could be in the form of a toothache, but the reality is, it can go much deeper than that. When you have a tooth that is rotting, there is a possibility of infection setting into your gums. You can also get such diseases as gingivitis, a gum disease that destroys your teeth. From there, other areas of your body can be affected.

If you lack dental care, you may want to consider that as a possible cause of stomach upset and symptoms of very serious health issues. The heart can be affected. Lack of dental care can also rush the onset of diabetes, stroke or heart disease. These are very serious health issues that could be prevented simply by having dental insurance available. Some companies don't even offer dental insurance. It makes no sense to offer health insurance and not include dental as part of the plan.

Your overall health is at risk when you don't have dental insurance. Not having dental insurance runs in direct correlation to inability to get good dental care. That, in turn, correlates with many serious health issues that might seem unrelated to teeth problems. Regular dental check ups make a big difference in the health of your teeth and gums. When you have problems chewing, you might be more inclined to have stomach problems. That is a minor result to what can happen if you don't take good care of your teeth. The results of not getting your teeth taken care of in a reasonable amount of time are things that we don't like to think about. It isn't to say that you will die if you don't go to the dentist. However, why would anyone risk it. Where there is even the slightest possibility that it could happen, you should make every effort to go to the dentist. That usually means that you should get dental insurance because it is necessary to your dental health and thus your physical health overall.

EMPLOYERS MULL DENTAL SCHEMES

2010-08-14T20:31:00.001-07:00

A third of companies are considering adding a dental benefit in 2010, suggests a new survey from Denplan. The dental plan provider’s survey of 6,000 employers also found that 65% take broker advice before purchasing benefits and 32% base their decisions on broker recommendations.

Three-quarters of respondents said they believed that plans enhance employee wellbeing while 53% of the 1,500 employees surveyed said they regarded them as a “tangible, useful benefit”.

Dental cover

2010-08-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

Access to NHS dentistry appears to be returning to its pre-2006 dental contract levels, but the so-called efficiency savings demanded by the new coalition government could see this hard work undone.

There is growing concern that Chancellor George Osborne’s emergency budget will result in NHS finances coming under increasing strain over the next four to five years. The Chancellor said he would honour an earlier pledge to ring fence increases in health service funding in real terms, but the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS employers, believes cuts to other areas, such as local authorities, may have an indirect impact on health expenditure.

NHS Confederation chief executive Nigel Edwards recently says: “Although health spending will continue to rise year on year, all NHS trusts will find they are challenged to do more for the money they have.”

If this is the case, it seems almost inevitable that NHS dentistry will suffer. Morag Peterson, dental product manager at health insurer CIGNA, points out that the money for dentistry will be in the whole healthcare budget and the primary care trust (PCT) will be free to allocate these funds as they wish to.

“So, although NHS funding as a whole has been ring fenced, because money is limited it is highly possible that dentistry will take lower priority when it comes to how and where PCTs allocate their cash. The new coalition government is committed to exercising limited central control over how NHS money is spent locally so the outcome is likely to vary by locality,” she says.

Although it is still unclear what changes the government will introduce, it has committed to undertake a review of NHS dentistry as a whole. At the beginning of June, Earl Howe, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for health with responsibility for dentistry, said the government’s proposed reforms will be announced once they have consulted with the profession and patient groups. The Steele Review of NHS dentistry, published in June 2009, made a number of recommendations to improve quality and access to NHS dental services and some of these have begun to be piloted by the Department of Health. However, there is no indication that the new government is seeking to put any further investment into this.

Bupa announces enhanced dental plan

2010-03-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

Bupa has unveiled its enhanced dental plan that will be available from April.

It will offer up to £15,000 for oral cancer, full reimbursement for NHS treatment, routine treatment overseas, anaesthetist benefit and up to £1,000 a year for hospital stays.

The policy is available in five budget levels, does not require pre-enrolment dental checks or underwriting and can be paid for by employers or offered as an employees-paid voluntary benefit.

Ivan Kennedy, head of Bupa Dental, said: "We have listened to employers, employees and intermediaries and designed our plan to include a range of benefits they say they value the most.

"Dental insurance is a highly-valued employee benefit because it is one that most employees can use at least twice a year."

Pet Dental Health Month

2010-01-29T20:57:00.003-08:00

No one really likes to go to the dentist, but a sore tooth is one of the worst kinds of pain. And it`s the same for your pets. February is pet dental health month and veterinarians say it`s best to be pro-active about your dog or cat`s smile.

Fourteen-week-old Mocha was in for a checkup today. Her owners say they would do anything for the newest member of their family.

"We would, yep, we would. She`s just part of the family, like one of our boys or one of our girls," said Mocha`s owner Mariah Dodds.

Veterinarians say regular checkups are just as important for pets as they are for humans, so doctors can find problems early on, especially with their teeth. Vets say about 80 percent of adult dogs and cats have periodontal diseases like tartar and gingivitis.

"Left untreated that can lead to bone loss, infection, and discomfort," said veterinarian Hollee Clement of the Bismarck Animal Clinic. "So we`re trying to address these things in a pro-active nature and take care of things that may be uncomfortable for them."

The Bismarck Animal Clinic now has the tools to catch periodontal problems early on. Clement charts each tooth and if she comes across an abnormality, she runs an X-Ray. She says having the animal sedated also helps them do a thorough check.

"We`re finding lots of things that we wouldn`t be able to see without the X-ray there`s a lot going on in the bone that we can`t see above the gum line," said Clement.

Mocha`s owners says she`s a little young for X-rays, but they are making sure to be pro-active with her dental care.

"We do have a tooth brush that we use and we`ll bring her in for that when she`s a little older," said Dodds.

Vets say because cats and dogs can`t tell us how they`re feeling, it`s important for us to speak for them.

Clement says regular dental checkups are also important because diseases are usually advanced before the animal starts showing signs of discomfort like not eating or drooling.

NHS dental places for 15,000 people

2010-01-29T20:57:00.001-08:00

In 2009 NHS Cumbria invested over £2.25million to create 37,500 new NHS dental places in both West Cumbria and Kendal. The majority of these places are being delivered in new purpose designed premises operated by Oasis Dental Care, with an existing dental provider in Kendal also taking on additional capacity.

Five new surgeries have since opened in Egremont, Maryport, Whitehaven, Workington and Kendal.

These all began operating by late summer 2009 and patients on NHS Cumbria’s dental database began being allocated to each surgery.

In order for each new patient to be assessed and follow-up appointments booked, allocation to the new dental places is being done in stages. Letters are being sent out to people who’ve been on the database the longest first, 1,000 at a time.

There are now around 19,000 people on the dental database and those wanting to be allocated in West Cumbria or Kendal are expected to have been offered an available place for NHS dental treatment by the end of this year.

Eric Rooney, consultant in dental public health, said: “It’s great news that we’re on track to allocate the new NHS dental places we announced last year within 18 months. It's a big undertaking to contact and offer places to over 35,000 people and I'd like to thank people currently on NHS Cumbria's dental database for their patience and understanding. Everyone will be contacted and offered a NHS dental place in due time.

“I'd like to reassure people that the hard work to deliver NHS dental care to people who need it has not finished. Another 27,500 NHS dental places will also come into operation in the next two years in other locations across Cumbria.”

Anyone who needs emergency dental treatment or advice should contact: 01228 603900 for North Cumbria; 01539 716822 for South Cumbria.

Free dental care event aims to mitigate gaps in insurance coverage

2010-01-10T03:43:00.001-08:00

A group of Minnesota dentists announced this month that it will provide free dental care in February to children whose families cannot afford dental insurance.

The Minnesota Dental Association, which represents 81 percent of all dentists in the state, will visit almost 200 locations across the North Star State on February 5 and 6, InsuranceCorner.com reports.

This event will mark the eighth consecutive year that the MDA has provided free care to the state's children.

"We know that government funded programs for families have been dramatically cut. Volunteer dentists are trying to close the gap for the low income children who are not getting the dental care they need and deserve," Dr Robert Templeton, MDA's president, told the news source.

While free dental care offerings can temporarily serve the health needs of families who don't have dental coverage, such events can't always provide the benefits attained through regular dentist visits.

Families who are searching for ways to save money on dental care may want to consider discount dental plans. These plans, an alternative to dental insurance, provide discounts of 10 to 60 percent on most procedures with participating providers.

Practitioners prepare for National Children's Dental Health Month

2010-01-10T03:42:00.001-08:00

In recognition of National Children's Dental Health Month, one California orthodontist is preparing to spend February educating patients and parents about the importance of proper oral hygiene.

Dr Atoosa Nikaeen said she will focus on the role of nutrition in dental care, asserting that a diet that is low in nutrients can result in a mouth less resistant to harmful infections as well as a greater susceptibility to tooth decay and periodontal disease.

National Children's Dental Health Month is sponsored by the American Dental Association.

The National Institutes of Health recommend that dental care begin during a child's infancy and advise that parents use a soft cloth to clean teeth and check them regularly for spots and stains.

By raising awareness about the importance of sound dental health, the ADA has underscored the shortage of dentists and insufficient dental insurance coverage in many areas of the country.

According to a recent report by W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a charitable organization that lends its services to children and families, about 48 million Americans do not have access to routine oral healthcare, and millions more can get to a dentist but cannot afford to pay for their services.

Medical Tourism: Why is dental tourism or dental travel attractive for the uninsured

2009-08-20T19:38:00.001-07:00

Dental tourism is a subset of medical tourism. Dental tourism is also known as tooth tourism and dental travel. In the United States, the main reason tourists seek dental care abroad is the cost advantage care providers abroad offers.

In Canada and in Europe, countries with social medicine, people have to be on wait-lists to be approved for extensive dental procedures such as dental implants, crowns, bridges and prosthetics.

In the United States, those who have just received approval for dental insurance may have to wait up to six months to get dental fillings done, and up to a year to get approval for bridge work and other more extensive dental work such as oral surgery, root canal, periodontal work, or dental implants. Even with the wait time requirement, the cost would still require a co-payment or co-pay where the dental insurance company will pay only a portion of the entire dental expense and the insured pays the rest. The amount of co-pay also depends on the insured's chosen deductible and monthly premium plan.

Going to other countries to receive this care from highly trained care providers for the fraction of the cost makes dental tourism an attractive option for the uninsured or for those whose insurance plans do not cover their full dental expenses. Additionally, a trip to an exotic paradise is a boost to anyone's morale.

CNN Truth Squad: Will dental insurance be offered under the proposed Health Insurance Exchange?

2009-08-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

The Statement: Mike, from Bristol, Connecticut, told CNN that "I've heard dental service will not be covered under the Health Insurance Exchange. Seems like we have to wait for a tooth to become life-threatening before it is considered health care. Why is my mouth not considered part of my health?"

The Facts: Under the administration's health-care overhaul, people can keep their own health insurance. Under a proposed Health Insurance Exchange, uninsured people can pick from private and public options for health care, and the proposed public option in one House bill offers dental care.

The proposed "basic" public plan would cover dental/oral health for "children under 21 years of age." Adults could get coverage under another "premium-plus" public plan that would cost more.

These are spelled out in H.R. 3200 — America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 — on pages 28 and 86-87.

There are doubts among health-care policy experts that dental care will see the light of day in the public plan.

Professor Debra Street, an expert in health-care policy at State University of New York-Buffalo, is among those who doubt dental coverage will end up in the final public option if such an option is in the final bill hammered out by lawmakers.

That's because of the track record with other federal health-care programs. Dental coverage hasn't been available in Medicare and it hasn't been well-funded in Medicaid, where coverage differs state by state, Street said.

The details of the plan are still undetermined as lawmakers work to shape the legislation.

The Verdict: True but incomplete. The basic public plan in the House would only cover dental care for children under 21, but an adult could pay extra for the coverage.

What about Eye and Dental Insurance?

2009-08-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

I mean real insurance---not a list of shysters on a list who will clean them free and find problems. (only 3-4 hundred dollars per year insurance).

I know several people who have spent 30-40,000 dollars in a year for implants, gum disease, caps, bridges, etc. All out of pocket.

Ever notice that rich people or high wage earners have prettier teeth than the 50% of us who make under 50,000 per year?

It is also now known that bad teeth cause about as much health problems as does lack of many other maintenance items.

Many also suffer with their eyes for cataracts, macular holes, and 20 year old glasses due to no insurance.

It is time.

Dental insurance plans could improve reform efforts

2009-08-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

The relatively low cost of dental insurance plans compared to other coverage options as well as the relationship between oral health and chronic conditions has led some advocates to call for more efforts to include dental care into health care reform legislation under discussion in Congress.

Regular visits to a dentist could give consumers the chance for screenings that would detect periodontal disease linked to cardiovascular conditions and cancer, but patients may not be aware of the strong links between periodontal symptoms and their future health, according to an editorial in the Wichita Eagle.

Some health care coverage options now focus on preventive testing, but dental insurance plans can provide affordable access to providers who have historically focused on wellness and stopping diseases before they can progress, noted the editorial.

Workers place a large value on dental insurance for this reason, but it can also benefit employers by giving them an inexpensive way to reduce costly future complications in employees, according to the Fort Worth Business-Press.

Seventy-five percent of employees found offering access to dental care "extremely important" or "very important" in a recent survey, and the news provider notes that companies who may not be able to cover some of the costs could institute a voluntary benefit program. It offers rates comparable to other group dental insurance plans, but the costs are born by workers.

Reform efforts might also aid rural populations, a demographic that has received media attention for its low percentage of doctors. Some volunteers in Appalachia are finding that dentistry options could also benefit from increased federal or state funding.

In Wise, Virginia, hundreds of people flock to the county fairgrounds to receive basic preventive care, including dental checkups that represent the first time many have seen a light in their mouth since Regional Area Medical expedition volunteers visited the year before, reported National Public Radio.

Although premiums for some dental insurance programs are one-tenth the cost of other health coverage plans, the RAM health care providers noted that just one percent of the attendees had some form of dental or vision insurance, according to the radio network.

Life Insurance And Dental Insurance - Necessity And Facts

2009-08-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

What life Insurance is?

Basically, a life insurance policy, is an agreement between the insurance company, the insured person, and the beneficiary. The insured, pays a certain pre-defined amount to the insurance company. And in the case of death of the insured, the company pays the benefit to the beneficiary.

2. Types Of Insurance

There are two basic types of Life Insurance. They are term life insurance, and permanent life insurance. Term life, as the name suggests, is a temporary agreement, for a pre-defined number of years, after which, the agreement expires. Various lengths of term life can be purchased, however, the most common ones are between 10 and 20 years. However, terms as long as 30 years, or as short as 1 year are also available.
In the case of Permanent Life, the policy covers the insured till the date of their death, or till the time the agreement ‘matures’, which in most cases, is at age 100. There are different types of Permanent Insurance, which include whole life, universal life, etc. There are many different reasons for choosing either of these, so professional advice is always recommended.

3. How much will you get?

In most cases, the amount you get, is dependent on the reason you purchase it. And this, in most cases, is to replace the income in the case of death. While most professionals would recommend 10-12 times your annual income, this can vary, and approximately should be good enough to provide for at least 20 years of safe income. However, inflation, final expenses, etc are not considered in this, so, you should always let a professional do the calculation before you decide any amount.

4. Benefits of life insurance

Although, the benefits of life insurance differ from policy to policy, most of the policies have some of the benefits in common. The most effective benefit, is that the death benefit is, in most cases, excluded from any income tax deductions. Thus, a 500,000 dollar policy will transfer
the whole 500,000 dollars to the beneficiary, with no deductions whatsoever. This, is also effective for passing wealth from one generation to another.

Dental Insurance

Some people don’t take dental insurance as a reason for not going to the dentist. Others think that it is not a good reason for the dent it makes on their wallet every month. Few are content with their teeth and think it nonsensical to
spend money every month on something that is perfectly alright right now. These are few of the reasons why people avoid dental insurance or not think of it until the last minute when getting health insurance. But you have to understand this one thing-dental insurance is very important due to the various benefits it has to offer.

Dentistry is one field where even the simple procedure of tooth extraction can cost as much as few hundreds of dollars PER TOOTH!!!Therefore, people relate dental processes or work with huge never-ending bills. But what they don’t think of is that the small dent that dental insurance will make on their wallets every month is nothing as compared to the huge dent it will make getting a root canal implant or even getting your wisdom teeth removed on your wallet. Moreover, it also helps you in the finance department.

What’ll you do if you have to immediately get a tooth removed or are in need of a dental implant? If you have dental insurance in this situation it’ll help cover up atleast part of it, if not the entire cost.
Many people make do with the thought that dental care ends at flossing and brushing well. But actually, this is not true.

It is not a very well known fact but is proven that dental diseases have a direct link with other diseases. Dental diseases are common to humans, even young, healthy adults and they can easily affect the rest of the body in various ways. For example, some dental diseases are known to lead to other non-dental yet very serious health problems rather diseases like diabetes and even kidney infections. Therefore, in this case dental insurance is very helpful as it even covers costs of regular dental checkups, that help check the growth of diseases, if any identified. This step of uncovering diseases and preventing them from becoming bad to worse is very important. Dental insurance encourages care keeping in mind the prevention of dental diseases, which further leads to decrease in final costs involved in dental care and prevention of diseases.

While you are considering health insurance, you should keep dental insurance in mind as it is an integral part. Few of the benefits of dental insurance have been given above. It is advised you should get dental insurance. Even though it seems like a gimmick for getting your money but in reality it is for your own good.

Many without dental insurance wait overnight for free dental care

2009-07-14T23:52:00.000-07:00

According to a report from the Omaha World-Herald, people began lining up Thursday night and waited almost 10 hours for the doors to a two-day free dental care clinic to open in order to get access to a dentist. Organizers expect that more than 1,000 patients will be seen by the 140 volunteer dentists available before the doors close Saturday evening

Many of those in line do not have dental insurance or regular access to affordable dental care, according to the news source, noting a man who slept overnight in his car with his wife so they could get a teeth cleaning and a root canal, respectively.

Brief, free volunteer clinics such as this one have become more common over the last few years as many Americans have difficulty finding access to adequate dental care.

Some national estimates put the number of people in the U.S. without dental insurance as high as 100 million. Almost half, 44 percent, of families who earn less than $35,000 annually put off dental care for their children in the last year due to financial hardship, according to recent study.

Delta Debuts Affordable Dental Health Insurance Card

2009-07-10T00:59:00.000-07:00

The new affordable health insurance plan for dental care issued by Delta Dental is called Delta Dental Patient Direct. According to Delta Dental it offers big savings on dental treatment.

Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana is offering a new discount card that can help everyone save money on the cost of dental treatment and other health care services and products. The Delta Dental Patient Direct™ card provides individuals and families significant discounts on dental, vision and hearing care, and prescription drugs.

In a recent study by the University of Michigan, 46 percent of respondents said they are worried about being able to afford healthcare in the future. Twenty-four percent of respondents said they were worried about losing insurance coverage in the next year, with respondents age 50 to 64 comprising the largest group concerned about this.

The $80 annual fee for Delta Dental Patient DirectTM covers all immediate family members of a household with no waiting periods, no limits on use and no age limits. The card, which is not insurance, is available to residents in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. Discounted dental services are only available in those three states; all other discounts are valid at participating providers nationwide.

“This card is an affordable option for individuals without dental insurance to save money on quality dental treatment from Delta Dental Patient Direct participating dentists,” said Dr. Thomas J. Fleszar, chief executive officer of Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. “It also helps individuals make their overall health a priority by providing significant savings for vital health services and products. We are doing our best to provide options that help people get the care they need, especially during these tough economic times.”

On average, Delta Dental Patient DirectTM cardholders will save 20 to 40 percent off the cost of dental services at Delta Dental Patient Direct participating dentists. Discounts are available for dental checkups, fillings, crowns, root canals, orthodontics, cosmetic services and many other procedures. Cardholders also can save between 15 and 30 percent on vision care, prescription drugs and hearing care.

Patients without dental insurance barter for dental care

2009-07-01T01:56:00.000-07:00

Dentists are seeing a spike in the number of customers opting for alternative payment methods such as bartering for dental care, according to an article in the Miami Herald.

These alternative payments are not limited to direct barter, with a simple and direct exchange of one service for another, according to the Herald. Rather, there are bartering brokerages, whose members get credit with other services offered by clients of the brokering firm.
This system lets people smooth out disconnects between the price of a service such as a tooth extraction and what a barter client might be able to offer in exchange.

Scott Ebberbach, part manager of the Boynton Beach branch of national barter firm ITEX, told the news source that dentists are one of the primary medical services involved in the barter trade.

"A lot of people have insurance," Ebberbach said, "But most people don't have dental insurance, and in order to pay for any sort of dental procedure, you've got to pay out of pocket very hard."

The system does not solve all problems for the uninsured, however, as members must have something sufficiently valuable to trade, which is often difficult for the unemployed.

