Government Relations
PDA’ s 2025-2026 Advocacy Goals
The new legislative session is now well underway, with Gov. Josh Shapiro having given his budget address in early February and the General Assembly convening budgetary hearings with all of the executive offices in March. The administration and General Assembly will work to reconcile their respective budgetary priorities with the hopes of passing the Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget by late June.
Notably, the governor’ s proposal includes an additional $ 15 million to support health care workforce initiatives. While $ 10 million is intended to provide educational loan repayment to more behavioral health care providers, there is some flexibility in how the $ 5 million earmarked for the needs of rural Pennsylvanians would be spent. PDA is part of the stakeholder community educating lawmakers about the need to attract more dentists and dental hygienists to rural areas of the Commonwealth.
We continue to get our legislative goals in order this session. We’ re working on several dental insurance reform issues and advocating for an overhaul of the dental Medical Assistance program to include a restoration of comprehensive services for adults and across-the-board fee increases.
Several bills impacting dentistry have been introduced: HB 544: Credentialing Reforms
• Requires practitioners and insurers to use the CAQH system.
• Requires timely notice to applicants when an application is incomplete.
• Limits the credentialing period to 45 days.
• Streamlines the process for practitioners practicing in multiple locations.
• Introduced by Rep. Steve Mentzer and assigned to the House Insurance Committee.
HB 583: Restoration of dental Medicaid coverage for adults
• Requires the Commonwealth to restore the dental benefits provided to adults prior to cuts that were made in 2011.
• The services covered prior to 2011, and those currently covered in the Medicaid program, are the minimum required. The Commonwealth could choose to cover additional services.
• Introduced by Rep. Gina Curry and assigned to the House Health Committee.
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 81: 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 will soon introduce 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.
MARCH / APRIL 2025 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL 7