ADA Backs Legislation Protecting Dental Insurance Patients
The American Dental Association (ADA) recently commended Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) and Rep. Herb Conaway (D-NJ), for introducing the Improving Dental Administration (IDA) Act to ensure that the more than 360 state dental insurance reform/patient protection laws enacted in the last decade apply equally to enrolled patients of self-insured plans. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) regulates “self-funded” dental plans. Some dental carriers claim ERISA allows them to ignore state insurance laws meant to protect patients. The ADA wants to close that loophole and bring the power to regulate healthcare back where it belongs – with the states. “The growing number of ‘self-funded’ plans regulated by ERISA has emboldened carriers to assert they are not subject to state oversight, claiming that the ERISA preemption gives them a free pass to ignore insurance laws,” said Rich Rosato, D.M.D., president of the American Denta...