Ohio poor may lose state dental insurance

2009-06-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, facing a $3.2 billion budget shortfall, has proposed roughly $2 billion in cuts, which would include slashing funding for health care and remove benefits for dental care for those on the state Medicaid plan, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

While the budget plan officially calls for more than 1.1 million of Ohio's poor to lose dental insurance as well as coverage for vision and other types of care, administration officials say they will continue to provide these services temporarily until the state wins a court case to free up $258 million of tobacco settlement money.

No plans were specified concerning what happens should the court case be lost.

"We implore the governor to rethink this budget framework with the House and Senate conference committee and to propose something that does not shred the safety net," said Gayle Channing Tenenbaum, chairwoman of the Campaign to Protect Ohio's Future, a coalition of health, human-services and education organizations.

The situation is similar to a number of states facing budget shortfalls which are also continuing removing dental coverage from adults on Medicaid.

State Budget Cuts Affect Working Families

2009-06-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

PHOENIX -- While the Arizona state budget is on hold, working families said they feel like they're caught in the middle.

The KidsCare program provides almost 60,000 Arizona children with health insurance; however, advocates say the budget cuts have put the program in danger.

"We're trying to avoid getting food stamps, getting welfare," said Penny Fowlkes who teaches at Phoenix Day and is also a mother of three young children.

Fowlkes and her husband both work, but KidsCare provides the family with affordable health insurance; however, their family is one of the thousands who may no longer qualify under the proposed budget.

"I have a 4-year-old, we're constantly in the emergency room and the urgent cares," said Fowlkes.

Private insurance will cost Fowlkes’ family $600 a month.

"If your kids get hurt, it's going to be, 'Do I have the money to take them into the hospital and get them taken care of?’" said Fowlkes.

Children's Action Alliance said eligibility for the program would change from a family of four making $44,000 a year, to $33,000 a year.

The alliance estimated that $9,300 families and their children would lose health insurance.

Bernice Medina, who works for Phoenix Day and is a case worker, said she hears the families’ frustrations.

"They're angry and they're upset because they’re constantly trying to cut services for them and for their kids," said Medina.

Medina said she thinks all Arizonans may end up paying for these cuts later.

"It's going to be more costly if they take it away because then who's going to pay the bills in the hospitals to the doctors?" asked Medina.

Penny said she urges other parents and community members to write letters to legislators and the governor to stop the cuts.

“They're our future,” said Fowlkes. “They need that health insurance, their dental screening to grow up healthy.”

The alliance thinks over time 25,000 kids may no longer qualify for KidsCare.

The Communications Director for the State House of Representatives said Wednesday that the legislative budget continues providing more than $35 million in General Fund funding for the KidsCare program in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget.

'Over 2 in 5 women have been put off dentists because of cost'

2009-06-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

According to the UK's largest supermarket bank, 45% of women have been put off going to the dentist because of the cost.

Men are three times more likely than women to extract their own tooth if they feel they can't afford the dentist, according to credit card provider Tesco Finance.

Tesco Finance is offering dental insurance from £9.95 a month to help manage the cost of dental treatment.

Jeremy Sutton, head of Tesco dental insurance, said: "Dental treatment can be expensive, in some cases costing £86 for an extraction. With cover from just £9.95 a month, Tesco Dental Insurance helps manage the cost and covers for routine NHS and private dental treatment."

Tesco Finance is also offering a credit card which could save card holders money while travelling abroad.

Is Your Dental Insurance Covering Infections?

2009-06-18T01:34:00.000-07:00

Let's say you go to see your dentist for a wisdom teeth removal. The patient already knows that the cost is very high and think that his or her dental insurance covers the cost of wisdom teeth removal. But then because of dentist's poor performance you get a dental infection.

Indeed infections happening in dentists' offices are very common, particularly in Europe. This is why it's important to ask your insurer if your dental insurance covers not only your wisdom teeth removal, which took you to your dentist's office, but also an infection in case it happens because of poor dental hygiene. A report from France points to a low, but very significant risk of contamination of Hepatitis B or C or even AIDS when visiting a Dentist.

Can the poor dental care cause a serious viral infection? For an individual, the risk of contracting HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) or the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in a dentist's office is "very low", says a report from the Institut de Veille Sanitaire (IVS) that has just been made public. However, this risk is far from negligible at the population level, given the high incidence of dental defects and sterilization equipment found among dental practitioners.

In France, according to the calculations of the IVS, approximately 200 annual cases of hepatitis B infections could be due to inadequate sterilization of carrier rotary instruments widely used by dentists for conservative dental treatments and prostheses. Breaches of hygiene in this area can also theoretically lead to hepatitis C virus (less than two per year) or HIV (less than one per year). contamination.

In France, according to l'Institut de Veille Sanitaire modeling, dental care could be responsible for 200 cases of infections annually.

Therefore, they expect to increase dental continuing education in the areas of dental hygiene and general hygiene. The College of Dental Surgeons is committed to make systematic visits to the dental offices to check the situation with the dental hygiene and to track the dental infection cases in dentist's offices.

In conclusion, there is more to it when you go for a simple dental cleaning or for possibly removing a wisdom teeth. Ask you doctor if all the necessary dental hygiene precautions are in place. Also clarify who's dental insurance will cover the cost should there be an infection hi dentist's office.

Patients at free clinic open wide, and dentist and staff open their hearts

2009-06-10T02:26:00.000-07:00

Once every three months, the employees of Arnold Peace's dental practice spend a day off together. Led by Dr. Peace, the dental team volunteers at the Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center, where free dental care is provided to those in need.

Dr. Peace found out about Catholic Charities a year ago through one of his staff members.

"My dental assistant, Mary Ann [Derbis], had read about it in her church bulletin. She said she thought we should volunteer and I told her to look into it," Dr. Peace said. "I must admit that I am your typical dentist, who likes to stay in my own environment, but they had such a desperate need for volunteers, we decided to do it. It was that easy."

Their first visit was in April 2008, according to Dr. Peace.

In addition to Dr. Peace and Ms. Derbis, Carrie Certo Kotewicz, the front office coordinator, and two dental hygienists, Jamie Graswick and Erin Odorisio, also volunteer.

"We take off Wednesdays anyway, so that was the perfect time for us to go together," he said. "We wanted to do it as a group."

The session lasts from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The group provides basic dental care for the center patients.

"Carrie helps with the coordination of the patients that we see -- then the rest of us work with the patients. I see about five or six patients each time we go in, and the girls see about the same," he said.

"I've done plenty of fillings, some restorative work. The hygienists do cleanings. We see a whole gamut of people," he said.

According to Clare Kushma, director of marketing and public relations with Catholic Charities, there is an overwhelming need for volunteer dentists at the Health Care Center, located at 212 Ninth Street in Pittsburgh.

In addition to six full-time staff, the clinic has 20 dentists who volunteer hours, including Dr. Peace. Opened in November 2007, the center provides free medical and dental care.

"It is a lot of fun for us," said Dr. Peace, "and we know we are doing good work. We usually go out to lunch afterwards; we sort of make a day of it."

Dr. Peace also belongs to the Etna-Shaler Rotary and has done some volunteer work through Rotary, although not dental care.

"I still have children at home, so I can't do work out of the country or something like that. This works out perfectly," he said.

For Dr. Peace and his staff, the volunteer work couldn't be easier. "They have wonderful equipment. We just walk in and start seeing patients," he said. "They even have their own free parking lot that volunteers can use."

It is work that Dr. Peace finds rewarding.

"When we work with the patients, my heart goes out to them. Some of them have just hit hard times and are trying to get their lives back together. It is great to help in some small way.

"When I go down there and see the huge dental need, I know we are needed. I really hope that other dentists can read this and see how easy it is to volunteer. They need more volunteers and it is a great place to help."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09141/971573-54.stm#ixzz0I1ANnaQ9&C

Why some people need their teeth cleaned four times a year

2009-06-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

Why does your dentist, hygienist or periodontist recommend that you get your teeth cleaned three or four times a year?

The well-known advice: ‘’brush and floss your teeth and see your dentist twice a year‘’ actually started with a toothpaste commercial about sixty years ago. A direct result of that advice was that when employers started offering dental insurance as a benefit, the insurance companies allowed two cleanings a year. This was before the causes of periodontal (gum) disease were well known.

There have been hundreds of university studies done since then that have identified the bacteria involved in various types of periodontal disease. Sophisticated treatments have been developed, and individual risk factors have been identified. For example, smoking and diabetes greatly increase and individual’s risk of having progressive gum disease. Home care and genetics are also major factors. Conversely, having periodontal disease has been linked to heart problems, as the inflamation of the gums may cause an increase in arterial blockage.

Patients still have twice a year “prophylaxis” cleanings when they have no periodontal problems. The word “prophylaxis” by definition is a cleaning to prevent gum disease. For people who have existing periodontal pockets and bone loss, it is too late for preventive care. Deep cleanings and a three month schedule for maintenance cleanings are based on scientific evidence that these treatments are necessary to control periodontal disease. Surgical treatments may also be necessary.
Do insurance companies always pay for the treatment? Of course not.

Insurance companies pay according to the contract that an employer signs with them. Some will pay for periodontal maintenance cleanings only after scaling and root planing (deep cleaning) has been done. Other insurances may pay for prophylaxis twice a year, alternating with periodontal maintenance twice a year. You can call your insurance company for clarification, or ask your dental office to check for you. Optimal care is not always covered, but is still recommended for you to keep your teeth as long as possible.

Where to buy dental insurance plans online?

2009-06-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

Do you want to keep your smile bright without paying too much for it? Find affordable dental insurance online. You can save hundreds of dollars on routine examination, cleanings, dental implants, root canals and other dental care services.

Dental insurance works similar to other types of medical insurance. Once you have signed up for a policy, you will need to pay premiums on a yearly or monthly basis. If you have visited the dentist, you need to fill out a claim form and provide receipts for the treatment to refund the costs.

Some types of treatments will not be covered. For example, regular checkups often require a higher level of dental insurance. So before you make a claim, ensure that your treatment is included in your policy.

Buying dental insurance on the Internet is just like buying it directly through an insurance company or over the telephone. You will be offered the same range of plans, the same coverage, the same benefits, and the same dental care.

However, when you buy dental coverage online, you will enjoy greater convenience. For example, you can shop from the privacy of your home anytime you want. And, you can easily compare dozens of plans to find the best match.

Nipped & Tucked

2009-06-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

One of the curious aspects of the health-care crisis that accelerated in the past decade was the number of city specialists in reconstructive surgery, dermatology, and dentistry who simply stopped trying to treat illness. Alienated by the hassle and minimal compensation of insurance companies, they decided to do cosmetic work only. So you had dermatologists who never uttered the words “body check,” and ENT specialists who wouldn’t deal with people who couldn’t swallow. David Hidalgo, the former head of plastic surgery at Sloan-Kettering, who was once considered one of the best surgeons for breast reconstruction, even left the cancer institute to do aesthetic surgery full-time.

But now things have started to shift, as lifestyle medicine loses some of its allure—and paying customers. Liposuction was down 25 percent between 2007 and 2008; it’s a bellwether of ugly times ahead if certain doctors don’t adapt. “A lot of guys are suddenly opening their eyes and saying, ‘I haven’t done anything but cosmetics for years,’ ” says Fifth Avenue plastic surgeon John E. Sherman. “These guys are really panicking.” As a result, “plastic surgeons are trying to do hospital work—ulcers that aren’t healing, wounds, etc.,” says Minas Constantinides, board member of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Now “patients don’t want to pay,” which means figuring out what insurance companies will reimburse on.

“We did very little general dentistry before, but now it’s 40 percent of my practice,” says Dr. Lana Rozenberg, who created the concept of the “dental day spa” and perfected the smiles of Scarlett Johansson and Kristin Davis. “There was such an emphasis on aesthetics that people would come in wanting veneers, and they had broken teeth, but they would say, ‘We’ll take care of those later.’ Now the priorities have shifted to fixing what needs to be fixed.”

Just last year, the waiting room of Dr. David Colbert’s sleek lower–Fifth Avenue loft was filled with socialites seeking anti-aging light therapy and lip-plumping Perlane. Now he treats rashes. “Injectables on a face could run about $800 for a visit, and these medical cases aren’t usually big-ticket items,” Colbert says, shrugging. Increasingly, patients “ask which procedures insurance will pay for.”

“It’s definitely a change,” says Debra Jaliman, a Fifth Avenue dermatologist, who’s doing 25 percent more medical work this year. “I actually like it, because I get to solve interesting problems. But I hear a lot of my colleagues complaining: ‘Why am I stuck doing this stuff at this stage of my career?’ ”

There’s an upside to this, of course. Some doctors actually miss doctoring. “Ninety percent of my income was cosmetic; it was more lucrative,” says Sherman. “Eyelid surgery takes 45 minutes, and the going rate is $6,000 to $12,000.” Meanwhile, a trauma case could go five to ten hours for a fraction of that. With aesthetic surgery off, trauma has become a bigger part of his practice. “This town can no longer support 350 board-certified plastic surgeons doing only cosmetic work, not to mention all the specialties like dermatology and ENT that turned to cosmetics. The emphasis over the last decade was to forget where we started, but now the switch is on. One day the faucet is turned off, and you can say, ‘Thank God I can still do something that is rewarding.’ ”

Recession decays dental care

2009-05-11T04:24:00.000-07:00

It's not just the stock market and the nation's job market feeling the sting of the recession — dental care is also feeling the painful decay of the economy.

"Hundreds of thousands of people are opting out of dental insurance, because they think it's not a necessary evil," said James Ekbatani, CEO of Winter Park-based CorporateDentalPlans.com. "So we said, 'Let's search for an alternative that makes sense.'"

CorporateDentalPlans.com and TheDentalCard.com are discount dental care programs that give individuals dental care coverage options.

The program is an alternative to insurance and offers over 30 different plans to suit the needs of individuals, families or companies. It can save consumers up to 60 percent on dental services, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and has enrolled more than 100,000 dentists nationwide.

"Even if you have insurance … you end up paying a premium for every month for dental insurance and it's limited to maybe a thousand dollars in benefits, but with the dental card … you're not paying for all these premiums and only getting a maximum of maybe a thousand dollars," he said.

Dino Soriano, a member of the plan, said he saved 600 dollars on a crown he recently received.

"It paid for itself five times over," he said. "And the service was great."

James Ekbatani said he is hoping more people take advantage of the low-cost dental plan because dental care is not something that should be neglected.

Lack of proper dental care can lead to serious health conditions, such as sight problems, strokes and heart attacks.

"Health care and dental care go hand-in-hand … and periodontal disease affects 75 percent of people over 35," Ekbatani said. "We focus a lot on prevention."

Dental resources for your child

2009-05-11T04:21:00.000-07:00

Toothache pain is miserable for anyone, but especially for kids. In most cases, pain from decayed and abscessed teeth can be prevented by having routine exams and xrays to check between the teeth. Dental problems are best treated as soon as they are discovered.

Children in Colorado are fortunate to have access to dental care regardless of their income level. The best source for kids, especially if they have multiple problems, is a pedodontist. This is a dental specialist who has had at least 2 years of training beyond dental school. Not only do are they trained in the latest dental procedures, they also have extensive training in behavior management for kids.
Many pedodontists accept Medicaid and CHP in their private practice, so if a child is covered by either of these, they can be seen by a specialist. Many of the children’s dental offices around town are not staffed by pedodontists, but by general dentists. It is a good idea to check before taking your child for their first visit.

If a family earns too much to qualify for Medicaid and does not have dental insurance, the next resource is Children’s Health Plan Plus (CHPS+). It is administed by Delta Dental and children can be seen at numerous private practices and children’s clinics.

Kids In Need of Dentistry, or KIND, is one of the oldest dental non-profits in the U.S. It was started in 1912 here in Denver to provide dental care to low-income children. There is a clinic at Morey Middle School in Denver as well as clinics in Adams County and Colorado Springs, plus a mobile clinic that travels around the metro area and rural parts of the state. Medicaid and CHP are accepted, but not traditional insurance. If a child has no coverage, they can still be seen for just 10% of regular dental care plus a $20 per-visit fee.

The Healthy Smiles Dental Clinic is at the University Of Colorado Medical Center in Aurora and is a partnership of the dental school and Children’s Hospital. Pedodontic residents as well as undergraduate dental students treat children in a 4000 square foot clinic. If a child has no dental coverage through Medicaid, CHP, or insurance, special payment arrangements are made. There are no residency requirements for children treated there.

Don't put your health at risk

2009-04-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

Insurance premiums are rising, but a policy check-up may help reduce costs.

Health fund members feeling the pain of the average 6 per cent increase in premiums that kicked in at the start of the month may feel tempted to take the scalpel to their polices. But they're being warned that some ways of cutting health insurance costs are safer than others.

Restricting benefits, or even excluding certain treatments and procedures, is one way for insurers to reduce premiums so care is needed if you are to avoid ending up with a policy that's next to useless.

As with other forms of insurance, the cheapest policy isn't necessarily the best one and consumers should be aware of this when using online comparison sites.

The Private Health Insurance Ombudsman (PHIO), Samantha Gavel, says that rather than purchasing on price alone, she would "advise people, when they're making any decisions about health insurance, to think about their own health needs and preferences.

"You [may be] getting a cheaper premium but the reason is you're trading off something that you could need access to," she says of policies where savings come from exclusions and restrictions.

The general manager of corporate affairs for the online health insurance broker iSelect, Rohan Martin, says less expensive hospital policies may not cover common services such as obstetrics.

That could be a great way to economise if you're a single male or you're in your late 40s and you've completed your family but it's not a good option for younger people, who might be better served by excluding a treatment such as hip replacement.

The director of health insurance portal OzeCover, Peter Carroll, says exclusions will save you only modest amounts but introduce greater risk than other economies you could make. "Some exclusions that are offered I'd never suggest people take - for example, cardiac procedures," he says.

Martin says people thinking about changing their cover need to consider their state of health, their needs not just today but into the future, along with any tax implications.

Under the Federal Government's "lifetime health cover" rule, introduced in 2000 with the aim of encouraging people to take out health insurance at a younger age, individuals have to pay an additional 2 per cent of premium for every year they delay joining a fund beyond the age of 30.

Many Cutbacks but Not for Straight Teeth

2009-04-23T02:57:00.001-07:00

WITH her husband newly unemployed, Kim Moldofsky isn’t about to drop thousands of dollars guilt-free.

Except to straighten out her firstborn’s teeth.

The way she sees it, dipping into their rainy-day savings to correct her son Isaac’s overbite is a sound investment when few exist. “If you look at what would be happening to our money sitting in banks, we are not getting much return on it,” said Ms. Moldofsky, a new-media consultant who lives in Morton Grove, Ill. “This is something we will get a return on.”

Even in the best of times, paying $4,500 to $7,000 for braces (depending on the severity of alignment issues) is a stretch for many — not to mention the thousands that some spend on preparatory work. Dental insurance pays roughly $750 to $2,000; often, the whole tab is paid out of pocket.

As job losses and salary reductions wreak havoc on family budgets, financing the perfect smile is a big-ticket purchase that many middle-class parents find is worth scrimping for. For Ms. Moldofsky, family dinners at restaurants and tennis lessons are out, and her boys no longer attend private school, partly because of the expense. But 11-year-old Isaac’s orthodontics remain a priority.

“Could we have avoided doing this? Probably,” she said. Still, she added, “I think having well-aligned teeth — this is going to sound shallow — but it sends a message to people.”

Paul Zuelke, whose health care firm gives advice on practice management to 800 orthodontists who together see 25,000 new patients a month, said “a large number” of those families are struggling financially. But they would “rather buy mac and cheese for dinner than not pay their bills,” he said.

Even those who are insolvent place a high priority on their children having straight and healthy teeth. A few times recently, patients have called clients of Mr. Zuelke’s to say they are filing for bankruptcy but don’t plan to list the orthodontist as a creditor. They still intend to pay for straight teeth.

In a society that places extraordinary value on appearance, orthodontics is increasingly seen as a necessity, not a luxury, and even though the number of patients appears to have declined since the start of the recession, many families are going to great lengths to keep tooth-straightening in their budgets. Some orthodontists, with business slowing, are dropping fees or letting families stretch out payments.

The latest figures from the American Association of Orthodontists, compiled before the recession began, counted about 4 million patients younger than 18 in North America in treatment in 2006, up from 2.6 million in 1989. Experts say the number has dropped recently.

Mr. Zuelke estimated that orthodontists saw an 8 percent decline in new patients in 2008 from the previous year, coming on top of a 12 percent falloff in 2007 over 2006. This year, however, there’s been a slight uptick in patients in the first quarter, he said.

Dr. Roger Levin, the founder of Levin Group, which advises 500 orthodontists nationwide on how to manage their practices’ finances, said that since August, revenue for orthodontists has decreased 10 to 12 percent. “Fewer patients are coming in,” Dr. Levin said.

Why are cash-strapped families still considering braces at all? The answer seems to be that giving the next generation a leg up is a priority. “If you go into a job with teeth out of a novelty store, people aren’t supposed to discriminate,” said Dr. Benjamin Burris, an orthodontist with several offices in Arkansas. “But people do.”

To pay for braces, families typically face three choices: either upfront payment in full for a modest discount; third-party financing, often with interest; or in-office financing, which entails a hefty down payment, then interest-free monthly fees over two years or so.

But in this economy, “a lot of practices are more flexible with their payment options,” Dr. Levin said. Since last fall, Dr. Hyue Young C. Park, of Markin & Park Orthodontics in Maryland, has allowed her patients to make the down payment over a few visits, so that a large upfront sum is not a barrier to treatment. Her office also waives a $380 fee for X-rays and dental records for all patients.

Recently Dr. Park and her financial coordinator decided to let one family pay “$300 for the first six months, then $100 for the remaining months,” she said. The understanding was that if they had extra money — say, a tax refund — they would put it toward treatment.

Once a mortifying rite of adolescence, braces carry less of a stigma now that many tweens and teenagers have them. Braces are as innocuous as glasses these days, said Steven Kelly, 13, of Newton, Mass., who has worn his braces for two years. “They just blend in,” he said. “You don’t notice them.” In fact, try breaking it to a seventh grader that she’ll have to survive junior high school with a jumbled “social six” — the catchphrase for the half dozen teeth that are front and center. “There are more kids coming in, wanting them, expecting them,” said Dr. David Cordes, an orthodontist with offices in Westfield, Mass., and Enfield, Conn.

“I feel sorry for a lot of parents,” said Dr. Burris, who takes pro bono cases through a foundation he recently created, Smile for a Lifetime. “That’s why we work with them.”

Free Dental Health Screening for Hundreds

2009-04-22T02:49:00.000-07:00

SPRINGFIELD, MO-- It's an effort the make the community healthier.
About 250 clients without insurance lined up to get a free appointment with the dentist Friday night.

Jordan Valley Community Health Center hosted the clinic for those in need of some serious dental care.

The clinic picked up the tab, and says it will end up saving money in the future. "It's very expensive on the state, it's very expensive for the patients and it's very expensive for the hospitals to go to the emergency room for a dental problem," says Dr. Dennis Thousand with the Jordan Valley Clinic.

He says more often than not, patients without health insurance who have dental problems end up going to the emergency room.

"I had to save up to get these two teeth done so I'd be saving up again to get these others done and now they're all swollen and in pain, so I'm grateful for this," says Karen Remmen.

Dr. Thousand says dental problems can lead to much more serious health problems if not treated.

Those who attended Friday's clinic will go in for a scheduled appointment this Wednesday.

UAlbany Students Extract a Real-World Experience

2009-03-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

UAlbany students Reena Patel, Mariam Sharifipour, and Christopher Theall saw firsthand on a trip to Mexico how having access to good dental care is not taken for granted in other parts of the world.

Patel, a human biology major, and Sharifipour and Theall, biology majors, are all prehealth students. Sharifipour is president of the Pre-Dental Club at UAlbany. An e-mail went out to prehealth students informing them of the opportunity to go on a mission trip with local dentists Jan. 30-Feb. 5.

"This trip created a pathway for my career and gave me an experience of a lifetime; it showed me the skills and work I need to do and work hard for in order to pursue a career in dentistry," said Patel, of Auburn, N.Y. "Also it taught me how lucky I am to be living in the conditions I live in, because not everyone gets that luxury."

Sharifipour, a native of Orange County, Calif., is already a licensed dental hygienist. "This field is pretty much what I know best and what I love," she said. After graduation in May, she plans to work for a year, take more mission trips, and then apply to dental school. "I cannot imagine myself doing anything different. It is my passion. The towns we visited are very remote and poor. Having a dentist or access to dental care is not an option for these people, let alone dental insurance or coverage," Sharifipour said.

Theall said the trip was a great opportunity in two ways: He had the chance to assist in many dental procedures and learn more about the field, while giving medical treatment on a missionary trip, something he has always wanted to do.

The group faced obstacles, including having $12,000 worth of dental instruments confiscated as they entered Mexico. The equipment has not yet been returned. In addition, hot water and electricity were in short supply.

"Our working conditions were not easy," said Sharifipour.

The group went to several small villages, including San Luis, with Barry Loffredo, DDS, and Donald Deluke, DDS, both of Schenectady, N.Y. "These three students came together and worked as a team. They were a tremendous asset to the mission of the trip," said Loffredo.

"For meeting two students that I barely knew, and working with two dentists that I have never actually worked with ... you would think that we were working together for years," said Patel, adding, "Beyond the hardships that we faced to perform our journey, we all have never laughed so hard on a trip in our lives."

Sharifipour said the most compelling part of the experience for her was the appreciation shown by their patients. "They thanked us with a fiesta on our last day of work. They invited us back next year," she said.

St. Helen's Church of Schenectady assisted with the cost of transportation from Albany to JFK, as well as room, board, and travel insurance.

Devil in the detail of scheme

2009-02-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

OF all the several bold ideas contained in the interim report from the federal Government's National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, released this week, the plan for a universal dental scheme is the one that has, perhaps, captured the public's imagination the most.

Over the past two years the nation has been bombarded with horror stories of pensioners nursing mouths filled with rotting teeth which they can't afford to get fixed, and of others lingering for months, even years, on waiting lists for public treatment.

There is wide support for some sort of re-think. But the NHHRC's proposal has not been greeted with open arms on all sides.

Famously, the Australian Dental Association -- the nation's peak group for private dentists -- attacked the plan almost immediately as "impractical, nonsensical, (and) overly simplistic" and declared it "flies in the face of much of the deliberations that have taken place on this issue over the past decade".

Responses from individual dentists have been more moderate, although still widely diverging. Tony Burges, a dentist in Sydney's inner-west suburb of Drummoyne, says the NHHRC's proposal is "a reasonable suggestion" but the "devil will be in the detail".

The ADA made a number of specific criticisms, including the claim that the costs of the scheme would be "crippling" and unaffordable, potentially costing over $11 billion.

However, a modelling report prepared by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers at the NHHRC's request, and published this week, makes clear that based on certain assumptions about claiming patterns, the extra cost to government would be just $3.9billion a year. This amount would be more than covered by the proposed 0.75 percentage point increase in the Medicare levy.

But it turns out this affordability comes at a price.

The PwC report outlined three variations of what specific dental services the proposed Denticare scheme might cover, ranging from a fuller coverage to lesser. But none is truly comprehensive.

All exclude root canal treatments, crowns and bridges, periodontic care (involving cases of advanced gum inflammation leading to bone loss) and orthodontic treatments (including braces).

Crowns and bridges have been blamed for the soaring costs of the Howard government's Medicare-based dental scheme, which the Labor government has so far failed to scrap due to opposition in the Senate.

The existing Medicare scheme pays $2150 in Medicare rebates for private dental treatment per year, provided the patient is referred to the dentist by a GP who has assessed them as having a potentially life-threatening chronic condition that is being exacerbated by their dental problems. An analysis of spending in the Medicare scheme last year showed patients enrolled in it were making claims for crowns and bridges at a higher rate than would be seen in the normal dental patient population: about 7.4 per cent of total Medicare treatments, on a per-tooth basis.

However, the affordability means that basic dental treatment, which would be covered by any of the foreseen Denticare options, would be much more equitable.

At present, individuals going to private dentists spend an average of 0.79 per cent of their income on out-of-pocket charges to private dentists, an amount that rises to 0.96 per cent of taxable income once the cost of private health insurance premiums for dental cover are added in. Together this accounts for 78 per cent of total expenditure on dental services.

Under Denticare, individual funding of dental services would shrink to an average of 0.37 per cent of taxable income, equivalent to 29 per cent of spending on dental services.

The Denticare scheme, funded by the increased Medicare levy, would allow patients to choose cover under private insurance plans, in which case Denticare would pay the premium and the policy would cover 85 per cent of the fees, leaving the patient to pick up the remaining 15 per cent.

Other patients who wished to avoid the 15 per cent gap could elect to be covered under the public system, where treatment would be totally free, with the downside of some waiting.

Patients opting for private treatment would no longer need to pay separately for dental premiums. Overall, the average proportion of income spent on dental would rise from 1.24 per cent at present to 1.3 per cent under Denticare, with the increase due to the expansion of programs such as school dental and oral health promotion.

But this conceals the fact that according to PwC, equity -- meaning access for the poorest -- would be substantially increased under the proposal.

According to the modelling, taxpayers with annual household income of up to $25,218 currently pay just under 2 per cent of their taxable income on dental costs, or $11.25 per taxpayer per week.

This would fall to $8.94, just under 1.5 per cent of taxable income, under Denticare.

Those in households with annual income between $25,219 and $44,286 would be better off by 74 cents per taxpayer per week, and taxpayers in households with income between $44,287 and $67,129 would be $1.15 better off per week.

Taxpayers in households with income over $67,130 would be paying more under Denticare ($1.37 per taxpayer per week more, rising to $2.74 per week for income over $108,277).

Yet there are many assumptions in the Denticare modelling, and unexpected changes in consumer behaviour could have a significant effect on the impact of any scheme, should one be approved by the federal government.

For example, it's not easy to predict how many more dental services will be provided as a consequence of making dentistry more affordable for the less well-off. Also, about 35 per cent of people who visit the dentist do not at present have private dental cover, even though they visit a private dentist. How their needs will be met if they continue to eschew the private option, and rely instead on the public Denticare scheme, is not totally clear.

Burges feels that Denticare will come unstuck in the details.

"My personal view has always been that private dentists are probably best placed to treat most people in the population," he says.

"The NHHRC has budgeted about $4.5billion (for Denticare) ... but it could easily blow out and be very expensive to run. I think there's real potential for any universal scheme to blow out and be very expensive, and that might lead the government to cut costs."

Most unusual credit card deals

2009-02-14T01:13:00.000-08:00

What do you have in your wallet? I bet at least one credit card! Nowadays you can hardly find a person having no plastics at all. The average U.S. consumer carries from three to six credit cards in his/her wallet. It seems that many people start to forget what cash looks like!
According to statistics, there are about 900 million debit and credit cards in circulation. It is obvious that lenders need to offer something really beneficial and interesting in order to draw attention to their products and snag new customers.
We have analyzed the credit card market to find three most unusual credit card offers that will really surprise you! If you are tired of standard zero-APR-no-annual-fee-cash-back-rewards-program plastics, consider the offers below: they provide innovative features and unique rewards!

1. Credit cards that smell

Commerzbank AG, one of Germany's major banks, has launched a range of Visa and MasterCard branded credit cards in four aromas – coffee, mint, cinnamon or orange. Now you know how money smells!

Marketing gurus have always known that smell is a powerful persuader to buy. For example, newsagents use the smell of bakery outside their stores to attract customers. Travel agencies spray coconut aroma in their offices – it makes customers think about exotic far away countries and book trips.

Credit cards with aroma will definitely draw attention to your plastic money. They will become a conversation opener at every checkout: "What pleasant smell! Is it really a scented credit card? I have never seen – and smelled - such cards before!"

Coffee, mint, cinnamon and orange are a good choice for credit card aroma because all these scents are food related. You will like at least one aroma out of four! Plus, they will suit both man and women.

Scented credit cards can lower your level of stress and ensure a better state of mind due to their aromatherapy effect. Orange fragrance is stimulating and energetic. Coffee and cinnamon are considered to be comforting and warming. Mint has a relaxing effect.

There is one more important psychological aspect of scented credit cards. Every time you open your wallet, you will smell your favorite fragrance and feel positive. However, it can make you spend more than you have planned!

2. Finance your plastic surgery!

Plastic surgery, for example breast augmentation and rhinoplasty, has become as common as teeth whitening. So no wonder that a credit card designed for plastic-surgery patients had to appear in the market one day.

CareCredit is issued by GE Money Company. This plastic is targeted at consumers who want to finance various medical procedures typically not covered by insurance. They include dental treatments, cosmetic surgery, cosmetic treatments, vision care and laser eye surgery, hearing aids, and even veterinary medicine for your pets.

The credit card spending limit is equal to the price of the procedure you want to finance. It gives you the freedom to get the healthcare now and pay for it later. But be careful: just because you have money for plastic surgery, it doesn’t mean that you really need it!

CareCredit can only be used for healthcare services. No Interest financing program will let you cut down your borrowing costs. Just make regular on time minimum monthly payments and eliminate the entire balance by the end of your promotional period. If you need more time to pay off your credit card balance in full, you can take advantage of several extended payment plans.

If you are interested in this offer, you can fill out an application form at participating doctors' offices. At the present moment there are over 100,000 healthcare providers in this program, for example American Dental Association, Society for Excellence in Eyecare and American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

3. The American Dream

Do you like to participate in lotteries? Now you have a chance to get sweepstakes entries and win a large cash jackpot just for using your plastic! How is it possible?

American DreamCard™ MasterCard® issued by HSBC Bank Nevada, N.A. offers the unique rewards program. It offers sweepstake entries just for making day-to-day purchases. You will earn one entry for each dollar spent for merchandise, cash advances and balance transfers during the promotion period. As you see, there is no need to be a big spender to win big!

Monthly winners will receive 50% of the total amount of dollars spent by all American DreamCard holders during each drawing period. It means that the monthly sweepstakes jackpot depends on the number of credit card users and the amount of money they spend.

The credit card comes with no annual fee and a variable interest rate on all transactions. It is necessary to mention that all interest rates are tied to the highest Prime Rate during a three-month period.

The secret to cheap dental care

2009-01-24T00:25:00.000-08:00

By Connie Thompson

You may be able to cut hundreds of dollars off your dental bills, even if you have dental insurance.

Some folks around here call it a best kept secret. But this money saver is available to just about everyone.

When Marie Meadows needs dental care, she heads to the
University of Washington School of Dentistry. She's been going for years.

"I've had experiences where the dental work is not anywhere near as good as I get here," she said.

Linda Crumpacker is a new patient at the same office. She heard about it from a friend.

"And the financial end of it is so much more accommodating," she said.

As associate dean of clinic services, Dr. Daniel Chan oversees dental school operations.

"A children's dentistry, we have orthodontics to straighten out teeth. We have root canal service." said Chan.

Chan says contrary to what some people think, the dental fees are not based on a sliding scale. The costs are just lower than most typical dental offices because it's a teaching clinic.

Patients say they save 40 to 50 percent or more compared to the regular dentist, and dental students get hands on training they need.

"They're learning, but they're very good and the professors oversee the work that they do," Crumpacker said.

Meadows thinks the students are great. She says the dental school took care of all her children's needs when they were young. Now they're grown adults.

"All these years I've never really had any bad experiences, never," she said.

The biggest trade-off to dental school clinics is time. The dental students are closely supervised by experienced dentists who are School of Dentistry faculty members. Their work is double checked, and that means longer time in the dentist chair.

"You go to a dentist, and maybe the appointment will take one hour. And maybe here it will take twice as long, maybe three hours long," Meadows said.

But Meadows, Crumpacker and thousands of other patients say the added time is worth the savings.

In fact, the school treats more than 60,000 patients a year.

Like other dental offices, the UW School of Dentistry takes insurance. But because they deal in comprehensive care, you have to qualify as a "teachable" case, someone who'll be a long term patient for ongoing dental care, just like you would at your regular dentist.

"So when you come in, we don't just do one specific treatment. We look at you as a whole patient and we'll treat you from beginning to the end. And we hope you can come back every year," said Chan.

Are Dental Hygiene Clinics Doomed to Fail?

2009-01-19T03:51:00.000-08:00

Dentists' expenses are increasing, leaving many dental practices struggling. About one in four practices have raised their dental fees due to the current economy, finds a dental management survey by The Wealthy Dentist.

San Francisco, CA, January 18, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Only 2% of dentists said they had ever seen a successful, private, independent dental hygiene clinic. When asked why, 76% of dentists think it's not a profitable business model, whereas 22% think hygiene practitioners' hands are tied by state laws, found a poll by dental marketing resource The Wealthy Dentist.

Dentists are protective of their role as the gatekeepers of health care. "In California, only a licensed dentist can diagnose and treatment plan. So all hygiene would be by dentist prescription or referral," said a California dentist. "Bad for the public, good for hygienists. How much more are we willing to give up? We are health care providers. not just a good business model!" seethed a New York prosthodontist.

The biggest obstacle is money. "Financially, I don't see how a hygienist clinic could pay for itself," said a general dentist. "Instead of using our equipment and waiting room and parking lot, l think it's a splendid idea for dental hygienists to rent their own space, buy their own chair, supplies and equipment, and then sign up for a few insurance companies and make a fraction of each dollar," an Alaska dental office manager said sarcastically.

Many worry the independent dental hygienist could compromise dental care. "The whole concept is flawed," opined a Connecticut dentist. "They cannot diagnose and read X-rays, and this will definitely lower the standard of care. It will also make it cost more since the doc will have to charge more to do dental exams."

The fact is, dentists can charge more for their time than hygienists. "I don't see how hygiene offices make sense," said a Nevada dentist. "You need the possibility of a higher revenue procedure base, like if hygiene is set up as the front end to feed the dentist in the back. Could a dentist set up 10 hygiene salons with the purpose of referring patients to his office? That would be smart. Otherwise, it is dumb from both a practical as well as professional model."

Traditionally, dental hygienists have been a crucial part of every dental practice. "Within a health-centered practice, a dentist wants their practice to serve the entire oral needs of their patients," said a California dentist. "A hygienist is an invaluable team member due to close and continuous communication, which is not able to happen in remote hygiene settings. Even in a traditional dental practice that sees hygiene as a means of patient circulation that keeps the work coming in, it is more effective to have the hygienist on premises."

"Dentistry and hygiene go hand-in-hand," said Jim Du Molin, dental patient marketing expert and founder of continuing dental education resource The Wealthy Dentist. "Trying to separate the two will only lead to higher costs and reduced care. The money's just not there to support an independent hygiene practice."

Du Molin invites readers to visit his blog at http://www.thewealthydentist.com/blog/654/dental-hygiene-clinics/ and comment on this survey.

NYS Can Save Millions Creating Healthier Toothier New Yorkers

2008-12-26T03:35:00.000-08:00

Submitted by Sally Stride on December 17, 2008 - 5:08pm.

New York State's Governor Patterson is proposing extensive tax increases to offset revenue shortfalls. But I have a better idea. Stop fluoridation.

This win-win decision would save multi-millions of dollars and benefit every New Yorker – except maybe legislators beholden to special interest groups.

Science shows ending fluoridation saves teeth, money, preserves health and will reduce the carbon footprint, to boot, but it would irk organized dentistry. That’s the rub.

After 60 years of water fluoridation (adding cavity-preventing fluoride chemicals into water supplies) and over 50 years of fluoridated toothpaste, tooth decay is epidemic in the United States because 80% of dentists refuse to treat Medicaid patients and over 108 million Americans lack dental insurance (1). Children have died from untreated tooth decay. (2)

Diverting attention from their greed and heartlessness, dentists focus too-willing legislators on fluoridation, as if that would solve the problem. (3)

Far from fluoridation putting dentists out of business, as was once predicted, today’s dentists work fewer hours and days doing less critical work but make more money than many physicians. (4)

Seventy-two percent of NYS is fluoridated even though statistics show it’s failing to thwart cavities. (5) New York City, alone, spends approximately $14 million or more yearly on fluoridation chemicals, equipment and manpower.(6) Yet, NYC residents have among the highest cavity rates in the nation. (7)

Unfortunately, organized dentistry’s PAC money and political might speaks louder than science.(8)

One might argue that stopping fluoridation will cause higher dental costs. But studies show that, when fluoridation ends, cavities actually go down. (9) And the most highly fluoridated states have the highest rates of tooth loss. (10) Cavity crises are occurring in most fluoridated cities and states (See: http://www.FluorideNews.Blogspot.com )

Modern science shows that fluoride ingestion confers no benefits as early fluoridationists thought. Besides, today fluoride is in virtually all foods and beverages, (11) almost all toothpastes, some medicines, many dental products and is now a known component of air pollution.

No one disputes that too much fluoride is a bad thing. And there’s loads of evidence showing that Americans are over-fluoridated. For example, the Centers for Disease control reports that 48% of 12 - 15 year-olds have dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted enamel – from too much fluoride ingestion when their teeth were forming. (12) We can’t see what fluoride is doing to their bones. (13)

For this reason, both the CDC and the American Dental Association advise that infant formula NOT be mixed with fluoridated water.

The National Kidney Foundation also advises kidney patients to avoid fluoridated water as malfunctioning kidneys can allow a toxic build up of fluoride in bones causing them to weaken and break. (14)

New York State is not spending the money to get this information out. Fluoridation is outdated, unnecessary and harmful. It must be stopped.

