Mead Family Dental

This Saginaw dentist will testify before a Michigan senate committee!

Sorry for no blogging so far this week. I've been busy preparing to testify before a Michigan senate committee on three bills that will benefit dentists and patients in Michigan!

• senate bill 213: This bill would correct a loophole in the law that doesn't allow pharmacies to fill out of state prescriptions from dentists. Why is this important? Think or a patient living in the western Upper Peninsula who sees a dentist in Wisconsin. 
• house bill 4192: This bill would amend the Michigan Automated Prescription System to allow a MAPS registered dentist/physician to check their own controlled substance prescriptions.
• House Bill 4389: This bill would give retired dentists and podiatrists special immunity when working on indigent populations. This would allow retired dentists to work without having to purchase malpractice insurance. This is the same immunity that physicians currently have.

Why am I doing this? My experience with testifying before a Michigan house committee was really good. I feel strongly that this potential legislation is very positive. Having a practicing dentist speak about how the laws will affect patients and dentists in the state of Michigan lets these legislators see why the legislation is important. SOMEONE should let them know...why not me? Another dentist colleague of mine is going to be testifiying as well. I appreciate that Dr. Tom Poirier is coming too!

Stay tuned for more blogs! I have some pretty amazing things that I'm working. I can't wait to show them to you!

I testified before the Michigan House Health Policy committee today!!!

Now this isn't something you get to do every day!  This Saginaw dentist had the opportunity to testify before the Michigan House Health Policy committee!  This is a cross posting from another blog I maintain at www.mapsinformation.com.  

House Bill 4192 is a proposition to change MAPS to allow for participating prescribers to request a report of their own controlled substance prescriptions.  This would allow for a prescriber to audit his patient records against all of the controlled substance prescriptions dispensed under their name. This would allow a practitioner to make sure no fraudulent prescriptions were being written under their name.

Several states including Colorado and Tennessee already allow this in the prescription drug monitoring program and the feedback that I've gotten is that it works great and has no discernible down side.

I was asked by the Michigan Dental Association to testify before the Michigan House Health Policy Committee.  This was a pretty amazing experience!  I sat in front of a microphone in a hearing room with Grace DeShaw-Wilner of the MDA and we explained to the committee why this legislation is a good thing for Michigan.  There were several questions asked and we answered them pretty well, I think.  The chair of the committee told us that she expected a committee vote by next week.

It was interesting to see how government really works.  I'm pretty confident that the House will support the bill, but I will keep you posted here!