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American Dental Education Association

Volume 2, No. 77, November 22, 2022

New Leadership for the New Congress
 
With only a handful of seats left to be determined in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican party has secured enough seats to become the majority. If all the outstanding races—four in California, one each in Alaska and Colorado—finish with the current leader winning, the Republicans will hold 222 seats to the Democratic party’s 213 seats. It takes 218 seats to constitute a majority.
 
The new Members of Congress and those reelected to the 118th Congress, which will convene in January 2023, have been in Washington attending orientation and party caucus meetings. One of the most important parts of those meetings is to elect party leaders for next year. Since the Republicans will be taking over the House, the main focus has been on their leadership elections. There was no controversy when U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the current Minority Leader, was chosen as GOP candidate for Speaker of the House, the current Whip U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) moved up to become Majority Leader and U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) was elected Whip.
 
The Democratic side of the House will have new leadership; House Speaker U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that she would step down from leadership at the end of this Congress and at House Majority Leader U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced that he will not seek a leadership position in the new Congress. It is expected that the current Democratic Caucus Chair U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jefferies (D-N.Y.) will become the Democratic Leader, the current Whip U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) will become Assistant Leader, while U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and U.S. Rep. Peter Agular (D-Calif.) will round out the Democratic Leadership team.
 
Meanwhile on the U.S. Senate side, the leadership elections were not as interesting. Democrats will retain control of the chamber, with the size of the Democratic majority to be determined by the Georgia Senate race during the Dec. 6 runoff. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will remain the Senate Majority Leader and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will remain Whip. On the Republican side of the aisle, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) will remain Republican Leader and Whip, respectively.

CMS Announces Medicare Will Cover Necessary Dental Care
 
The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) has announced a final rule [ [link removed] ] regarding medically necessary dental care. Until now, Medicare payment for many dental services has been restricted by statute. However, the Biden-Harris administration has been pushing for changes regarding what constitutes medically necessary dental care, particularly after a legislative effort to add a dental benefit to the Build Back Better bill failed last year [ [link removed] ] .
 
The new rule, which is to take effect on Jan. 1, 2023, will allow CMS to cover dental services when those services are linked to treating a patient’s medical condition. Examples of clinical situations covered are valvuloplasty procedures, pre- and post-surgical infections, cardiac valve replacement and treating infections before organ transplant procedures.
 
In 2024, the new rule will allow for coverage of dental services related to the treatment of head and neck cancer as well as establish a new annual review process that may allow for other dental services to be covered in the future.

Congress Returns to a Busy and Contentious Post-election Session
 
Congress is faced with several daunting tasks in the waning days of the current session which will hopefully end by Christmas. First, before leaving for the election, the chambers passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to carry the federal government’s authority to operate at the funding levels of last fiscal year (FY) through Dec. 16. Congress now must finalize the 12 appropriations bills before then or pass another CR to give more time for negotiations. ADEA AGR expects a one-week continuation to finalize FY 2023 spending.
 
In addition to this, neither house has passed a FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), though this will likely get done. Congress has passed an NDAA for 53 consecutive years—a record it is very proud of—but time is short to extend the string.
 
Also pending are reductions in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) physicians’ fee schedule that will be effective January 2023. CMS is proposing a 4.42% reduction in physician reimbursement to offset payment policy improvements, as required by current law. U.S. Reps. Ami Bera, M.D., (D-Calif.) and Larry Bucshon, M.D., (R-Ind.) introduced the Supporting Medicare Providers Act [ [link removed] ] (H.R. 8800) to stop this reduction. AGR joined two calls hosted by one of ADEA’s coalition partners with staff members of the Democratic and Republican committees that are working to avert this reimbursement reduction. Each of the staff members stated that there are bipartisan efforts to fix this problem before the end of the year.
 
AGR will keep everyone advised on all these matters as they unfold in the coming weeks.

Delta Dental to Administer Dental Benefits for Adults Enrolled in New Hampshire Medicaid
 
Delta Dental was chosen to administer [ [link removed] ] soon to be launched dental benefits for adults enrolled in New Hampshire’s Medicaid program. The benefits are scheduled to launch in April 2023 and were created by state legislation [ [link removed] ] that was passed in July. The state currently offers emergency-only benefits for adults but after implementation, the dental benefits will cover:
 • Diagnostic and preventative services;
 • Comprehensive restorative treatment to prevent or treat oral health conditions;
 • Oral surgery and treatment necessary to relieve pain, eliminate infection or prevent imminent tooth loss; and
 • •Removable prosthodontics for specified populations.

The benefit would be capped at $1,500 annually, excluding preventative services. The program would also be required to implement maximum cost sharing allowed under federal guidelines for all services other than diagnostic and preventative services for families with incomes 100% above the federal poverty level.
 
Expanding or adding dental benefits has been trending among states. In recent years, Delaware [ [link removed] ] , Maine [ [link removed] ] , Maryland [ [link removed] ] , Minnesota [ [link removed] ] , Tennessee [ [link removed] ] and Virginia [ [link removed] ] have all added or expanded dental benefits for adults enrolled in Medicaid.

North Carolina Board Requires Continuing Education on Substance Abuse and Mental Health
 
The North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners has finalized a new rule [ [link removed] ] that will require all dentists and dental hygienists to take one continuing education (CE) hour in substance abuse and mental health issues every two years as part of their total CE requirements. To meet the requirement, any course taken must be offered by a Board-approved sponsor and be designed to address relevant issues for dental professionals, including substance abuse, chemical dependency, impairment and mental health disorders.

Oregon to Launch Dental Benefits for Veterans in January
 
The Oregon Health Authority is now accepting applications for a program that will offer free dental benefits to lower- and middle-income veterans. The Oregon Veteran Dental Program [ [link removed] ] was created by HB 4095 [ [link removed] ] and requires the Oregon Health Authority to Department of Consumer and Business Services to contract with a dental care organization to administer the program. The program will provide the same benefits as those available to state’s Medicaid population. Eligibility is limited to veterans who are residents of the state and who earn between 138% and 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL); veterans who earn less than 138% below FPL are eligible for benefits through the state’s Medicaid program.

ADEA Advocacy in Action
This appears weekly in the ADEA Advocate to summarize and provide direct links to recent advocacy actions taken by ADEA. Please let us know what you think and how we might improve its usefulness.
 
Issues and Resources
 • Applications open [ [link removed] ] for HRSA Dental Public Health Research Fellowship
 • ADEA report [ [link removed] ] on teledentistry
 • ADEA report [ [link removed] ] on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on U.S. Dental Schools
 • ADEA policy brief [ [link removed] ] regarding overprescription of antibiotics
 • For a full list of ADEA memos, briefs and letters click here [ [link removed] ] .

Key Federal Issues [ [link removed] ]

ADEA U.S. Interactive Legislative and Regulatory Tracking Map [ [link removed] ]

Key State Issues [ [link removed] ]

The ADEA Advocate [ [link removed] ] is published weekly. Its purpose is to keep ADEA members abreast of federal and state issues and events of interest to the academic dentistry and the dental and research communities.
 
©2022
American Dental Education Association
655 K Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20001
Tel: 202-289-7201
Website: www.adea.org [ [link removed] ]

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B. Timothy Leeth, CPA
ADEA Chief Advocacy Officer
 
Bridgette DeHart, J.D.
ADEA Director of Federal Relations and Advocacy
 
Phillip Mauller, M.P.S.
ADEA Director of State Relations and Advocacy
 
Brian Robinson
ADEA Program Manager for Advocacy and Government Relations
 
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