Contact your local and state legislators and tell them wasteful, ineffective fluoridation must stop

On the National level, tell Congress you want fluoridation stopped and to hold hearings about why federal officials continue to promote fluoridation in the face of growing evidence of harm and ineffectiveness here: http://congress.FluorideAction.Net

END

References:

1) http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/news/pressreleases/pr_oral_52000.htm

2) “For Want of a Dentist,” by Mary Otto, The Washington Post, February 27, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/27/AR2007022702116.html

3) How California Deceptively Passed a Statewide Fluoridation Mandate http://www.edhtelegraph.com/detail/89290.html

Louisiana Mandates Fluoridation Despite Evidence of Harm http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Louisiana-May-Mandate-Fluoridation-Despite-Evidence-of-Harm-20853-1/

4)”New Drill - Tale of Two Docs: Why Dentists Are Earning More,” by Mark Maremont, The Wall Street Journal, Monday, January 10, 2005
http://www.flapsblog.net/2005/01/new-drill-tale-of-two-docs-why.html

5) NYS Department of Health statistics show that fluoridation fails to reduce tooth decay. See chart: http://tinyurl.com/NYSchart

6) Fluoridation Does Not Save Money or Teeth
http://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/2005/11/fluoridation-does-not-save-money-or.html

7) Evidence that Fluoridation Has Failed New York
http://www.freewebs.com/fluoridation/fluoridationfailsnewyork.htm

8) “Open Wide for $25K” NY Daily News, by Elizabeth Benjamin, July 12, 2008
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/07/open-wide-for-25k.html
“In Rift Among Dentist Groups, a Tale of Political Clout.”
By Sam Roberts, New York Times, June 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/nyregion/23dentist.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

9) When Fluoridation Ends So Do Cavities
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/relatedconditions/a/flushot.htm

10) More Fluorde = Less Teeth
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1002581/posts

11) USDA Fluoride Database 2005 http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=6312

12) http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/figures/s403a1t23.gif

13) http://groups.google.com/group/Fluoridation-News-Releases/browse_thread/thread/20b328821b24dcc4/9882f8d2ce4caad5?lnk=gst&q=fluorosis+fractures#9882f8d2ce4caad5

14) National Kidney Foundation, “Fluoride Intake in Chronic Kidney Disease,” April 15, 2008
http://www.kidney.org/atoz/pdf/Fluoride_Intake_in_CKD.pdf

States Can Save Millions Creating Healthier Toothier Americans

2008-12-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

Posted by: SallyStride

New York State's Governor Patterson is proposing extensive tax increases to offset revenue shortfalls. But I have a better idea. Stop fluoridation.

This win-win decision for all states would save multi-millions of dollars and benefit every American – except maybe legislators beholden to special interest groups.

Science shows ending fluoridation saves teeth, money, preserves health and will reduce the carbon footprint, to boot, but it would irk organized dentistry. That’s the rub.

After 60 years of water fluoridation and over 50 years of fluoridated toothpaste, tooth decay is epidemic in the United States because 80% of dentists refuse to treat Medicaid patients and over 108 million Americans lack dental insurance (1). Children have died from untreated tooth decay. (2)

Diverting attention from their greed and heartlessness, dentists focus too-willing legislators on fluoridation (adding unnecessary fluoride chemicals into water supplies in a failed effort to prevent tooth decay), as if that would solve the problem. (3)

Far from fluoridation putting dentists out of business, as was once predicted, today’s dentists work fewer hours and days doing less critical work but make more money than many physicians. (4)

Seventy-two percent of NYS is fluoridated even though statistics show it’s failing to thwart cavities. (5) New York City, alone, spends approximately $14 million or more yearly on fluoridation chemicals, equipment and manpower.(6) Yet, NYC residents have among the highest cavity rates in the nation. (7)

Unfortunately, organized dentistry’s PAC money and political might speaks louder than science.(8)

One might argue that stopping fluoridation will cause higher dental costs. But studies show that, when fluoridation ends, cavities actually go down. (9) And the most highly fluoridated states have the highest rates of tooth loss. (10) Cavity crises are occurring in most fluoridated cities and states (See: http://www.FluorideNews.Blogspot.com )

Modern science shows that fluoride ingestion confers no benefits as early fluoridationists believed. Besides, today fluoride is in virtually all foods and beverages, (11) almost all toothpastes, some medicines, many dental products and is now a known component of air pollution.

No one disputes that too much fluoride is a bad thing. And there’s loads of evidence showing that Americans are over-fluoridated. For example, the Centers for Disease control reports that 48% of 12 - 15 year olds have dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted enamel – from too much fluoride ingestion when their teeth were forming. (12) We can’t see what fluoride is doing to their bones. (13)

For this reason, both the CDC and the American Dental Association advise that infant formula NOT be mixed with fluoridated water.

The National Kidney Foundation also advises kidney patients to avoid fluoridated water as malfunctioning kidneys can allow a toxic build up of fluoride in bones causing them to weaken and break. (14)

New York State can’t afford the money to get this information out. Fluoridation is outdated, unnecessary and harmful. It must be stopped.

The remedy: Dentists have unfairly influenced our legislators to pass laws that benefit themselves (15) while neglecting those that need them the most. In return, Dentists must be required to treat a certain percentage of patients for free, on a sliding scale basis or accept Medicaid payments.

Tell your local and state legislators you want fluoridation stopped.

Tell Congress you want fluoridation stopped and Congressional hearings held about why federal officials continue to promote fluoridation in the face of growing evidence of harm and ineffectiveness: http://congress.FluorideAction.Net

Why an NHS dentist is as rare as hen's teeth

2008-12-12T20:35:00.000-08:00

By Cassandra Jardine
Last Updated: 1:46PM GMT 12 Dec 2008

My children hardly ever go to the dentist any more. This is not because they have good teeth – as half of their genes come from me, they may be destined to a life time of shoring up and pulling out yellowing stumps. Of course I take them if they ever complain of any pain, but they aren't getting regular check-ups for the simple reason that our dentist has stopped working on the NHS.

Millions of people are in the same position. The latest figures show that 1.2 million fewer people were seen by an NHS dentist last year because they are all going private. In fact, I was quite surprised to see that just over half of the population had managed to make an appointment with an NHS dentist at all because, around my area of south London, they are as rare as hen's teeth.

I feel cheated by the health service's failure to look after the nation's teeth. The Government doesn't has a responsibility to give us all sparkling California-style gnashers, but it should at least provide a service which will prevent decay, pain and further complications. There is a strong link between gum disease and heart disease – yet three out of four adults suffer from gum disease because we aren't going often enough to dentists and dental hygienists – mostly because we can't afford to. A specialist periodontal examination at my local once NHS, now private practice cost "from £150" – an open-ended proposition that leaves me faint with financial anxiety.

Even on the NHS, free dentistry long ceased to feel like the payback for our National Insurance stamps. Long before our dentist went private, he was charging over-18s for 80 per cent of their treatment, with the Government only picking up a tiny slice of the bill. Treatment for children was theoretically free but, if I upgraded from a mercury amalgam filling to a white one – desirable on both cosmetic and health grounds – it was time to get the cheque book out.

I have a solution, of sorts. Near us an eminent dental academic, keeps his hand in by practicing informally at weekends. He charges, but modestly. The reason he can do so is that he has dispensed with a lot of the flummery that inflates dentists' costs. He operates two chairs simultaneously and dispenses with the services of a dental nurse who would be, in my experience, sitting around doing nothing all day except for pressing a button on the computer and, occasionally, stirring up some filling mixture.

Unsung Hero Helps Create Smiles

2008-12-07T04:36:00.001-08:00

CARTERVILLE--When people lose their job, they often lose their insurance.

Some never had coverage to begin with and are forced to ignore their medical needs, including a visit to the dentist.

That's where the Create a Smile Dental Foundation steps in.

Carla Fletcher has a lot to smile about these days. About a month ago, she was fitted with a new set of teeth.

"People say I look about 10 to 15 years younger than I used to. And I smile more," said Carla.

The Create a Smile Dental Foundation helped make it happen. The group pays for dental work for people who have no insurance.

Over the last five years, the foundation has provided dental assistance to nearly 40 people in southern Illinois.

"I've had dental problems, my wife has had dental problems. So many people have dental problems, they don't have insurance. We figured it would be a good thing to help people because we enjoy helping people," said founder John Flora.

He says they're able to pay for the dental work thanks in part to this thrift store in downtown Carterville.

Dentists also help by doing some procedures at a reduced price.

"But it still costs lots of money to get that dental work done."

Carla says before she got her new teeth, she spent almost 15 years with broken teeth and exposed roots.

She can smile again without feeling self conscience.

"It's just a wonderful feeling you know. I think a lot of prayer must have went into it. I went in to get my teeth pulled one day and the new ones the next. They were just healing like they should."

Applications can be picked up at the thrift store on Division Street in Carterville.

by Kevin Hunsperger
khunsperger@wsiltv.com

Options for people with diabetes

2008-12-01T03:00:00.000-08:00

(CL) — It’s estimated that almost 2.5 million Latinos in the U.S. will be affected by diabetes by 2020. Of those, 44 percent will be over the age of 65. Just within the Hispanic community, the effects of diabetes are vividly present. While Medicare can cover medical services, the coordination and monitoring of those services is particularly critical to managing complicated medical conditions.
It’s widely known that diabetes is a debilitating disease requiring careful and consistent medical attention. What may not be as clear, however, are the solutions to manage the multiple needs of the disease that can range from juggling multiple physicians and treatment plans to coping with the demands of a hectic pace in a fast-food society.

“Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death listed on U.S. death certificates,” said Dr. Ana Fuentevilla, Evercare medical director. Furthermore, diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure and new cases of blindness, as well as a strong influencer in the cases of high blood pressure, dental disease, heart disease, strokes and amputations.
To ensure the proper management of diabetes, it’s important to follow the specific treatments prescribed by the primary health care provider and specialists because failure to adhere to them could severely jeopardize one’s health. To facilitate the management of what may turn into a multitude of treatments, doctor’s appointments

Dental Clinic getting big response

2008-11-28T04:54:00.000-08:00

By Lisa Carolin
The Livingston Community News

It's been just a bit more than two months since the VINA (Vision, Integrity, Need, Action) Community Dental Center opened to offer affordable dental care to residents without dental insurance.
The demand for services grows daily.

"There are a lot of people who need us," explains office manager Cindy Gates, who is the only employee of the Brighton clinic. "There is clearly a high need in Livingston County for affordable dental care."

Gates says the office is working with a call list of dentists who volunteer their time based on availability. Clients who meet the criteria are placed on the list on a first-come, first-served basis.

Currently there are 11 dentists volunteering at the clinic along with eight dental hygienists and 10 dental assistants.

"We could still use more dentists as well as monetary donations," says Gates, who adds that some of the volunteer dentists include periodontists and oral surgeons. "If someone needs more than we can offer, we direct them to the University of Michigan Dental Clinic in Ann Arbor. We are seeing people from all over Livingston County and all ages from 18 and above."

The clinic does not see children because there are a number of dentists in the county who participate with the Healthy Kids program through the Department of Human Services.

"We're getting a darn good response, and people are deeply appreciative," says volunteer dentist Dr. Harry Davis. "Our patients have just been clobbered. They've lost jobs and lost their dental insurance, and many have just skipped going to the dentist."

Davis says that because of the lack of regular dental care, they're seeing patients with severe gum decay and periodontal disease, and many who are in pain.

"We do the best we can to save teeth and eliminate pain," says Davis. "We fill teeth, extract teeth, clean teeth and educate people about brushing and dietary control to try to help them help themselves."

"What's surprising is that demographically who we are treating has turned out to be the working poor," says volunteer dentist and oral surgeon Fred Bonine. He also is the fundraising chairman for the clinic.

"Chronic neglect is a huge problem, as well as a lack of information such as the fact that soda pop can destroy peoples' mouths," he says.

Bonine says the clinic's goals are to expand its hours, increase the number of volunteers, and to continue to raise money. The clinic will have a major fundraiser in February.

A Valentines Ball is planned for Feb. 14, 2009, at Lakeland Country Club, "which we hope will be an annual event," says Jana Walther, who is on the clinic's fundraising committee.

Walther says the clinic needs donations to continue to operate and has been helped by grants from Blue Cross Blue Shield, Delta Dental, and the Michigan Dental Foundation.

The clinic now has liaisons with dental schools at the U-M and the University of Detroit, both of which will be sending dental students and faculty to volunteer at the clinic.

The purpose of the VINA Community Dental Clinic is to provide service for Livingston County residents who have no dental insurance and have an income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The clinic offers exams, cleanings and fillings as well as services for pain and infection, oral cancer screenings, and dental and general health education materials.

Lisa Carolin can be reached at lcarolin@livingstoncommunitynews.com or at 810-844-2010.

Nonprofit giving twins gift of a new smile

2008-11-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

VISTA – Twins Stephanie and Ramses Villa, both 16, are on track to graduate from high school in the next two years. Stephanie wants to work with children eventually, maybe as a child psychologist, while Ramses is thinking about becoming a firefighter.
One thing is for certain: Whatever they'll be doing, it will be with a sparkling smile.

The twins, who live in Vista, were born with an uncommon genetic defect called amelogenesis imperfecta, which prevents the development of tooth enamel. Without enamel, teeth become especially vulnerable to cavities and dramatic deterioration, which can interfere with eating, regular dental hygiene and smiling.

Over the next two years, the nonprofit organization Fresh Start Surgical Gifts will correct their condition, providing the twins with at least $30,000 in free dental care. The Carlsbad-based organization facilitates dental care for children whose families can't afford it.

Recently, Stephanie reclined in a dental chair at La Boca Fina clinic in Encinitas as her dentist, Al Fallah, prepared a bubblegum-pink and toothpaste-green mixture that he would use to create an impression of her teeth.

Dentist To Offer Services Free Of Charge

2008-11-01T02:49:00.000-07:00

Douglas Roth says he was inspired by a TV special in June about a doctor who was hosting free clinics for the poor in South America.

By Kyle Martin

Hernando today

Published: October 29, 2008

Brooksville - A downturn in the economy and a lack of dental insurance has many people trying to live with painful toothaches.

That's not right, says Dr. Douglas Roth.

On Nov. 22, Roth will open the doors of his Brooksville dentistry practice to anyone in pain or who needs an immediate fix on their teeth — free of charge.

Roth was inspired by a TV special in June about a doctor who was hosting free clinics for the poor in South America. Lately though, the ranks of the unemployed and uninsured have begun to swell stateside and fewer are receiving the care they need, Roth said.

The program "tweaked my sense of duty," Roth said.

On the day of the clinic, Roth and his staff will show up without punching in the clock and get started around 8 a.m. Several teenage volunteers will help direct traffic and parking at the Oak Walk Park, a shopping plaza just west of the Powell Road intersection with Broad Street. Clients will be helped in the order they arrive.

Roth isn't sure exactly what to expect, though he said it will probably entail a lot of tooth pulling. He asks that people use their conscience to decide if their case is truly urgent and deserving.

Roth, 62, said he gained a sense of community by growing up in small town Pennsylvania. He chose dentistry to follow in his father's footsteps and has been peering into mouths across America since 1973.

Now a year and a half into his "semi-retirement" in Brooksville, Roth is looking forward to the upcoming clinic.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.

Voters want solutions as health insurance costs rise sharply

2008-10-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

By SUZANNE KING
Special to The Star

Working two jobs isn’t exactly the way Dave Coffman envisioned his retirement.

But that’s how it’s turning out.

“I’m working basically because of health care,” said Coffman, 62, a retired school principal who lives with his wife in Lee’s Summit.

Until they qualify for Medicare, they have to buy private coverage. For now, their insurance bills amount to around $1,000 a month — including long-term care insurance, dental insurance and a health plan that has a $2,500 deductible. If he weren’t working two part-time jobs, Coffman said, there would be no way he could afford it.

“I never once thought about health insurance before I retired,” Coffman said.

Now it’s never far from his mind.

Like many Americans, Coffman says that health care will be a top concern as he casts his ballot in November.

“I know that each of the parties has a (health care) plan, but definitely we need something to help provide insurance,” Coffman said.

Coffman doesn’t want to see socialized medicine, but he wants to see a government that forces health care providers to hold the line on costs and helps the people who can’t afford them pay their health care bills.

At a time when 45 million Americans lack health insurance, Coffman is hardly alone. Even people who are insured are paying more all the time. In the past four years, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, insurance premiums have climbed 35 percent, to $4,400 for an individual policy and $12,000 for a family policy.

“When people say they’re worried about health care, they’re not worried about where they’re going to find a decent doctor or medical care — they’re worried about paying for it,” said John McDonald, senior state director for AARP Missouri.

Certainly health care is on the agenda of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

Both candidates want to see a system that provides more affordable coverage to more people. And both talk about the need to cut costs; to improve efficiencies, partly through the use of information technology; to promote preventive care; to reduce errors; and to rein in medical malpractice lawsuits.

But the candidates’ fundamental approaches are vastly different.

Under McCain’s plan, individuals, not employers, would carry the responsibility for choosing and paying for health care.

Obama wants to shore up the current employer-based system by mandating more coverage and providing more subsidies.

“It’s a choice between adjusting the financing mechanism or a system of mandates,” said Maggie Nelson, manager for federal government and industry relations with Cerner Corp., the North Kansas City-based health care information technology company.

The McCain plan

Experts agree that McCain’s proposal is the most radical.

The senator from Arizona proposes eliminating the current tax exemption for employer-paid health insurance premiums — meaning people with job-based coverage would pay income tax on the premiums their employers pay, which are tax-free today. In exchange, he would provide a $2,500 tax credit to individuals and a $5,000 tax credit to families to buy their own insurance.

McCain’s camp argues that the system would give consumers more control, allowing them to keep insurance as they move from job to job, for example, while at the same time making them more aware of the true cost of going to the doctor.

Teeth cleanings without the dentist

2008-09-23T05:22:00.000-07:00

By Kelly Gadzala

He’s never had a cavity, but that hasn’t prevented Allan Levine from getting his teeth cleaned.

Still, the 30-year Yonge and Eglinton resident says he’s only ever spent a few minutes with his dentist while the rest of his dental checkup is spent with a hygienist.

“I have yet to understand why I see a dentist,” Levine says.

Levine recently tried out a teeth cleaning at the new flagship location of Independent Dental Hygiene Centres on Yonge St. at Eglinton Ave., which was performed by one of the centre’s dental hygienists.

As of September 2007, dental hygienists in Ontario can practice without being supervised by a dentist. They are qualified to perform procedures like teeth cleaning, polishing and whitening but cannot fill cavities or diagnose dental conditions.

“The hygienists were theoretically and practically practicing without the dentists anyway,” says co-founder Brian Price. “All our company is doing is enabling hygienists to be independent.”

Price says when the change was made, he called former business partner Howard Rocket and asked him to come out of retirement. Both dentists turned entrepreneurs, Price and Rocket founded the Tridont Dental Centres in the 1980s, which had 107 locations across Canada mainly in malls.

This new venture, Price says, will build on the accessibility and conveniences of the former business model, but will offer lower prices.

The centre is open evenings and weekends for a total of 70 hours a week, Price says. Subsequent centres will be built along the subways lines — six along Yonge and the remaining five along the Bloor line, he adds.

Hygienists like working in the new-style clinic as it allows them to spend more time educating their patients about how to take care of their teeth.

“So far I feel I can practice dental hygiene the way it was meant to be practiced,” says Amina Zaidi, senior hygienist with the centre.

She has been in the dental field since 1995, including six years as a hygienist in a private practice.

“We’re not bound by a tight schedule or a production mentality,” she says, adding that, though not discussed openly, some dentist offices have quotas per hour.

Levine, who is without dental insurance, says he was attracted to the concept primarily because of the cost. But at his appointment, he says he appreciated the relaxed environment and the fact that he could watch a computer screen mounted on the wall that showed what the hygienist was doing.

He also left with specific instructions about which teeth he needs to floss better instead of just a general reminder to do it, he says.

“It’s rare you go do something like this and actually remember it.”

Smile Please !

2008-09-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

The morale of healthcare employees can directly affect the quality of service and customer care being provided. However, have Indian hospitals started to view morale boosting measures as seriously as they need to? Finds out Sonal Shukla

In an interesting study done by largest research organisation in the world specialising in mental illness, the US based National Institute of Mental Health, at least one in four employees in healthcare endure an episode of significant psychological illness during their prime working years and in any given year, more than one in 10 will experience clinical depression. Moreover, for some occupational categories the risks are even greater. Physicians, nurses, chiropractors, health technologists and dentists have higher-than-average suicide rates. Health technologists, licensed practical nurses, clinical laboratory technicians, nurses aides, registered nurses and dental assistants had among the highest rates of hospitalisation for mental disorders in one study of 130 job classifications. While there are no official estimates for Indian healthcare employees, but indeed they would indeed share the same story.

