Government Relations
HB 157: Rural Health Care Grant Program Act
• Incentivizes health care providers, including dentists and dental hygienists, to practice in rural areas of the Commonwealth.
• Facilities in rural areas may apply for grants to pay a provider’ s education debt.
• Providers must meet certain criteria to be eligible for loan repayment.
• Introduced by Rep. Kathy Rapp and reported out of the House Health Committee in February.
SB 842: Restricted licenses for internationally trained dentists
• Allows internationally trained dentists who serve as faculty to practice at dental schools and their affiliated health care facilities under a restricted license.
• Introduced by Senator Rosemary Brown and passed out of the Senate in June with a vote of 47-3. SB 842 passed out of the House Professional Licensure Committee in June.
SB 81 & HB 365: Dentist and Dental Hygienist Licensing Compact
• Rep. Frank Farry reintroduced legislation for the Commonwealth to enter to join the licensing compact endorsed by the American Association of Dental Boards. Rep. Kyle Mullins reintroduced legislation for the Commonwealth to join the licensing compact proposed by the Council on State Governments. Both bills are assigned to the House Professional Licensure Committee.
• The Department of State is working to resolve issues that arise due to the Commonwealth’ s laws on clearances, specifically having to do with FBI checks for out-of-state practitioners applying for a compact privilege.
HB 1460 & SB 708: Health system mergers and acquisitions
• Requires sufficient notice of health systems’ proposed mergers and acquisitions to the Attorney General’ s Office, to assess how potential closures, consolidations, and reductions will impact the community.
• PDA and other dental groups successfully lobbied for an amendment that exempts dental practices, so long as they are not affiliated with a hospital or health system.
• Rep. Lisa Borowski and Sen. Michele Brooks are the prime sponsors. The House passed HB 1460 in June.
Access to Care Hearing
In June, the Senate Majority Policy Committee hosted a public hearing on access to dental care in rural Pennsylvania. A special thank you goes to Dr. Maria Tacelosky, a PDA member from Tamaqua, who testified on our behalf. Dr. Tacelosky shared her perspective on practicing as both a public health and private practice dentist in a rural community, and highlighted PDA’ s advocacy goals to attract and retain more dentists and dental team members to Pennsylvania.
These goals include the need to raise commercial and Medicaid reimbursement rates, enact meaningful dental insurance reforms, and offer financial incentives for dentists and dental team members to practice in rural areas. We are grateful to Sen. Dave Argall and the committee for raising awareness with policymakers about the challenges facing dentistry and dental patients, and the need to improve Pennsylvania’ s business climate in order to maintain an adequate workforce and expand access to care.
PDA Hires Public Relations Consultant
Through a grant with the ADA’ s State Public Affairs Program, PDA hired a public relations consultant to develop and implement a strategy integrating a public relations campaign with our legislative goals to enact meaningful dental insurance reforms and workforce policies that drive more dentists and dental team members to the Commonwealth.
Amy Hill from Hill Communications Strategies brings more than 25 years of experience to her new role as PDA’ s PR consultant. She helps her clients define the issues at stake and develop strategies that generate widespread grassroots support to influence policymakers on both sides of the aisle.
8 JULY / AUGUST 2025 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL