Government Relations
PDA’ s 2025-2026 Advocacy Goals
The current legislative session, which began in January 2025, allows PDA two years in which to advocate on members’ behalf for important insurance reforms, scope of practice and access to care initiatives. Every two years, before the start of a legislative session, PDA leaders carefully weigh every issue impacting the dental profession and assess Pennsylvania’ s political climate before deciding which issues to advocate for and how best to allocate our resources to achieve our advocacy goals.
We will continue to pursue these priorities when the legislative session resumes in late January, emphasizing to lawmakers that dental insurance reforms are needed to help recruit and retain dentists and dental team members, and that dental offices are economic drivers in their communities.
PDA’ s advocacy agenda for 2025-26 includes:
1. Streamlining the credentialing process to attract more dentists to the Commonwealth and avoid delays with patient care. Legislation to improve credentialing includes standardization of forms and the application process, a reasonable timeframe for insurers to notify applicants when more information is needed, limiting the timeframe for insurers to credential complete applications, and simplifying the process for practitioners who practice in multiple locations.
2. Transparency with network leasing so that practitioners are notified when an insurer leases its network of participating providers to a third party. Enhancing transparency will help ensure fair pricing and stabilize practice revenue, which ultimately diminishes any disruption of patient services.
3. Requiring insurers to report their Dental Loss Ratios( DLRs) will result in great transparency and more accountability for how patients’ premiums are spent. Establishing a DLR reporting requirement will also align dentistry with the requirements for health insurers under the Affordable Care Act.
4. Increasing funding in the dental Medicaid program and raise reimbursement rates in order to make the program viable and attract more dentists to participate.
While we take a focused approach in limiting our primary advocacy efforts to these priority issues in our agenda, we will monitor and address the following issues on an as-needed basis:
• Licensing board advisory opinions.
• Health care provided restricted covenants.
• Teledentistry.
• Funding for the Donated Dental Services program and other oral health related programs.
• Prescription drug prescribing authority.
• Scope of practice and workforce development issues.
• All insurance issues, such as balance billing, coordination of benefits and prior authorization.
• Improving patients’ ability to access dental care.
CMS Announces $ 50 Billion in Awards to Strengthen Rural Health in All 50 States
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services( CMS) recently announced that all 50 states will receive awards under the Rural Health Transformation Program, a $ 50 billion initiative established under President Trump’ s Working Families Tax Cuts legislation( Public Law 119-21) to strengthen and modernize health care in rural communities across the country.
In 2026, states will receive first-year awards from CMS averaging $ 200 million, within a range of $ 147 million to $ 281 million. States are to invest this funding to expand access to care in rural communities, strengthen the rural health workforce, modernize rural facilities and technology, and support innovative models that bring high-quality, dependable care closer to home.
The Rural Health Transformation Program’ s $ 50 billion in funds will be allocated to approved states over five years, with $ 10 billion available each year from 2026 through 2030.
• 50 % of the funding is distributed equally among all approved states. This provides states with a strong foundation to begin implementing their Rural Health Transformation Plans.
• 50 % is allocated based on a variety of factors.
• Factors include individual state metrics around rurality and a state’ s rural health system, current or proposed state policy actions that enhance access and quality of care in rural communities, and application initiatives or activities that reflect the greatest potential for, and scale of, impact on the health of rural communities. All scoring factors are outlined further in the Notice of Funding Opportunity.
According to CMS, funding will:
Bring More Care Within Reach States will advance Make Rural America Healthy Again goals by expanding preventive, primary, maternal, and behavioral health services and creating new access points that bring care closer to home and help preserve strong local health systems.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2026 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL 5