As levels of competition have grown manifold, there is a pressing need to give a lot of emphasis on the quality of service which has translated into greater stress for all healthcare staff. The uniqueness of this industry is that employees are forced to face the stark realities of life and death, 24x7, under tremendous physical exertion, irrespective of time, date or day or of any turbulence in their own personal lives. Any lack of effective and timely efforts in keeping employee spirits and morale high therefore leads to a steady dip in their performance. Says Dr BK Rao, Chairman, Sir Ganga Ram hospital, New Delhi, "HR managers, particularly those responsible for healthcare facilities, face a major daily challenge in boosting the morale of all staff. Research on motivation has shown us that if you want to improve the experience of patients and the reputation of your service, pushing already motivated people to become even more so is crucial."

However, an averagely intelligent HR audit can immediately diagnose this drop in productivity, according to Shrabani Basu, Management Consultant and Corporate Trainer, This is because, it is only to a certain extent, possible to truly 'cure and care' for a patient in all its entirety, only by technical brilliance. A huge chunk of the patients' well being largely depends upon the mental and emotional makeup and well being of the employees of a hospital, that are directly reflected in their concerted emotional and behavioural efforts towards patients. "We all know, in hospitals, it is very important that a patient has to be taken to a high level of 'feel good' domain, which actually affects his responses to drugs and clinical processes towards recovery. To attain this very difficult task of making a patient feel very assured of being well taken care of clinically, is actually largely dependant on his emotional well being along with clinical excellence," she adds.

Pressing Need

The healthcare staff constantly faces tremendous physical and emotional pressure and the nature of the industry makes it even more extracting. Doctors and healthcare staff are not only under pressure from a professional point of view but also psycho-socially as patients and their family members share with them their concerns and grief. While this kind of interaction does give a special dimension to the relationship, but the fact remains that it takes a heavy toll on doctors and healthcare workers. Malcontent employees can even create a sense of gloom and doom in the workplace. In many cases their negative attitude can get transferred to other staff members and bring about low productivity. "The morale of all healthcare workers is especially important since they are dealing with human lives. It also has a direct impact on patients who are already in a troubled state of mind and tend to be more susceptible and affected by the attitude of the healthcare worker dealing with them. Hence, morale boosting becomes extremely essential for a healthcare worker," states Suyash Borar, COO, BM Birla Heart and Research Centre (BMBHRC), Kolkata. Incidentally, healthcare workers, irrespective of their professional stream, are trained and mentored from inception to keep a safe distance from letting the impact of this relationship affect their professional judgment and thereby their overall productivity. However according to experts demarcation between the beneficial involvement with the patient and/ or family for treatment and rehabilitation purposes and cross over to the limit which affects the healthcare staff itself is quite thin; and it is here that they have guard themselves against such possibility." Generally, the care provider scheduling, is done in such a manner that person's duty schedule should avoid building any disturbing relationship between him/ her and the patient. However it is easier said than attained. After all, the staff are also human, it is the humane angle which is playing a predominant role at this juncture." opines Dr Praneet Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, Fortis Escorts Hospital, Jaipur and Director - Quality Assurance, Fortis Healthcare Limited. Therefore in addition to scheduling, seniors in each stream who are sensitive and mature enough to sense any such situation very early, usually intervene. The intervention could be just a simple counseling session(s) for the affected staff to removing the employee from the care giver team or even forced leave of absence at times. All the above actions help prevent or at least minimise any chances of productivity decrease of the individual staff. "What is more important here is the quality of decision making that needs to be protected and therefore it becomes important to institute mechanisms that do not allow the staff to drift into developing emotional relationships that can be counterproductive," adds Dr Kumar.

Morale boosting methods also can go a long way in helping retain the staff. "Issues like attitude of managers towards their subordinates, working conditions, pay, safety, feeling of unfair treatment, lack of recognition, fear of superiors, if all these issues can be dealt intelligently we will definitely be able to retain our employees," feels Anthony Handa, Manager— Personnel, Ruby Hall Clinic. While it is a reality that healthcare staff is currently suffering from a sort of 'compassion fatigue,' not many groups are focusing towards morale boosting. But nevertheless, there are Groups who have taken a small yet positive step forward in this direction. Jaipur based Fortis Escorts Hospital is a case in point. It has created social forums that outline and formulate indoor and outdoor sports activities that are regularly utilised by all, without any differentiation between staff categories. While, this helps in de-stressing the staff, it also helps team building and bonding. The hospital initiated ten day sports meet from this year which the staff managed to attend even after performing their primary duties. Similarly, the entire staff of the hospital was gifted a souvenir— a silver coin with the name of hospital and date of first anniversary as a token of remembrance. "These are few of the activities that we have undertaken that affects the entire staff. Actually, morale boosting activities or for that matter any such intervention for development of soft skills has to remain responsive to changing dynamics and we at Fortis Group invest a lot of time and resources to enable it," shares Dr Kumar. Like Fortis Escorts, there are others like Kolkata-based BM Birla Heart Research Centre, Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai; P D Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai; KG Hospital and Post Graduate Medical Institute, Coimbatore, Max Healthcare in Delhi, Bangalore based Global Hospitals who feel that morale boosting in healthcare is the need of the day and have taken steps to implement some noteworthy measures in this area.

New clinic will offer vital dental services to low-income families

2008-09-03T05:22:00.000-07:00

Winchester — Uninsured children with teeth full of rot will soon get the relief they need from a new downtown dental clinic.

“New” is relative, though — the clinic will operate in the same space as the Free Medical Clinic of Northern Shenandoah Valley at 301 North Cameron St.

Because the free clinic cannot receive financial compensation under Virginia by-laws, a separate nonprofit called the Dental Clinic of Northern Shenandoah Valley was created so that the dental clinic could receive Medicaid.

The dental facility will begin examining patients from Winchester, Frederick County, and Clarke County at the end of September.

The dental clinic’s ability to accept Medicaid will provide sustainable funding for services previously unavailable to most uninsured families in the area, said Vicki McClelland, executive director of both the Free Medical Clinic and the new dental clinic.

Previously, low-income individuals with severe pain could find help only on Thursday nights at the Free Medical Clinic. Volunteer staffing was limited, and even emergency cases needed to be scheduled in advance.

The new dental clinic will alleviate some of the backlog, allowing dentists to serve “true emergency cases” more easily, McClelland said.

Most private dentists don’t accept Medicaid or FAMIS — Virginia’s health insurance program for children — because of low reimbursement.

The need for the Dental Clinic of Northern Shenandoah Valley has gone unanswered for years in area, McClelland said.

She called the existing situation a “crisis” for local uninsured, low-income families who have been unable to find their children a dentist who accepts Medicaid.

The majority of these families have seen dental care as a luxury that simply wasn’t available to them when rent and food bills were due.

“People are falling through the cracks,” McClelland said. “They’re desperate. Even when parents are educated in preventive dental care, if they don’t have access to it, they’re going to go without.”

Soon, dental services at the Free Medical Clinic will be offered five days a week instead of one, and the dental clinic will be able to serve 100 people each week instead of eight.

About 2,000 adults and children will be served by the dental clinic at one time or another during the year, McClelland said.

It will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a capacity for about 5,000 total visits per year.

A full-time dentist, two dental assistants, and an office manager will operate the facility Monday through Thursday, treating as many as 10 children and six adults per day. Volunteer dentists will staff the clinic on Fridays.

The dentists will perform preventive dentistry such as teeth cleaning, fluoride application, sealants, oral hygiene, and nutritional counseling, as well as restorative dentistry such as fillings and extractions.

The clinic will not provide dentures or partials, crown or bridge work, braces, or extensive oral surgery.

For the foreseeable future, volunteers will continue to treat adult patients Thursday evenings at the Free Medical Clinic’s Acute Dental Clinic. The “Keep That Smile” clinic will still operate on Fridays.

Dr. Alfred Phillips, 77, has volunteered at the Free Medical Clinic for 12 years. In 2003, he designed the dental space that the new clinic will be using with the vision that it would be “as good as any dental office, if not better.”

And it seems to have worked. The space is sleek and modern, complete with three chairs, a full array of dental equipment, and shiny tile floors.

“Everybody needs quality care,” he said, “regardless of their ability to pay.”

As a volunteer at the Free Medical Clinic, Phillips used to visit schools to examine students’ teeth. “It wasn’t unusual,” he said, “to see 5-, 6-, 7-year-olds with their primary [baby] molars rotted to the gumline.”

“These are kids that have been in pain — they can’t eat, they don’t get to sleep, and consequently that affects school work,” he said.

The Free Medical Clinic started out with a mobile van for dentistry in 1989, but it was discontinued because there wasn’t money to support it.

Before the grand opening of the new dental facility, the clinic’s staff hope to make the space more “children friendly” by bringing in some donated toys, puzzles, hanging mobiles, and a corner play area.

About 60 percent of the clientele will be 18 or younger, McClelland said.

Dr. Richard Taliaferro, chairman of the board for the dental clinic and a Free Medical Clinic volunteer for more than 17 years, said the new dental facility is “something we’ve dreamed about for a long time.”

“And it looks like it’s finally going to become a reality,” he said.

Families with children enrolled in Medicaid, FAMIS, or FAMIS PLUS can call 540-536-1684 for a screening at the Dental Clinic of Northern Shenandoah Valley.

Adults with an annual income of $12,000 or less for an individual, or $24,000 or less for a family of four, may also be eligible for the dental clinic’s services at a nominal fee.

...www.fmcwinchester.org

Away from the city

2008-08-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

Theresa Fowler was up and dressed for work early Aug. 15, the day the mobile food pantry from Second Harvest Gleaners of West Michigan rumbled into the parking lot of Fifth Reformed Church on M-120 to pass out free food.

Fowler, who had a 10-hour work day ahead of her at the Wesco gas station on Maple Island Road outside Fremont, was in the Gleaners' line by 7 a.m.

The 46-year-old works 40 hours a week, extra if she can, and always on holidays when the pay is higher. Yet, to make ends meet, she has to rely on charity once a month to help put food on the table.

"I'm standing in line because I need help," Fowler said.

She had taken special care to get dressed that morning. Her shirt was pressed; her blue jeans rolled to capri-length; her hair already moussed and spiked into place.

"Can't be late for work," she said.

Her presence, the fact she was in a work uniform, waiting for food, preached a sermon all its own about the plight of Muskegon County's working poor -- people who have jobs but are struggling financially.

"Everyone here's got a story," Fowler said.

She looked up and down the line growing in number, everyone clutching a basket or empty box to fill with food. Some had been in line since before 5 a.m. Fowler was No. 61 in a line that grew to 218 by 10 a.m.

Gleaners trucks, filled with free food, make as many as 10 stops each month in Muskegon County -- but the one on Aug. 15 was unique. Most of the August sites were in the county's urban core. The one at Fifth Reformed Church, located at 2330 Holton not far from the U.S. 31 interchange, was "the farthest out" geographically. It drew residents from Dalton and Cedar Creek Townships, Twin Lake, Holton and homes considered on the "outskirts" of Muskegon County.

"It's tough," Fowler said. "Look around, nobody's job is safe anymore. People are struggling in the city, and out here, too."

Suddenly overcome with emotion, standing in the midst of so much apparent need, Fowler leaned on the shoulder of her next-door neighbor, Diane Blondeel, with whom she had come to the food truck -- and, for a few minutes, she cried her heart out. Her tears prompted a stranger to give up her place in line ahead of Fowler in order to comfort her.

"It's OK. You're a good person," the stranger said, patting Fowler on the shoulder.

Fowler worked to regain her composure, find her voice again.

"That's hard to say; hard to admit. I've always worked, always taken care of myself and my family," she said. "Saying it out loud: I need help. That's hard."

Fowler is caught, squeezed, forced by circumstances into a growing population of the "near" or "working poor." At least one-fifth of Muskegon County residents find themselves in a similar situations, unable to stretch paychecks already strained to the breaking point in precarious economic times.

Fowler, who has two adult children and a grandchild living with her, brings home about $250 a week. Her job includes health, dental and vision insurance "which keeps me going. I don't know what I'd do without that," she said.

"But I'm caught in the middle," Fowler said. "I work, so I don't qualify for (public assistance) from the state, but I don't make enough to get what I need, either."

Like a reliable vehicle, for instance, to get back and forth from work.

Fowler lives in a subdivision in Cedar Creek Estates on River Road in northeastern Muskegon Township on the border of Cedar Creek Township -- "where it's not quite city, but it's not country, either," she said. She doesn't have access to public transportation where she lives. No Muskegon Area Transit System buses go anywhere near her house. She has to drive wherever she goes -- to the grocery store, the drug store, the doctor, to work, even to the Gleaners truck delivery -- which quickly drains her pocketbook in an era of $4 a gallon gas prices.

She drives 30 miles round-trip to her job in an aging, unreliable Jeep she cannot afford to replace, even though the gas gauge is broken, and the engine is suspect. She cannot shift the car into reverse, so she has to carefully plot out her day's travels, or else waste time and gas.

At the same time, she cannot afford to move from her duplex in Creekwood Estates because her rent is determined on a sliding pay scale, "otherwise I don't know what I'd do," she said.

Divorced after 20 years of marriage, Fowler worked three jobs -- a 14-hour day was commonplace -- when her children were younger, just to support them.

"I've always stood on my own two feet," she said. "It's my pride that's hurt ... to have to ask for help now. I've never had to rely on anyone. I always said no matter what it took, even if it meant living in a tin can, I was going to support me and my kids. That's my job. I'm the mom."

Jane Johnson, director of Muskegon County's Department of Human Services, who has worked in the social service sector for more than 30 years, hears stories similar to Fowler's every day. They are the stories behind the statistics of a "nation in crisis," Johnson said. The majority of DHS clients receiving food, day care or emergency utilities assistance are employed.

"We're seeing people asking for help who've never been here before," Johnson said.

Fowler makes too much money to qualify for government assistance, but she cuts corners wherever she can, shopping yard sales. And once a month when the Gleaners' truck is scheduled to stop at Fifth Reformed Church, not far from where she lives, she stands in line for three hours -- or more -- with Blondeel, who is on disability, to receive whatever surplus food they have.

On Aug. 15, she went home with a laundry basket filled with bread and fresh cabbage, surplus sweet corn and tubs of sour cream, lettuce and a carton of soy milk. It is the only Gleaners' stop Fowler frequents. The others are simply too far away to seek out.

Living outside of Muskegon's urban center presents what Johnson called "complicators of distance," challenges that go beyond the skyrocketing cost of propane gas or fewer food pantries in the country.

Think of all the kids who take school buses home -- because there is no other transportation in the family -- and so they can't take part in after school activities. Think of the kids whose parents are having a tough time paying the electric bill, let alone finding the money for field trips, pay-for-play sports or driver education classes.

Steve Danielsen

2008-08-23T04:12:00.000-07:00

Delta Dental of Oklahoma, the state’s first, largest and leading provider of group dental programs, announces the addition of Steve Danielsen as director of sales.
Danielsen has extensive experience in the dental benefits industry. He previously served as regional vice president with Delta Dental of Missouri, and was also a founding partner of an insurance brokerage firm in Kansas City.

A native of Independence, Missouri, Danielsen holds a degree in business management and marketing from Northwest Missouri State University.

“We are very pleased to welcome Steve to the Delta Dental of Oklahoma team,” Delta Dental of Oklahoma Vice President of Sales and Marketing Ken McGuire, said. ”There is no doubt that our growing base of broker representatives, clients and subscribers will benefit greatly from his breadth of knowledge and background in the insurance industry.”

Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Offers Wide Variety of Activities during Ag Progress Days

2008-08-18T04:07:00.000-07:00

CAMP HILL — Pennsylvania Farm Bureau (PFB) has planned numerous activities, including the popular kiddie tractor pull contests, along with information and displays on a wide variety of agricultural issues and programs as part of Ag Progress Days, which takes place from August 19-21. PFB’s exhibit building is located at East Fifth and Main Street on the Ag Progress Days cite in Rock Springs, Pennsylvania.

PFB is also hosting a special comprehensive session focusing on oil and gas leasing issues in Pennsylvania. The session entitled: “Natural Gas Leasing: Legal, Tax and Business Aspects for Property Owners” will take place on Tuesday, August 19 from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the College of Agricultural Sciences Exhibits Building Theatre located on West 10th Street on the Ag Progress Days grounds.

The session will include a general overview of the typical oil and gas lease for those landowners contemplating signing a lease along with practical and technical suggestions that can be used in the lease negotiation process. Meanwhile, landowners who have already signed leases can receive information on income tax, estate tax, inheritance tax and real estate tax issues focusing on oil and gas leases. Finally, planning alternatives for the distribution of land subject to an oil and gas lease will be discussed in the context of the succession planning process for a landowner who wants to transfer real estate to the next generation of farm and non-farm children. Gary J. Heim, an attorney servicing the PFB Legal Service Plan for more than 25 years, will host the session.

Listed below is a breakdown of all the activities at PFB’s exhibit building:

Governmental Affairs and Communications Staff – Pennsylvania Farm Bureau staff will be on hand to answer questions on current issues impacting state agriculture.

Gas Leasing – Exploration and leasing of blocks of land for drilling has heated up in Pennsylvania as energy companies hope to tap into huge reserves of natural gas believed to be contained in the Marcellus shale formation beneath the state. Information on landowner rights and the leasing process will be available at the PFB exhibit building.

Health Insurance – A PFB Health Services representative will be at the show with information on group health care insurance available to members. Options include PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) plans, comprehensive major Medical plans, Health Savings Accounts, Medicare plans and Dental and Vision insurance. Veterinarians in some areas of the state and dog breeders and boarders statewide are now also eligible for PFB’s health care coverage.

MSC Business Services – Farm Management Service account supervisors will be available to discuss the many business services available through PFB including recordkeeping, tax planning and preparation; farm accounting software and computer leasing; and a no-hassle payroll service that takes the headaches out of payroll preparation.

Young Farmer & Rancher ¬– Members of PFB State Young Farmer & Rancher Committee will be at the exhibit area to discuss the leadership development and fellowship opportunities available to young farm families through YF&R programs.

Nationwide Insurance ¬– Find out about the member discounts available to PFB members on farm insurance from Nationwide. Agents will be present to also discuss savings for members on auto, ATV, motorcycle, snowmobile and boat insurance, plus discounts on long-term care insurance.

Women’s Leadership Committee – An interactive display on farm safety and other safety information will be featured at the Women’s Leadership Committee booth.

Member Benefits—Beltone will be offering free hearing screening to visitors. Members can receive a 15% discount on hearing aids. Amerigas will have a representative on hand to talk about the five-cents per gallon discount and other benefits available to members. Members can save 10 – 50% on products, supplies and repair parts from Grainger with free shipping on Internet purchases. A representative will be at the show to talk about products available. Representatives will also be at the show to talk about savings to members on internet services through PA Online, no-annual-fee credit cards through Farm Bureau Bank with credit rebates on purchases. In addition, you can find out more about savings on select Dodge vehicles and Case IH tractors as well as other member benefits.

For the youngsters: Kiddie Tractor Pulls and the “Dairy Dare” – The “kiddie tractor pull” contests will take place daily on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, beginning at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Youngsters between the ages of five through ten will compete in three age categories, with prizes for tractor pull winners sponsored by PFB’s Young Farmer & Rancher Committee. Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation will host a “Dairy Dare” learning booth for young visitors to PFB’s Ag Progress Days building. Children will learn to identify parts of a cow in a fun, interactive exercise.

Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s exhibit building at Ag Progress Days will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 19 and Wednesday, August 20; and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, August 21. Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is the state’s largest farm organization with a volunteer membership of more than 44,000 farm and rural families, representing farms of every size and commodity across Pennsylvania.

Losing sight

2008-08-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

By Bill Coates, bill.coates@azcapitoltimes.com

Shortly before noon, diners line up at the Capitol Café. On busy days, the line spills out into the hallway of the Executive Tower basement. The daily special is written in grease pencil on a small portable sign.

On this day, it’s roast turkey for $4.59.

One of the cashiers is Mike Feeney, wearing wraparound sunglasses. He runs the business.

He’s also legally blind. And that’s no coincidence. Feeney operates the Capitol Café under a federal law known as the Randolph-Sheppard Act. In Arizona, this is administered through the Arizona Business Enterprise Program, part of the Department of Economic Security.

As Feeney rings up the customers, he’s pleasant. He’s efficient.

But, under the surface, not all is well with AzBEP. Among its 30 or so blind operators, some complain DES runs the program with a heavy hand. Others say agency red tape makes it difficult for them to make simple repairs or replace worn-out equipment. And, they say, DES has dragged its feet in opening up new sites — including inside state prisons.

