G o v e rn men t Relat ions
In February, Governor Wolf gave his budget address for fiscal
year 2020-21, which begins this July. The House and Senate
conducted hearings with the secretaries of the executive agencies
to ask questions about the Governor’s budgetary requests.
Negotiations are underway with the intent of passing the state’s
budget by the constitutionally-mandated deadline of June 30.
PDA monitors the budgets from the Departments of Health,
Human Services, Insurance and Environmental Protection for
their potential impact on dentistry and the delivery of health care
services or programs.
PDA continues to lobby for HB 564 assignment of benefits
legislation, while responding to other legislation impacting
dentistry. The General Assembly is currently debating issues such
as telemedicine/teledentistry, opioid prescribing practices and
surprise balance billing. To strengthen our efforts, PDA belongs
to several coalitions dedicated to representing Pennsylvania’s
health care providers.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
On Tuesday, January 14, PDA was informed that HB 564,
assignment of benefits legislation, was pulled from the legislative
agenda. The earliest a vote may take place is now mid-March.
We thank all of you who responded to our action alerts over the
past few weeks. Please know that this effort was not in vain. You
strengthen your relationship with your lawmakers each and
every time you reach out to them, and the more they hear about
this issue the better.
The insurance lobby is vociferously opposed to HB 564. They will
continue aggressively lobbying against HB 564 to make sure that
it “dies” by the end of the year when the legislative session is over.
We need you to keep the momentum going with phone calls,
emails and visits to your lawmakers’ district offices in order to pass
HB 564 through the House to the Senate. A phone call or letter
goes a long way, but scheduling an appointment is even better,
to more fully explain why this legislation is needed. Involve
your family, staff, neighbors and friends – HB 564 is a good thing
for them, too!
We’re here to help. Contact the government relations (GR)
department if you need your legislators’ contact information or
HB 564 talking points. You can reach us at (800) 223-0016 or
[email protected], [email protected] or [email protected].
Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks as we
ramp up our efforts in Harrisburg and in key legislative districts.
Thank you again for taking the time out of your busy schedules
to advocate for your profession and patients.
HB 564: Assignment of Benefits
Take these simple steps to advocate for your profession
and patients!
STEP 1: CALL OR VISIT
Please CALL or VISIT your Representative (in the district office) to
discuss how assignment of benefits legislation gives patients
more freedom to choose their dentist!
You can find your legislator’s contact information here:
www.legis.pa.state.us. Type in your home address in the boxes
on the left side of the screen and that will link you to your
representative and his/her contact information. Or contact
PDA’s government relations staff at [email protected] or
[email protected], and we’ll look up that information for you.
STEP 2: THE ASK
Ask your representative to support reverting back to prior
printer’s number (#579) and to vote in support of HB 564
without any amendments. Emphasize that HB 564 is all about
giving patients the freedom to choose. HB 564 puts the power
in patients’ hands.
STEP 3: FOLLOW-UP
Contact PDA’s government relations staff at [email protected] or
[email protected] to tell us what kind of response you received
from your legislator. Did he/she express support or opposition?
Does he/she need more information? This will help us tally up
the vote and target the right lawmakers.
TALKING POINTS:
HB 564 enhances patient choice and alleviates financial burdens.
Patients can still choose a participating dentist who will accept
direct payment in full. Patients can still choose not to assign the
benefit to a non-participating provider and pay upfront or work
out a payment plan with the dentist. But the benefit of HB 564 is
that patients now have another option—to assign their dental
benefit to the non-participating provider, avoiding the burden of
paying out of pocket. This third option will help many of your
constituents who face untenable situations based on finances and
socioeconomic status, geography and familial circumstances.
Assignment of benefits legislation is already in place in 22
states. Insurance companies oppose assignment of benefits
laws because they believe this will weaken the participant
network. Empirical evidence does not substantiate the claim
that provider networks are weakened in states with assignment
of benefits laws. Most recently, a study from Florida after it
enacted assignment of benefits legislation found no net loss in
physicians’ participation in network plans.
MARCH/AP RIL 2020 | P EN N SYLVAN IA DEN TAL JOURNAL
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