Dental practice management is being challenged in the North Carolina legislature.
Last year, The Wealthy Dentist twice reported on the story of the North Carolina Senate Bill 655 that would require the North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners to examine all business contracts entered into by dental practices in their state.
Our first article, Dentists Beware: The Government May Want To Tell You How To Manage Your Practice detailed information concerning inclusive authority over how dentists manage their business.
The second The Wealthy Dentist article, Dental Practice Management: North Carolina Senate Bill Wants Dentists To Do It Themselves discussed the dentists’ responses to the impact this bill could have on their dental practices.
The measure has already passed the state Senate and has moved on to the House, where leaders have appointed a special interim committee to study the bill and its potential repercussions to dentists.
Reports have surfaced that the legislative proposal likely to be heard this May. The basics of the bill is intended to restrict contracts dentists can build with dental service organizations and give the Dental Board control of how dentists in North Carolina run their practices.
With much at stake for dentists and dental management companies who oppose the bill, many have joined forces to form the Alliance for Access to Dental Care, a group lobbying the legislature to stop the bill, while the The Dental Society’s political action committee, a lobby for the North Carolina Dental Board, is spearheading support for the bill.
Both sides have spent considerable sums of money lobbying on their own behalf.
As the debate heats up, both recently released TV advertisements supporting their positions —
The Dental Society –
The Alliance for Access to Dental Care –
The North Carolina Office of Research, Demonstrations and Rural Health Development reports that there is a severe shortage of primary health care providers in North Carolina, particularly in the State’s rural areas.
Will limiting the ability for dental management companies to work with dentists in North Carolina further strain access to dental care?
Opponents to the bill believe if the current legislation passes, it will force some dental practices to close, put people out of work and limit dental care access for many families across North Carolina.
Whereas those in support of the bill argue that the legislation is necessary to block for-profit, investor-owned corporations from negotiating service contracts that, in their opinion, take ownership and control of dental practices away from licensed dentists in North Carolina.
What are your thoughts on dental practice management companies? Are they a help to your dental practice, or do they allow large corporations to unfairly compete with dentists?