DES has its own side of the story. Kathy Levandowsky, program administrator for Rehabilitation Services Administration — AzBEP’s parent division — says she is just asking operators to follow state procurement policies. And that new business sites will be available soon.

As for the operators, the undercurrent of dissatisfaction surfaced last April, when they met as the Arizona Participating Operators Committee (APOC), a representative group required by federal law. At the meeting, members voted to seek the removal or reassignment of two DES administrators, both of whom work for Levandowsky. The vote was non-binding. It was also unanimous.

Henry Grijalva recalls the atmosphere in the room leading up to the vote. It transcended the usual business of discussing new inventory controls and hearing from wholesalers — including one who gave a Starbucks coffee taste test.

“In the back of our minds, we knew something was going to hit the fan,” says Grijalva, 55.

One day he sat at the dining table of his Glendale home, sporting a T-shirt soaked in sweat. He had just finished mowing his lawn, which he does blind. He has been visually impaired from birth. Under AzBEP, Grijalva services vending machines at interstate highway rest stops. An employee drives.

There was little discussion about the vote, Grijalva says. The minutes of the meeting offered few specifics.

But there were undercurrents. And there was Robert Smith.

Smith, the riptide

Smith’s case was the riptide. For many operators, Smith was the victim of an agency that failed to play by the rules. AzBEP policy is set by DES with input from the operators.

The 61-year-old Smith runs Trebor’s, an AzBEP cafeteria at the Maricopa County court complex in Mesa. Trebor, he points out, is Robert spelled backward. He takes a visitor to a small office in the back. He is an outgoing, affable man, as well as a plain-spoken ex-Marine.

He lost his sight in an industrial accident.

“I’m blind as a bat,” he says.

His complaints against DES are both philosophical and personal. On the philosophical side, he says the Randolph-Sheppard Act comes with a built-in conflict.

Created in 1936, the New Deal program offered blind people a chance to run their own businesses on federal and state property. As amended, Randolph-Sheppard gives blind operators priority in setting up cafeterias and vending-machines in federal facilities. Under AzBEP, they also operate food services in state, county and city buildings. Arizona law also gives them priority.

Operators must first undergo six months of training. Right now, about half-dozen newly trained operators await an opening.

Like businessmen, operators hire employees, pay overhead and seek to make a profit.

But unlike most businessmen, they’re wedded to a state bureaucracy. For Smith, it’s like an unholy alliance between government and private enterprise.

For the most part, it works. He says AzBEP has given him a livelihood he would not have had otherwise. But there’s always room for improvement.

“I feel very strongly about this program, and I’m just irritated to death it is so screwed up,” he says.

Then he hands a visitor a stack of papers. He can’t read them, but he knows what order they’re in. They’re a record of his complaint against DES, which goes back to early in the year when Joni Spinka put in a bid to take over a snack bar at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center.

At the time, Spinka operated the Capitol Café in the Executive Tower basement. After she received the go-ahead for the Indian Center, Smith put in a bid for Capitol Café.

A winning bid requires approval from two committees. Each committee has four members, two from the agency and two operators. The first, the qualifying committee, screens applicants. The selection committee makes the final choice among qualified applicants. Candidates take a test and undergo a face-to-face interview.

“The final analysis is what your gut instinct is — who’s going to be the most successful in an operation,” Smith says.

The qualifying committee gave Smith a pass in his bid for the Capitol Café. The selection committee chose him over other candidates, including Mike Feeney, who operated a cafeteria at the Desert Schools Federal Credit Union in east Phoenix.

Randolph-Sheppard administrator Ed House, however, overturned the decision. The agency has final say, but Smith says House was wrong in this case. Smith filed a grievance against DES.

He says the case hinges on $50,000 he borrowed to make payroll after he took over a cafeteria about eight years ago at Fort Huachuca. Most operators — upon taking over a business — get a few a hundred dollars in the cash drawer, in addition to the inventory.

He had five years to pay off the debt, he says. But a massive heart attack put matters on hold. He doesn’t dispute the debt, and says he had paid off most of it. But he had no record of what he still owed, and couldn’t find out, he adds.

Grijalva was on Smith’s selection committee. No one from DES told the qualifying committee that Smith had stopped making payments, he says.

“Robert did do his homework, and he asked the office if he owed any money, if he was all right — if there were any issues. There were none,” Grijalva says.

Debt itself doesn’t disqualify an applicant. But the operator has to arrange payments. DES administrator Levandowsky says privacy issues bar her from discussing individual operators.

Sorting it out

The agency did make its case before Administrative Law Judge Richard Woodlock in early June, however. Woodlock held what amounted to a preliminary hearing to sort out the facts.

Assistant Attorney General Kevin Smith told Woodlock that House had acted properly in denying the bid. In addition, Robert Smith had a payment plan, but he wasn’t paying.

“If he had been in conformance with that payment plan, they would not have rejected the recommendation,” Kevin Smith said at the hearing.

Robert Smith acknowledged the debt, but says the agency never gave him an exact figure.

“I made every attempt to discover how much was owed,” Smith told Woodlock.

A full hearing on Smith’s case is set for Aug. 14.

Generally speaking, Levandowsky says, DES does not send out statements.

“Once they made that arrangement, then they’re responsible for just making monthly payments,” she says.

Most operators go into debt, she says, because they fall behind on payments to what’s known as a set-aside. Each operator pays the agency 20 percent of net profit. On a $50,000 profit, for example, the operator pays DES a $10,000 set aside. The money benefits the operators.

This year’s total set aside comes to roughly $465,000. Of that, two-thirds goes toward operators’ health and dental insurance. About 10 percent guarantees a minimum wage for operators whose profits fall short. Another $108,000 draws in federal matching funds, totaling $400,000 to replace and repair equipment.

The set-aside varies from state to state. Arizona has one of the highest, says Kevan Worley, president of the National Association of Blind Merchants, an advocacy group headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo.

He doesn’t see a problem, he adds, if it’s money well spent.

Levandowsky says it is.

“Some states require operators to pay for their own maintenance and repairs,” she says.

In Arizona, a new case-management system should make it easier to track set-aside debt, as well as inventory.

“That will help them to see what their balance is,” Levandowsky says.

What’s more, DES provides a debtor list at each APOC meeting. Smith says his name never appeared on that list.

Aside from Smith’s complaint, operators have other issues on their plates, including timely replacement and repair of equipment. Red tape has hampered that, they say.

Levandowsky says it’s not red tape; it’s policy. She insists that operators use DES contractors. It’s required by the procurement code, she says. She adds she understands operators’ frustrations, suggesting they were taken out on the two DES officials who report to her.

That would be RSA administrator House and AzBEP program manager Otis Stevenson, targets of the APOC no-confidence vote in April.

Despite the vote, Levandowsky has no plans to back down.

“I can’t go against policy. And I don’t want my staff to go against policy,” she says.

DES declined to make House or Stevenson available for comment.

No time to wait

Allan Curry, past APOC president, says operators don’t always have the luxury of waiting for DES to approve an equipment order.

“If you’re at the Capitol and your ice machine goes down, and you got to spend $9,000 on a new machine, and you have to wait several days or weeks for that, that puts a hardship on the operator,” says Curry, who runs the Rain or Shine cafeteria at the main Phoenix post office.

Curry, 44, has his own hardship story. His cafeteria could use a new sandwich-prep counter.

“The one I have is broken, and it costs too much to repair it. So they’ve got to replace it,” Curry says. “I’ve been waiting for that for six months.”

Levandowsky, however, says emergency repairs have been streamlined.

“They call it in, and then we request emergency procurement authority from our DES procurement office,” Levandowsky says.

Curry says the emergency plan is helpful, if not perfect. But he gives the AzBEP consultants — who advise the operators — an “A” for effort.

“They’re trying the best they can,” Curry says.

For Grijalva, DES remains heavy on the stick and light on the carrot.

“Here in this state, unfortunately, I think we got more of a police program than a proactive program,” he says.

For one thing, he’d like DES to do more to expand AzBEP’s reach. He cites the agency’s inability to set up vending machines in visitation rooms at state prisons.

“We should be able to do all the vending machines in the prisons,” he says.

Levandowsky says she has been talking to prison officials.

“We’re trying to work with the Department of Corrections,” she says.

But security arrangements don’t mesh easily with the requirements of Randolph-Sheppard, she adds. Among other things, operators need access to the machines.

“We’ve got to work through those, so we make sure the operators get behind the gates,” Levandowsky says.

A DOC spokesman had little to add, except to say no agreement has been reached.

More to come

Levandowsky says other facilities are opening up, however. In addition to a new snack bar at Phoenix parks senior center, a coffee shop is going inside Phoenix Burton Barr Central Library. AzBEP is spending about $450,000 to build and equip the facility, with the city paying for utility hookups.

“It should be open at the end of August, the first of September,” Levandowsky says.

In addition, DES seeks to set up more businesses outside the Phoenix and Tucson areas, Levandowsky says.

“We’re going to be sending out a letter that that says, ‘You may not be aware of the BEP program. We’d like you to know what our services are, and what our program is about,’ ” she says.

Even as AzBEP expands, Randolph-Sheppard has hit a rough patch nationwide, says Worley, president of the Blind Merchants Association.

“I think it’s no secret that the program nationally is struggling a bit,” he says.

Every state but Wyoming has a Randolph-Sheppard program.

But business for many of the nation’s 2,500 blind merchants is down for a number of reasons, Worley says. One is the outsourcing of federal work to the private sector. That means fewer employees in federal buildings, where cafeterias are located. Then there’s the growing popularity of the four-day workweek. Business might be good Monday through Thursday, but bad on Friday.

Many state employees already have “flex time,” allowing them to work longer days in exchange for Friday, or every other Friday, off. This appeared to hit home in the cafeteria at the Department of Education, run by Joy Winston. Ordinarily, the lunch business is brisk and booths are hard to come by. On a recent Friday, though, the seating was wide open.

What’s become a frustrating trend for AzBEP operators — there are more than a half-dozen in the Capitol area — could get worse. Gov. Janet Napolitano is looking into a four-day workweek for many state employees to cut commuting costs and pollution.

All the same, AzBEP operators have to make a profit to stay in business. At minimum, an operator is expected to make a profit of $25,000 yearly. Below that, an operator could not make a living, Levandowsky says. For any operation, net revenue should run 12 percent above expenses.

When Grijalva earned only 6 percent on his own operation, he was disqualified for a bid on another site in 2007. He filed a grievance. The administrative law judge found in his favor, ruling out negligence and mismanagement as possible reasons for Grijalva’s poor showing. His business suffered from circumstances beyond his control, the judge wrote.

Grijalva says he had trouble finding labor and had asked AzBEP for help.

“I had multiple requests for assistance, and it wasn’t coming,” he says.

Despite the battles with bureaucracy, Grijalva has no plans to give up on Randolph-Sheppard anytime soon. It has given him steady, stable work since 1979. Many, if not most, operators have been in the program job for years.

“It has been the most effective employment tool ever devised,” says Worley, who operates a cafeteria on a Colorado military base.

Emilio Mosca, 59, agrees, in a measured, low-key way while sitting across from a visitor in a booth at his cafeteria, Emilio’s — on the second floor of the Arizona State Compensation Fund building near uptown Phoenix.

Mosca says simply that AzBEP is a good program. And, though he understands the complaints against it — in his 18 years as an operator, he’s heard them all before.

With a memory that stretches beyond experience, he adds: “They’re the same issues we’ve been hearing for 25 years.”

Dental benefits widen, waiting lines grow

2008-08-10T04:27:00.000-07:00

Two years into the state's bold healthcare experiment, its early success in expanding dental coverage may be threatened by a shortage of dentists willing to treat newly insured patients.

Since getting free or subsidized dental coverage in 2006, more than 200,000 low-income adults have climbed into Massachusetts dentists' chairs for work on their long-neglected teeth. But increasing numbers of patients are expected to seek care, and advocates fear the wait for appointments, now three months at community health center clinics, will grow.

The problem is that just 17 percent of dentists statewide have been willing to see these newly insured patients, despite reforms intended to boost their ranks. Even some of these dentists are limiting the number of state-subsidized patients they will treat.

Dentists say the state's reimbursement rate for adults covers only about half their costs, and they also cite payment delays and burdensome paperwork.

Without more dentists, said Kerin O'Toole, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, patients will not be able to get timely preventive care and "we risk treating people with more expensive and serious health issues."

As part of the healthcare law's goal of extending insurance to nearly everyone, dental benefits were restored to roughly 540,000 low-income adults who had lost nearly all dental coverage under Medicaid budget cuts in 2002. The law also expanded eligibility, prompting another 140,000 to sign up through Medicaid or the newly created Commonwealth Care subsidized program for the previously uninsured.

Suddenly, thousands of patients who had not opened wide in years were calling for appointments, and the number of Medicaid patients who saw a dentist more than doubled in the first full year, from about 15 percent of adults to 35 percent, state data show.

Among the newly insured is Pam Anasoulis, a 48-year-old telemarketer from Beverly who has also wired helicopter engines and fixed conveyor belts to make ends meet. For her, entree to the dentist after years of oral neglect was bittersweet. The mother of two grown children, she had broken a front tooth in 2004 and had gone to a dentist who filed down several of her front teeth to make a temporary bridge.

But Anasoulis said she couldn't afford health insurance and could not afford to go back to have the work completed. The bridge broke, decay set in, and Anasoulis was left with stubs for front teeth.

"You really don't think, when you look at someone with missing teeth, how much they're hurting inside," she said. "I got so depressed I didn't go out."

When she finally found her way to the Lynn Community Health Center dental clinic in 2006, many of Anasoulis's front teeth had to be extracted. But Dr. Herlivi Linares, the clinic director, was able to save some of her teeth and make her a partial denture.

Kalamazoo County boosts dental clinic's budget by $500000

2008-07-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

Posted by Chris Killian | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO -- A Kalamazoo County program aimed at keeping the mouths of schoolchildren and low-income residents healthy may expand its services.

A one-time increase of $500,000 to the Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services Dental Clinic budget has been proposed to county commissioners by Finance Director Bill Dundon. The money would be part of the 2009 budget.

A group of county health officials will be assembled to discuss how best to spend the $500,000. Commissioners will begin budget deliberations in the fall.

Commissioner Brian Johnson said there is support on the board for the clinic and expects the $500,000 to hold firm in the budget process.

"(The clinic) is one of the most important things we can do from a public health standpoint," he said.

Every month, 325 scheduled patients and 80 walk-ins receive services at the clinic, ranging from tooth cleaning and extractions to dental examinations and fluoride treatments.

A mobile clinic provides services to 1,000 schoolchildren in the county each school year.

But about 30 people seeking services are turned away each day because of lack of staff and space, said Linda Buzas, Kalamazoo County health and community services director.

On the first Monday of every month, clinic officials begin taking appointments for the month. Within three hours, the month's appointments are booked, she said.

The clinic operates with an annual budget of $900,000, employing three dentists, three hygienists and six other support staff. It has six dental chairs.

"There is always going to be more need out there than we can accommodate," Buzas said.

Health-care providers have long stressed that maintaining dental health is important to overall health.

To be eligible for clinic services, a person must be a county resident and on Medicaid or not have dental insurance.

"We're at a point where we need to sit down and figure out what we should do with the dental clinic because it is such a highly demanded service," Buzas said. "Right now, we cannot add anymore capacity, and that is leading to some vastly unmet needs."

Charity Begins at Home - U.S. Physicians Volunteer

2008-07-20T06:13:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest crises facing the United States today is healthcare. There are approximately 47 million people in the United States who have no medical insurance. Millions more have inadequate insurance coverage, cannot afford their premiums or deductibles, and have no access to dental care.

In the wake of recent international disasters (Myanmar and China to name the most recent), much publicity has focused on foreign aid. The U.S. spends billions of dollars every year to help those less fortunate in other countries.

But are they doing enough for their own citizens?

Dental Clinic Opens To Uninsured Patients

2008-07-18T16:41:00.000-07:00

By Jeremy Hunt

HARRISONBURG - Marion Messmer was close to retiring from dentistry earlier this year, but then she heard about the Harrisonburg Rockingham Dental Clinic.

"I didn't have any intention of doing this," said Messmer, who recently moved to Harrisonburg after practicing dentistry for 20 years in the Arlington area. "Once I learned about this, I thought, ‘You know, they really need help with this.'"

The dental clinic needed a professional to get the program started, and Messmer took the job.

The Harrisonburg Rockingham Dental Clinic began seeing uninsured patients Monday.

It was formed by the Harrisonburg Rockingham Free Clinic, located at 24 W. Water St., to provide low-cost dental care to uninsured and Medicaid patients.

The dental clinic, which operates in the same building as the free clinic, is open three days a week from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., alternating between a Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday schedule and a Wednesday-Thursday-Friday schedule.

A basic dental care visit costs $30. For major dental work, such as root canals and crowns, the clinic will refer patients to local dentists at reduced costs, said Rich Sider, executive director of the free clinic.

To qualify for dental service, patients must be residents of either Harrisonburg or Rockingham County, have no dental insurance, and earn up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The poverty level is an annual income of $10,400 for one person and $21,200 for a family of four.

The dental clinic is waiting for Medicaid approval to begin seeing those patients, including uninsured children, Sider said.

The free clinic estimates that 60 percent of Medicaid recipients in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County don't have access to dental care, and most of them are children.

In April, the clinic estimated about 300 of the 900 people it treats each year have some kind of dental problem.

Sider said the dental clinic should be approved for Medicaid around the end of the month.

The staff consists of Messmer and two assistants, but as the program develops, the clinic will hire more people, Sider said.

The clinic will eventually be open five days a week as the staff grows, he said.

Although she is the only dentist on staff, Messmer said she has a lot of support from others in the community.

"I don't feel like I'm in this by myself," she said. "There are people who will be there to assist me."

Messmer said uninsured people are likely to ignore problems until they're no longer tolerable, but that's something she wants to change with her work at the clinic.

"There's gonna be a lot of difficult work here," she said. "What I want to try to do is focus on prevention ... and saving your teeth and how."

Contact Jeremy Hunt at 574-6273 or jhunt@dnronline.com

Taking a bite out of dental costs

2008-07-12T01:24:00.000-07:00

By: Adrianne Flores

GREENSBORO – While routine check-ups are something that every child needs to stay healthy, they aren’t always in the budget for many parents. The Guilford County Department of Public Health tried to offer some help with the problem on Tuesday.

Taking 6-year-old Jaylen to the dentist Tuesday wasn't exactly in Michael Clapp’s plans, or the budget. But thanks to the department’s new low-cost dental clinic, Clapp was able to take his son.

"He fell and chipped his tooth. And he said his tooth was hurting. So I brought him here for them to check it out, make sure there ain't nothing damaged,” explained Clapp of his son. "It's a help when you ain't got the money to come out your pocket… when you need that money for food or something else."

This new low-cost program is for families who don't qualify for Medicaid or N.C. Health Choice -- the state's health insurance program for children. Dr. Lad Landau says these children often don't get to see a dentist until it's too late.

"They've got other problems and dentistry is put on the side until there's a toothache,” explained Landau. “And then it really becomes much more of a problem for us to treat."

The clinic offers a variety of routine services including $15 exams, and $25 cleanings. The clinic is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For more information about the program, or to make an appointment, call the Greensboro office at (336) 631-3152. In High Point that number is (336) 845-7733.

Porcelain vs. Bonding

2008-07-02T06:06:00.001-07:00

Today’s cosmetic dentists are not only focused on the oral health and well-being of their clients, they put a lot more energy and creativity into the overall appeal of a person’s smile.

Your smile says a lot about who you are and is often the very first impression someone will take in and remember about you. Why not put forth the best you can possibly offer? Which is better, porcelain or bonding?

For Appearances

Porcelain veneers are the most attractive of the two alternatives. They are translucent, which means they can be seen through and are able to reflect the light naturally, just the way your own teeth do.

Bonding, on the other hand, is opaque and reflects the light off of the tooth’s surface. This may give less of a natural appearance to the treated teeth. Overall, porcelain remains the most natural in its appearance and is often the best choice for this reason.

Cost
The cost of porcelain is much higher than it is for bonding, so bonding is more likely to be paid for by dental insurance, if proven to be a needed procedure.

Convenience - Porcelain cannot be completed in one visit to your cosmetic dentist’s office, so this raises the cost and requires at least two visits to complete.

Durability - Porcelain can tend to be brittle and is a bad choice for someone who may grind their teeth. The porcelain can actually break under the pressure of a strong bite and is not as easy to repair as bonding. Alternately, porcelain resists stains much better and is easier to keep clean.

For more help in deciding whether porcelain or bonding is best for you, contact Dr. Spinner’s cosmetic dentistry clinic today.

Teeth whitening is usually better with dentists' help

2008-06-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

Area dentists offer a variety of options for those seeking a whiter smile.

“We do the overnight process with custom-fitted trays, but the Zoom! treatment is very popular now,” said Dr. Shabbir Hashim of Westgate Dental Arts in Toledo. The process lasts about 40 minutes, and Zoom! can make teeth eight “shades” whiter.

“Before we start, we don't give an exam, but we do a screening to check for decay,” Hashim said. “We go over the medical history to make sure we won't cause any allergic reaction. Then we apply a liquid dam to the gum tissue, which hardens and keeps the whitening material from touching it.”

Hashim then applies a carbamide peroxide to the mouth and turns on a bright, non-UV light to activate the material.

He said since trained assistants perform the procedure, his firm is able to keep costs low, about $400 to $500 per treatment.

“But I like to check in after the procedure,” he said. “We take a ‘before' and ‘after' photo.” The traditional process, using the custom trays for a few weeks of overnight treatments, costs $250 to $300 at his firm. Over-the-counter whitening strips cost $20 to $50, but most dentists agree they are not as effective as “chairside” treatments or custom trays from the dentist. Some dentists offer professional-strength whitening strips.

Hashim said sensitivity of the teeth and gums is a common side effect of the whitening treatment, but it is “transient.”

Dr. Jon Frankel, who has offices in Toledo and Maumee, said his office uses a light-activated whitening system similar to Zoom! called BriteSmile.

“After an in-office treatment, though, we still recommend the tray whitening,” Frankel said.

Frankel said whitening treatment from retail stores “definitely whitens teeth,” but dentists offer products with a higher concentration. Frankel offers the tray whitening as well, and the various treatments cost $200 to $600.

“There's no one who whitens who doesn't love it,” Frankel said.

Patient Michael Carroll owns Carroll Insurance in Maumee and has rewarded four employees with whitening at Frankel's practice.

“It's been a huge home run,” Carroll said, noting that he has had his teeth whitened by Frankel, too. “I brush, I floss but teeth get stained and lose a little of their natural whiteness, especially for those of us who enjoy Diet Cokes and blueberries. Everyone wants to look well.”

Transformed by a tassel: Author feels emotional bond with new Clark College graduates

2008-06-25T02:07:00.000-07:00

By HOWARD BUCK, Columbian Staff Writer

From the opening remarks to the keynote speech, transformation was the stirring theme of the 72nd Clark College commencement Thursday evening.
“I needed to reinvent myself,” said Sherman Alexie, a prize-winning poet, writer and novelist who overcame physical and cultural barriers on an Eastern Washington Indian reservation.

The stand-up comic used self-deprecating humor that had nearly 350 new graduates and proud family and friends in stitches in the Amphitheater at Clark County. But his message was in dead earnest.

“I got all emotional,” Alexie explained after his introduction, which included a scene from his film, “Smoke Signals.” “I’m the son of a woman who got her A.A. degree at age 46. My father got his GED at 32. When I look out at you, I see my Mom and Dad, sort of.

“I’m so touched to be here with you, to celebrate all your reinventions,” he said.

Alexie gave shout-outs to three particular subsets of the cap-and-gown crowd:

To single parents, after years of corralling children and cramming in studies: “Madness, madness! And now you’re here! Congratulations.”
To first-in-the-family graduates: “You are revolutionaries! And you’ve changed your families, forever.”
To those who’ve stumbled or overcome chronic cluelessness: “I’m sure your parents and brothers or sisters are sitting there, thinking, “ ‘Can you believe we’re here?’ I honor your reinvention.”
At the rear of the line of beaming graduates eager to take a bow and receive their new associate degrees or professional certifications, were living examples.

“You want the full story?” asked Steve Shelmet, 38, of Salmon Creek, who got past addiction and a brief prison stint, only to lose an electronics-sector job in 2004.

Boosted by job-retraining funds, he earned an applied science degree in welding technology. He’s already landed a well-paying job with Vancouver’s Thompson Metal Fab, a firm that helped build Portland’s aerial tram.

“It was a very rough transition” at Clark initially, Shelmet said. “I was out of school at seventh grade, I never really did good at school.” But that was then; now, he could look for his wife, Adrienne, and two children cheering him on. “It’s a complete success,” he said.

Success is all the Clark dental hygiene program knows. For 38 straight years, all graduating classes from Clark have aced their state exit exam, believed a national record.

On Thursday, Caitlin Richardson, 21, of Camas, had a white tooth stenciled atop her royal-blue cap. That would be a mandibular molar, tooth No. 31, she’d have you know. She’s already got six or seven job offers to pick from, she said.

Part of an ’08 hygiene class that went 25-for-25 in testing, Richardson also has knocked down four of five state license exams necessary to start work. All that’s left is a clinical final on Monday at the Oregon Health Sciences University: She’ll have 2½ hours to clean one-fourth of the mouth of a low-income patient — one who’s gone at least eight years without any dental care.

“I’ve been sharpening my instruments all week,” she said, shining her own bright smile.

Jill Swindler, 31, commuted to and from Longview to get her paralegal associate’s degree. Formerly with an insurance firm, she’s already at work for a workman’s compensation law firm. She enjoyed her new status with a pair of understanding classmates.

“From one hated career to another,” she quipped. “And then, you add my last name…”

Howard Buck covers schools and education. He can be reached at 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.

Health department argues its ability to care for students is better

2008-06-23T05:41:00.000-07:00

By John-John Williams IV | Sun reporter

County officials tangled this week over a venerable institution: the school nurse program.

Members of the County Council and the school board argued about the prospect of the health department taking over the program from the school system, and how best to serve the health interests of students.

Councilman Calvin Ball got the discussion going by asking about the merits of turning over control of school nurses to the county health department, a model followed in several Maryland jurisdictions.

School Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin said he is "adamantly opposed" to the idea, as officials raised concerns about student privacy and control.
"The goals of the health department are in conflict with those of the school system," he said.

School officials pointed to their efforts to adhere to state-mandated immunization requirements last year and the completion of dental checkups as reasons for maintaining responsibility for the nursing program.

"We were able to call every individual student," said Donna Heller, coordinator of health services for county schools. "As a result we had the lowest exclusion rate in the state. In other counties where the health department had responsibility, they much higher exclusion rates than we did. We had the relationships with the families."

Health Commissioner Peter L. Beilenson favors transfer of responsibility to his department, saying the array of health department resources could be brought to bear for the benefit of school communities. Possibilities include expanding programs to address obesity, asthma and communicable diseases.

"We are health advisers to the school system," Beilenson said in an interview Wednesday. "I think it is nice to have a tie to public health."

Across Maryland, oversight of school nurses varies by jurisdiction. Most programs - 13 out of 24 - are managed by the school system. Nurses in 10 school systems, including Baltimore, are managed by the local health department. In Queen Anne's County, nurses are managed in a joint agreement between the health department and the school system.

"More school systems have taken over from health departments as [health departments] have had funding cuts," Heller said. "They are very different models. We have a coordinated school health model. We do a lot of teaming. We look at the needs of the students."

Beilenson, who was responsible for school system nurses in Baltimore when he was health commissioner there before coming to Howard, said transferring management of the county's nurses to the health department would "take a load off" the school system.

"Their primary mission is to provide a top-notch education, which they do," Beilenson said of school system leaders.

The county's nurses are part of the overall student support team, said schools spokeswoman Patti Caplan.

"There is a very integrated approach to student wellness," she said. "Where the health department's focus is providing information and increasing awareness, our focus is on the individual student and their health needs as it relates to academic success."

Howard has 42 nurses, which equates to about one for every two schools. The school system also has health assistants assigned to schools without nurses to pick up the slack.

School officials say confidentiality would be affected if a change was made. The health department is bound by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which requires stricter privacy guidelines than the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which the school system follows.

If the health department oversees nurses, school system officials would be cut out of the loop, Heller said.

"FERPA allows us to share information on a need-to-know basis," Heller said. "That is very critical to the school staff."

Beilenson said privacy matters were not an issue when he was health commissioner in Baltimore.

"We never had a problem with the city," he said. "We would share information."

For now, it appears no change in the system is in the offing, mostly because the system works, Cousin said.

Cousin and Beilenson stressed that they have had a good working relationship. They pointed to initiatives that have been beneficial to students, such as the Healthy Schools Awards program, which was launched this year.

"We have the same goals - to provide the safe environment for our students and their families," Cousin said.

john-john.williams@baltsun.com

The new prescription

2008-06-20T01:14:00.000-07:00

India has already become a preferred medical tourism destination; the challenge is to keep it that way - through forming synergies with related verticals, accreditation and developing supporting infrastructure. By Gayatri Vijaykumar

According to an ASSOCHAM report, states that offer ayurvedic and medical tourism are likely to be the largest beneficiary of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and may garner around Rs 800 crore. Undergoing even a minor treatment in the West is expensive compared to costs here, which is why about 25 to 30 per cent of the inbound tourists can be tapped for medical tourism. An increasing number of hospitals are equipped with world-class facilities and it is a known fact that surgeries in India are almost half as expensive as its western counterpart because of next-to-nothing import duties on the equipment.

Synergy is needed

But medical tourism is an area that requires the involvement of many players from across industries - from the tour operator that takes care of all the travel arrangements, to the insurance company that covers the patient during the treatment, the hospital where the patient undergoes treatment to the hotel where the patient stays either while undergoing treatment or post recuperating.

Explaining how the hotel and the hospital can work in conjunction, P K Mohankumar, area director for Bangalore and general manager of The Taj West End, says, "The front-end activities from marketing to travel reservations, managing the patient's arrival and departure is the hospital's responsibility. Once that is taken care of, through the same front-end system, the patient can be put through to the doctor. This would lead to a seamless flow." According to him, the hotel reservation network can also engage reservation staff to sell a medical package.

There is an emerging trend of companies having a mixed portfolio of hotels, hospitals, ayurvedic resorts and travel agencies under one umbrella. The Alcon Victor Group which is into construction, real estate and hospitality has also entered into the medical tourism arena with Apollo Victor Hospital, a 150-bed super speciality hospitality in Goa, where it owns properties including Devaaya - an ayurvedic resort. Victor M Albuquerque, the group's CMD, reveals, "We have now started promoting medical tourism and are targeting the European market to Goa for treatments ranging from cosmetic and plastic surgery, dentistry and orthopaedics. We are promoting Goa as an alternate destination to Kerala. That was the idea behind Devaaya."

In Mumbai a travel firm, requesting anoymity, is also working closely with international insurance companies and social security authorities to facilitate smooth transit of patients.

The players

Many players have entered this segment today. Better infrastructure and a higher number of inbound tourists have made Cougar Resorts & Travels for instance look at cosmetic treatments. Arun Raghavan, its director, says, "We take care of the patient's entire journey. Hospitals too play an integral part in this process. Some even facilitate pick-ups and stay for relatives within the hospital premises. We even incorporate leisure activities in the itinerary if advised by doctors."

He is now looking at developing contacts worldwide so as to blend the aspects of 'medical' and 'tourism'. Through this, the partner having prospective clients will send the patients' medical papers to the tour operator and co-ordinate with the doctors/hospitals. The treatment, number of days required and the overall cost will be determined accordingly. "If the patient wants to add more days to their itinerary, we work around the package and provide them with options. For us, the area of beauty treatments and cosmetic surgery is an interesting segment as India is a cheaper alternative vis-a-vis other countries with state-of-the-art equipment," says Raghavan.

The availability of qualified doctors in the state coupled with the brand name Kerala has created as a top tourism destination makes it the top choice for promoting medical tourism. The Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) was awarded the 2004-05 'Health Tourism Award' for introducing the most innovative project in the field of tourism. The tertiary care multi-specialty institution attracts a large number of foreign patients. E M Najeeb, executive director of KIMS, says, "Last year we witnessed 25,000 foreign arrivals - 4,000 more than the previous year. We have an international patient relations department, which takes care of their every requirement right from the hospital arrangements to logistics."

Bengaluru is also making its mark in the medical tourism scene. Says Mohankumar, "It can be termed as a medical tourism city. The existence of a number of hospitals of international standards attracts a lot of patients from abroad." In a bid to tap the potential of the city, Albuqurque plans to set up a health mall in the heart of Bangalore. "We will be setting up infrastructure with medical operation facilities, ICUs, nursing, where each department will be handled by physicians/surgeons who will bring their own equipment. I want to do this not only to promote medical tourism in the international market but also within India."

Kolkata as a medical hub

Lured by a growing market that today includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar, healthcare institutions are making a beeline for Kolkata with a combined budget of Rs 3,000 crore. The city can already expect investments to the tune of Rs 4,500 crore over the next 10 years should all plans on the drawing board mature.

The size of the market estimated at present is 500 million patients. Five to seven mega hospitals are already on the anvil and will come up in the next five years. In the process, Kolkata will not only see its existing players expand operations but also the entry of new entrants in healthcare business. The Eastern Metropolitan Bypass is fast emerging as the strong health-line of the city with most of the developments happening around it. In addition to the major groups, the Neotia-Elbit Healthciti, a 1,000-bed, multi-speciality project with a stem cell research centre, is also coming up in the vicinity. Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, the 325-bed multi-speciality hospital of the Apollo Group provides specialised services in emergency care, cardiology, neurology, dermatology, gynaecology and obstetrics, gastroenterology, hepatology, orthopaedics and a host of other specialties.

Peerless Hospital & BK Roy Research Centre, the 300-bed multi-speciality tertiary hospital of the Peerless Group too offers services in six 'super' speciality areas - cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, neurosciences, orthopaedics, paediatrics, neonatology and gastroenterology. Nearly 25,000 foreign patients a year, mainly from Bangladesh, are treated at the hospital.

The state government has been inviting private participation in a big way and has framed new public-private participation policy guidelines. It currently provides land to private promoters who in turn will set up medical facilities.

Case Study: Dr Rajkrishnan's dental clinic

When Dr Rajkrishnan set up Dr Rajkrishnan's Dental Clinic in 1995, little did he know that it would attract so many foreign patients. "My first international patient came from Florida in 1997. He was on a trip to Kerala when he started experiencing dental pain. Despite his inhibitions on the capability of an Indian dentist, he visited the clinic. He brought back two more patients with him the same year."

Then in 2000, he saw a shift from a predominantly US clientele to a European one. This was the time when Kerala saw a number of people from countries like Germany, Switzerland and Austria settling down in the state. "Most of the promotion till then was word of mouth. However, in 2005, we started attending various travel expos and marts abroad." Dr Rajkrishnan's team attended WTM London, ITB Berlin, ATM Dubai and the Kerala Travel Mart and started interacting with the travel trade to explore ways of working together. "There are 3,000 practicing dentists in the state, 1,200 dental offices and 23 dental schools. We have immense potential and can promote the state as a dental tourism destination."

Dr Rajkrishnan calls his package a "dental vacation". Explaining the process by which this package is enabled, he says, "We get mails from patients abroad with reference from their regular dentists. We ask for their dental records and inform the patients about the duration of their treatment. We also recommend hotels where they can stay. The tour operators on our panel co-ordinate with these patients for their schedule."

According to Dr Rajkrishnan, foreign patients spend five to ten times less than what they would spend in their own countries. This, coupled with the availability of qualified doctors and echnology, makes the treatment a valuable proposition.

Promoting ayurveda

According to ASSOCHAM, the domestic ayurvedic market is currently estimated at Rs 3,000 crore and this is expected to go up to around Rs 5,000 crore in the next two years. Speaking about the role of ayurveda in promoting medical tourism, P R Krishnakumar, managing director of The Arya Vaidya Pharmacy (Coimbatore), says, "There are a number of ailments that allopathy fails to cure. There was a time when ayurveda was not popular even within the country. But there is a lot more awareness about ayurveda today."

Located in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, the 120-bed hospital is a clinical wing of the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy. According to Krishnakumar, a substantial number of patients from Kenya, parts of Africa, Australia and Europe visit the hospital for rejuvenation. "We also work with Taj Kumarakom and Taj Calicut and have posted two representative doctors in each property," he explains.

Kairali Ayurvedic Health Resort, Palakkad, the flagship property of the Kairali Group is another important player on the scene. The property was recently selected to be one of the top 50 wellness destinations in the world by National Geographic. The group has 100 acres of land in Palakkad of which 50 acres have been used up for the resort. According to Ram Mohan, its VP (Marketing & PR), almost 70 per cent of its guests are from Europe.

The Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha & Homeopathy (AYUSH), established by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in 1995, has taken steps to spread more awareness about this form of therapy. According to Krishnakumar, AYUSH will be opening ayurvedic desks in Indian embassies abroad and also plans to conduct road shows with an overall budget of Rs 500 crore.

Accreditation a must

Obviously, safety is a big concern and it is necessary for the government to impose stringent regulations to ensure that only serious players are involved. Hospital accreditation plays an important role in this regard. Healthcare in the West is insurance-driven and most insurance companies only cover patients who get treated from accredited hospitals.

A few major hospitals have accredited themselves with Indian and international accreditation agencies. Stresses Sivaram Rajagopalan, principal consultant with Shiva Consultants, "There needs to be standardised treatment across the board for both the local and foreign patients. Hospitals should take up the required accreditation." Speaking about the importance of accreditation, Najeeb says, "The government should create awareness among medical institutions that have sufficient infrastructure to go for quality accreditation and promote their hospital in the international medical tourism arena."

In 2006, India launched an accreditation programme for secondary and tertiary hospitals by the National Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), which has so far given accreditation to 11 hospitals throughout India with 58 applications pending. In the international arena, the Joint Commission International (JCI) is an important accreditation agency. Launched in 1999, JCI is a division of Joint Commission Resources (JCR), the subsidiary of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). The commission accredits hospitals based on core areas such as adherence to international standards of clinical care, safe environment, safe medication, quality of staff training, respect for rights and privacy and international infection control standards. The Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai is the first super specialty hospital in South Asia to get the JCI accreditation.

No accreditation agencies or guidelines have been formulated for ayurveda. However, those in the field are trying to push the government to formulate guidelines in order to regulate the sector. "We realise the need for strict regulations governing ayurveda and those who practice it. We are requesting the government to bring in accreditation procedures to ensure quality of treatment," explains Krishnakumar.

Cancer 'insurance' policy will pay out for expensive drugs which NHS refuses to give to patients

2008-06-16T06:35:00.001-07:00

A scheme which allows patients to receive expensive drugs that are banned on the Health Service has been launched by an insurance company.

The top-up cash plan is designed to plug gaps in NHS care, including the denial of life-prolonging drugs to cancer patients in England and Wales that are available in Scotland.

The policy is unique in that it gives patients access to a legal helpline and free legal advice if they face being penalised by having NHS treatment withdrawn as a result.

The scheme from Western Provident-Association is a direct challenge to the Government's refusal to allow top-up payments for treatment not provided on the NHS - forcing patients to go fully private.

Doctors and campaigners have attacked the Government's stance as unlawful and unjust because it deprives patients of NHS care they would otherwise have received.

Ministers are under pressure after the death of Linda O'Boyle, 64, who was refused bowel cancer treatment on the NHS because she paid ?11,000 for the drug Cetuximab.

Other cancer patients face the same dilemma, while the pressure group Doctors for Reform is seeking a judicial review to have the ban on top-up payments declared illegal.

Under WPA's NHS Top-Up Plan, those paying premiums from ?15 to ?24 a month will get cash benefits towards everyday medical expenses including dental and optical treatment and prescription charges.

Patients under 60 can add on the cancer drugs option from ?4.20 a month to get access to advanced licensed drugs that are not available from the NHS.

This gives them up to ?50,000 lifetime benefit, whether these drugs are administered in the NHS or in the private sector.

If the patient's local NHS trust denies treatment and will not allow the top-up with privately funded cancer drugs, the benefit funds their administration in the private sector and provides free legal advice.

Julian Stainton, chief executive of WPA, said expert legal opinion showed no reason why patients should not move between NHS and private treatment, and no bar in law to a patient buying their own drugs and having them administered as part of a course of NHS treatment.

The presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons and Royal Society of Medicine have spoken out against the Government's policy, while the British Medical Association's consultants body has voted against it.

The Department of Health said patients are free to take treatments not available on the NHS.

But it added: 'The additional treatment may involve some associated care which cannot be provided separately.

'In these cases, the patient must be treated privately for the whole of that package of care.'

Court takes lesbian insemination case

2008-06-09T05:23:00.000-07:00

by Lisa Leff, Associated Press Writer
Published Thursday, 05-Jun-2008 in issue 1067

Do religious beliefs give doctors the right to withhold medical treatment from lesbians and gay men?
That’s the question the California Supreme Court took up last week in a discrimination lawsuit brought by a lesbian who was denied artificial insemination at the only local obstetrics and gynecology office covered by her insurance.
Guadalupe Benitez, of Oceanside, alleges that after treating her with fertility drugs for nearly a year the staff of the private North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group refused to inseminate her eight years ago because of her sexual orientation.
The case is being closely watched by civil rights and physician groups who think it could have consequences for other medical procedures, including abortion and end-of-life decisions.
“There is confusion among many health care providers who believe doctors have the freedom to pick and choose their patients,” said Jennifer Pizer, an attorney with the gay rights legal group Lambda Legal who represents Benitez. “But doctors’ ethics may not be exercised in a discriminatory way.”
Benitez, now the mother of a 6-year-old boy and 2-year-old twin girls, sued Vista-based North Coast under a state law that prohibits for-profit businesses from arbitrarily discriminating against clients based on characteristics such as race, age and sexual orientation.
A San Diego County trial judge sided with her, but a midlevel appeals court reversed, ruling that the lower court needed to explore the disputed facts of the case before deciding whether the doctors’ religious views were a viable defense.
The appeals court noted that at the time Benitez sought treatment, California civil rights law still allowed businesses to restrict their clientele based on a customer’s marital status and Benitez’s doctors claimed the main reason they would not treat her was because she was unmarried.
Peter Ferrara, general counsel for the Virginia-based American Civil Rights Union, said regardless of what the doctor’s reasons were for referring her to another fertility specialist, a ruling in Benitez’ favor would set a dangerous precedent.
“If you have a genuine moral issue raised, as in this case, you have to recognize the rights of both parties,” said Ferrara, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the doctors.
Requiring them to act in violation of their beliefs “is a discriminatory resolution, and it discriminates against Christians,” he said.
Along with the American Civil Rights Union, the Islamic Medical Association of North America, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, the California Catholic Conference, the American Association of Pro Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Americans United for Life and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church State Council submitted briefs backing the North Coast practice.
The California Medical Association initially sided with the doctors as well, but reversed its position after coming under fire from gay rights groups. The association ended up joining an amicus brief submitted by health care provider Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. The American Civil Liberties Union, California Attorney General Jerry Brown, the National Health Law Program and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association also filed papers backing Benitez.
Benitez, 36, said she and her partner decided to pursue the case because they wanted to prevent other couples from suffering the disappointment and humiliation they did.
“Even now I still have reservations when I go to a new doctor,” she said. “The first question we ask each other is, ‘Do you think they will have an issue and not take into consideration at all that we are a normal family like anyone?””
Pizer says the fear that a victory for Benitez would require doctors to perform abortions and nurses who oppose assisted suicide to take an ailing patient off life support is alarmist. The point is that while doctors can opt out of performing certain procedures on religious grounds, they cannot exclude medically eligible patients from the services they do provide, she said.
California law allows pharmacists to refuse to dispense “morning after” pills to women who have had unprotected sex as long as another pharmacist is available to fill the prescription.
“If a doctor in good conscience can’t provide good medical care, that doctor should not be in that field,” she said. “If a person isn’t willing to provide the care the person needs, they shouldn’t be wearing the lab coat.”

Dental care for disabled may grow even scarcer

2008-06-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

Dr. Diana Zschaschel leaned over Boogie's wheelchair to check his teeth with a mirror and probe.

Boogie wailed.
"It's OK, Boogie," said his father, Vergery Grubbs Sr. He reached over to take his son's curled hand. "Keep your mouth open. You're doing a good job."

For the elder Grubbs, this was the easy part. The challenge had been finding a dentist willing to treat his namesake, who is 13 but looks half that age. Dubbed "Boogie" because music makes him laugh, Vergery Grubbs Jr. was born with cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus, or water on the brain. He is mentally and physically disabled.

Once father and son waited for three hours to see a dentist, only to be told to go to a county hospital.

"I was hopping mad that day," Grubbs said. The dentist "wanted to put him to sleep just to clean his teeth."

Zschaschel hears such stories all the time.

"I'm kind of the last-resort dentist," she said. "There are very few private dentists who will take on this kind of work."

With cuts to the state's Denti-Cal program scheduled to go into effect in July and another round of cutbacks already on the table, there could soon be even fewer.

Finding dentists to care for patients with disabilities is a challenge under the best of circumstances, said Dr. Paul Glassman, co-director of the Pacific Center for Special Care at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry in San Francisco.

For starters, he said, few dental schools teach students how to care for patients with disabilities. Over the last 12 years, the USC School of Dentistry has required every student to spend a week working in its Special Patients Clinic, one of the few clinics dedicated to patients with disabilities. But most dentists in private practice haven't had that kind of experience.

Another barrier is the state's low Denti-Cal payments. Disabilities can interfere with finding work and take a toll on family resources, so many people with disabilities depend on this state-federal insurance program for the poor.

But dwindling numbers of dentists accept Denti-Cal patients because reimbursements are among the lowest in the country. They will fall even lower under a 10% rate cut scheduled to go into effect July 1 as part of the Legislature's efforts to reduce the state budget deficit. And Denti-Cal doesn't pay extra for the additional time that goes into treating a patient with disabilities.

"You're asking dentists to do something they're not well-trained to do, that's going to take a lot of time, and they're going to be paid a third of their normal rate," Glassman said. "It's no surprise that a lot of people aren't lining up to do this kind of work."

Hospitals aren't lining up either.

Depending on the degree of disability, some patients require general anesthesia at a hospital to have a tooth pulled, a cavity filled or even just a cleaning.

But across the state, hospitals that once extended staffing privileges to dentists like Zschaschel are cutting back on dental services or discontinuing them altogether, Glassman said.

"It's pretty clearly because of money," he said. "Hospitals have to pay attention to their bottom line. They have to stay in business."

Zschaschel used to treat about eight patients a week under general anesthesia at St. Vincent Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles. She is now down to about four a month, which the hospital evaluates on a case-by-case basis.

Dr. Jay Rindenau, an anesthesiologist and consultant who advised St. Vincent to cut back its dental services, agreed that California's low reimbursements strain hospitals. But that was not what drove his recommendation, he said. Children with disabilities have a higher risk of complications, he said, and unlike county, teaching and specialized children's hospitals, St. Vincent does not have a pediatric unit.

Dental Insurance Plan: A Few Things To Remember

2008-06-01T06:28:00.000-07:00

Regular dental check up is the foremost advice that any dental health care professional offers. But only few of us act on that expert advice. Simply because most of us are lazy. Besides, we do not want to spend money on something for which there is apparently no urgent need. Laziness is the state of mind and has to be taken care of by us on our own, but so far as expenses are concerned, dental insurance plans take much of the load off one's pocket. However, while going for a dental insurance plan, there are a few things you must ensure.

1.Make sure that the dental insurance plan allows you to choose your own dentist. If the dentist you want for yourself and your family is not among those that the plan approves, the expenses incurred by visiting such dentist may not be borne by the insurance providers.
So, make sure that you are not put to any such irritating inconvenience. Pay a little more, if you have to, to be attended by your preferred dentist. It's well worth it.

2.Consider the restrictions, if any, imposed by the plan on your choosing the treatment options. There are a few insurance plans that tend to cap the number of treatments allowed while a few others would limit the expendable amount. Those who have a family history of poor dental health must consider this aspect very carefully and ensure that the plan they choose imposes the least number of restrictions on their choice of treatment.

3.Know what your plan covers exactly and what stands outside its purview. A good dental insurance plan allows a cleaning treatment every six months. X-ray and fluoride treatments are inclusive, as they cost little or nothing at all. So far as the major treatment procedures are concerned, you are required by many plans to pay 50 percent of the expenses. If your family has had good dental health in the past, you may ask for lesser coverage in this area.

4.Who all in your family would be covered under the plan is also an important issue. Mostly, dental insurance plans cover the spouse and also the dependent children right from the birth up to 18 years of age.

These are a few things that you must consider while going for an insurance plan so that all of your dental worries are a thing of past.

By: Javier Fuller

To get more information on dental insurance, dental insurance and dental health plans visit www.dentalinfoline.com/

Miss Pennypincher: what's the drill about dental care

2008-05-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

Denplan is one of the biggest providers of capitation schemes, with 1.8m patients who are registered with more than 6,500 dentists – a third of practising dentists. It has an 80 per cent share of the entire dental plan market, and also offers cash plans and dental insurance.

In order to sign up to Denplan, your dentist must first give you an oral assessment. You must then decide how comprehensive you want the cover to be and can choose from the Denplan Essentials policy which is more basic than the Denplan Care scheme which covers a wider range of treatments.

The Denplan Care policy, for example, covers all normal routine dental care including X-rays, examinations fillings and preventive care, as well as restorative care such as gum treatment, crowns, bridges, dentures and inlays, and root fillings.

The Essentials plan, however, does not include any restorative dental treatment, and neither plan covers cosmetic dentistry, orthodontics, nor referrals to specialists. Denplan dentists set their own fees, so these will vary depending on the location of the practice, the costs of its overheads and your oral health. However, the average fee for Denplan Care is £18.05 a month, while for Denplan Essentials, it is £11.27.

Plans for children are typically £6.99. For more information, or to find a Denplan dentist, visit the website www.denplan.co.uk.

Another way of covering steep dental costs is to consider insurance, which is available through companies such as Boots. Its NHS cover is designed to repay your NHS dental charges and costs £9 a month. This provides cover of up to £500 a year for routine treatment and £500 for accidental dental injuries.

Level 1 Private cover costs £13.50 a month and will pay out up to £750 a year for routine treatment, and up to £1,000 a year for dental injuries. Cover for emergencies is unlimited. Boots Level 2 cover costs £19.50 a month, but will pay out up to £1,000 and £1,500 for routine treatment and dental injuries respectively, with cover for emergencies again unlimited. For routine treatments, you must have been on the plan for three months before you can make a claim. For more information, visit www.boots.com, or call 0845 840 1111.

The third type of dental cover you can buy is through health cash plans. These will contribute towards your routine healthcare costs. They work by paying out a cash sum whenever you visit a dentist or other medical practitioner, such as a chiropodist or optician, which you can spend on what you want. HSF's Health Plans, for example, start from £6 a month.

As well as dental treatment, the plan covers other medical expenses, such as practitioner treatment including physiotherapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy and podiatry, and specialist investigation and treatment. However, if you opt for the lowest level of cover, at £6 a month, the maximum you can claim back for both dental and optical costs is just £50 in any one year.

The highest level of cover, which costs £78 a month, will pay out a maximum of £850 a year for dental and optical treatment. To find out more, visit hsf.eu.com. Similarly, Medicash's health cash plans, start at £6.50 a month. The cover is available to anyone aged between 16 and 65 and the policy also includes payments for visits to the optician, overnight hospital stays, homeopathy, physiotherapy, having a baby and breaking a bone. Again, if you opt for the lowest level of cover, the maximum you can claim back for dental costs alone is £50 in any one year.

The highest level of cover, which costs £39 a month, will pay out a maximum of £300 a year for dental treatment costs. See www.medicash.org. HSA, at www.hsa.co.uk, offers a dental-only cash plan which offers three levels of cover, priced at £7.35, £12.60 and £17.85 a month respectively.

The more you pay, the more cover you get. So, for example, the maximum the lowest-cost plan will pay out for crowns or bridges is £200, rising to £500 if you take out either of the higher cost plans.

Whichever form of dental cover you opt for, you must always ensure you understand exactly which procedures are – and aren't – included, and what limits are in place, as being caught out over the small print is enough to leave anyone feeling down in the mouth

Dental insurance

2008-05-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

Dental insurance covers all or part of the costs of routine and emergency dental treatment with a private or NHS dentist.

As finding low cost NHS dentists becomes harder, more and more people are turning towards private dentists to give their teeth the dental care they deserve. The cost of visiting the dentist has risen sharply, having dental insurance can help policyholders afford treatment for their teeth.

SAG Fair to Cover Health from Head to Toe

2008-05-09T04:41:00.001-07:00

By Tim Saccardo One of the biggest national issues in this year's presidential election is also one of the biggest personal issues for actors: health care. In a freelance industry like entertainment, most actors have few options for acquiring health insurance. Some are fortunate enough to get union benefits, others pay out of pocket, and many who cannot afford steadily rising premiums do not have health insurance at all -- a risky proposition when a brief emergency room visit can run up a bill totaling tens of thousands of dollars.Even those actors who qualify for the Screen Actors Guild's health plan one year are at risk of losing those benefits the next if they do not meet the annual earnings minimum of $13,790 or at least 74 days of employment. According to the Department of Labor, the average annual income SAG members earn from acting is less than $5,000. But SAG is one union determined not to leave its members out in the cold. For the fifth year, the guild's HealthCare SafetyNet committee is holding its free Health Fair for all union members May 14, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at the guild's headquarters in Hollywood."The SafetyNet committee started during the Clinton [administration]. We survived through Bush, and all politicians seem to do is talk," said Reneé Aubry, national chair of the committee and a member of the guild's national board of directors. "We began as a research committee on alternative insurance. What came out of that was the realization that it was going to take a long time until [our country] achieved national health care. So in the meantime, the SafetyNet committee could provide some much needed services to our community."Our Health Fair is to help those who are underinsured and uninsured and in those years in which they do not qualify for insurance," explained Aubry, who organizes the event. "This year we're having HIV testing for the first time. We have massage therapy, body-fat analysis, skin-cancer exams, blood-pressure consultation. We have a podiatrist; we have dental awareness. Now we're even bringing on board some medical health service clinics: nutrition and weight control, Pap smear referral, and prostate referral. We're covering the entire spectrum of the body, inside and out, from head to toe."

With a turnout of more than 750 people last year, Aubry has seen the Health Fair grow in leaps and bounds from its modest origins. "At first, because we didn't have a budget, we just brought in the Red Cross to give blood pressure screenings before our membership meetings.... Now [the fair] is in both the Cagney and the AFTRA boardrooms, and we're out on the street as well at the same time."At this year's fair, the number of provider groups will number nearly 30, and there will be more than 100 participating physicians and support staff donating their time and services. One medical professional who has volunteered at every Health Fair from the beginning is podiatrist Dr. Richard M. Cooper. "I always enjoy interacting with the members within the industry and am happy to offer my services," said Cooper, who will once again be providing free foot screenings. "I will be using the aid of foot models, foot bones, and medical brochures. My objective is to answer any questions [actors] may have as well as inform and educate members regarding their conditions with the options available to them. I feel it's very important to provide this service regarding their health care issues, regardless of their insurance status."Aubry also emphasized the event's confidentiality: "These are all medical professionals, and everything is held in the strictest privacy. There are no pictures allowed to be taken of the members because many members do not like [the public] to know that they're not making their insurance [minimum]."The Health Fair is open to all industry union members and their dependents," Aubry said. "AFTRA has been invited, Actors' Equity, the Writers Guild, the casting directors -- anyone can come who is in the industry."

Insurance is among latest services available for truck drivers

2008-05-07T04:43:00.000-07:00

As profit margins from fuel sales continue to shrink, truck-stop operators are looking for new ways to create revenue by offering more varied amenities, including medical clinics and truck-insurance agents.The truck-stop industry is only about 35 years old, said Fred Kirschner, operator/franchisee for Scranton Petro, based in Haverford Township, Delaware County, outside Philadelphia. "The late '70s was really the start of the modern truck stop, where all the services are operated by one person or company," Kirschner said. Previously, each service, such as a restaurant or fuel pump, was owned separately, he said. From the 1970s until the 1990s, fuel was the main revenue source, but fuel profit margins have continued to decrease since then as prices increase. With the widespread availability of cell phones and the Internet, companies can keep track of fuel prices and direct drivers to specific stops for the best prices. "It used to be that these compliance programs were for just the big fleets," Kirschner said. "But now, even the independent drivers are using them." Truck plazas have done a good job of keeping customers and finding new ones, said Jim Runk, executive director for the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association."Drivers are still looking for cleanliness, good food and a shower," Runk said. "But they are also taking advantage of the engine-idling systems and other services, too."Mindy Long, vice president of communications for NATSO Inc., formerly the National Association of Truck Stop Operators, said truck-plaza managers are working harder to bring in customers. "We're still seeing a lot of the traditional services like restaurants and showers," she said. "But many are adding new services, as they cater to those who see the stops as a home away from home."Traditionally, truck stops have offered convenience stores, game and movie rooms, laundromats, check cashing and truck maintenance. Some of the newer services include medical and dental clinics, massage therapy, chiropractic care, truck-insurance agencies and barber shops. "For long-haul drivers who need simple medical care, these clinics are great," she said. "And we're seeing some locals who come to the clinics as well."Drivers also can receive spiritual care, as many truck stops have chaplains on staff, or available through a local church.Internet connections are offered at just about every stop, Long said. Some offer Internet access only inside the plaza, but, increasingly, drivers opt to stay in their cabs using idle-reduction services that provide electricity as well as heat or air conditioning while their engines are off.A bit like a drive-in movie theater, a cable and wide hose are connected to a window insertion on the cab to reduce idling. The innovation is partly in response to legislation pending in the state House of Representatives limiting truck idling to five minutes per hour, Long said. Some drivers also use the idle-reduction service because it's quieter and saves fuel. An idling truck uses about one gallon of diesel per hour. With prices hovering around $4.25 per gallon, the $1 per hour charge for idling reduction is well worth the price, Long said. Because truck cabs can be nearly self-contained for comfort and entertainment, truck-stop owners need ways to encourage the drivers to come inside the plazas. They are also trying to attract a new customer; Long called them "four-wheel traffic.""Owners are offering familiar brands of restaurants and shops in order to attract families on vacation," Long said. "They generally keep the truck areas separate, in part, because they know the truck drivers want to get in and out quickly. Time is money for them, while the families usually have more time to linger."Professional drivers and families are also looking for healthier foods and more options, Long said. As more women join the trucking industry, Long said more women's items are being offered in convenience stores, and some store owners want to create a more family-friendly atmosphere. Brighter outdoor lighting and grassy areas are becoming more common.The truck plazas of today aren't as rough as the stereotype, Kirschner said. "Most people are afraid of them, until they actually visit one," he said. "We're trying to let people know it's a good place to rest and relax."

Lack of funds forces Maine clinic to shutdown

2008-05-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

(Amy Sinclair, NECN: Auburn, Maine) - Instead of asking patients to open wide, the hygienists here at the Western Maine children's Dental Center spent the day preparing to shut down. It's not for lack of business.
Beryl: "The need is phenomenal, we’ve seen more than a thousand patients in the year we've been here."
The problem is much more basic, this clinic that caters exclusively to low-income kids can't pay its bills.
Dr. Wicks: "I hate to say the clichés but it's about money."
Dr. Dennis Wicks, who provided the clinic's dentistry, says it's the same story in public health dental care across Maine.
He says their reimbursement level from MaineCare --the state's insurance system--isn't high enough for them to cover expenses.
Wicks: "however if we take the pessimistic attitude it's a formula of failure there won't be any care there's going to be a tremendous need that's totally unmet."
Sinclair: Maine care families don't have a lot of options. Private practice dentists are often unwilling to take them on because of the low reimbursement rate forget breaking even. It actually costs money to see the patients."
When you figure in the shortage of dentists across northern New England, you begin to see why more kids are showing up in emergency rooms with toothaches.
Sarah: "It's a huge problem that isn't going to go away soon we've just had budget cuts at the state level..."

Rockingham County Free Clinic celebrates anniversary

2008-05-03T18:04:00.002-07:00

Libby Barrett, right, signs for a prescription to be filled by Phyllis Richardson, a pharmacy technician at the Free Clinic of Rockingham County, on Tuesday evening.

Steve & Barry's makes a sneak attack

2008-05-03T18:01:00.001-07:00

Want to get a whole lot of mileage out of that tax rebate check (or, as my Australian friend recently referred to it, "government hush money")? After paying off rent, car insurance, the credit card bill, student loans, dental bills, phone charges and parking tickets, why not use the remaining $8.98 to pick up a new summer dress at Steve & Barry's? A story in the Thursday edition of the New York Times style section reports that the discount mall chain is quietly running circles around its competition. In addition to snagging a few exclusive celeb clothing lines -- most notably, Sarah Jessica Parker and her so-so label, Bitten -- the megastore undersells the competition. Forever 21, Target and Old Navy sell thrifty wares, but not quite this thrifty. Everything at Steve & Barry's is $8.98, but the key is, it doesn't look that cheap (it doesn't exactly look pricey, either, so take it for what it's worth). The natural concern, when seeing prices that low is, "Why is this so cheap? Something can't be right." Visions of an unpaid, overseas worker slumped over in a sweatshop, stitching away at a floral sundress come to mind, and you slowly put the dress back on the rack and inch away ( at least that's what happened to me). Store creators Steve Shore and Barry Prevor are quick to dissuade the notion the cheap prices are a product of cruel labor practices. Instead, they say the prices are a result of thrifty in-house spending and a lack of brand glitz. The low-key approach to marketing and affordable "fashions" are the reasons it's an under-the-radar success. Does this mean I'll give SJP's Bitten a second chance? I suppose it can't hurt, and I do need something to wear to the theater on May 30. Email Tricia Woolfenden at twoolfenden@grpress.com.