Advocacy

Recent News

February 9, 2012

CMCS Names Dr. Mouden Chief Dental Officer

The Center for Medicaid, CHIP and Survey and Certification (CMCS), an agency within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, yesterday announced the appointment of Dr. Lynn Mouden as its news chief dental director. He will take up his new duties on Feb. 27.

The ADA nominated Dr. Mouden for the position in September and is pleased CMCS felt as strongly about his qualifications as the association did.

Dr. Mouden is currently serving as Director of Arkansas’ Office of Oral Health. He also holds faculty appointments at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry, the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry, and three faculty appointments at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He spent 16 years in private practice dentistry and eight years with the Missouri Department of Health before taking the position in Arkansas.

Dr. Mouden is a Fellow of both the International and American College of Dentists, and has served in numerous dental leadership roles at the local, state and national level. He is a Past-President of the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD). 

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January 12, 2012

Protect the Rights of Publishers, Ensure Quality of Content of Scholarly Publications, Association Tells Congress

The question of free public access to research published in scholarly journals is a subject that occupies many health care organizations. The undeniable importance of access to taxpayer-supported research must be balanced with the rights of publishers, who have an obvious interest in maintaining the viability and reputation of their journals.

The ADA recently endorsed H.R. 3699, a bill that would clarify that a publisher’s copyrighted journal articles are not in the public domain. Importantly, the bill would also protect unpublished peer-reviewed author manuscripts from recent efforts to make them freely available to the public. The ADA and other groups, generally supportive of efforts to streamline access to peer-reviewed research literature, believe that manuscripts often contain information that varies from that in finished articles and their release could lead to the distortion of research findings.

The ADA’s flagship publication, the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA), is highly respected by dentists and academics for its rigorous standards of research.

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January 12, 2012

ADA Members Ask Congress to Repeal Insurance Companies’ Anti-Trust Exemption

Keeping up the drumbeat on the need to eliminate the McCarran-Ferguson antitrust exemption granted to the insurance industry nearly 65 years ago, the ADA this week asked its grassroots members in certain congressional districts to contact lawmakers in the House and Senate. As a result, hundreds of ADA members urged their representatives to take action on H.R. 1150, the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act, a bill that would eliminate the McCarran-Ferguson antitrust exemption.  

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December 20, 2011

Law Funds Critical Education and Prevention Dental Programs, Prohibits Spending on Alternative Provider Demonstration Projects

The $1 trillion spending bill that President Obama signed into law Friday night includes ADA-supported provisions funding critical dental programs that focus on education and prevention.

During these tough fiscal times, when many federal programs are being cut, the ADA has worked hard to convince Congress of the importance of oral health initiatives like those within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Indian Health Service and the National Institutes of Health, as well as Title VII residency programs that improve access to dental care by placing dentists in areas where they’re needed most. These programs either survived efforts to cut their funding in fiscal year 2012 or received increases.

In passing this bill lawmakers have shown that they understand that improving oral health education and disease prevention measures are the linchpins in eliminating or at least minimizing untreated dental disease. In addition, by explicitly prohibiting the Department of Health and Human Services from spending money on the alternative dental workforce provider demonstration projects Congress has shown that it does not consider such a use of scarce federal funds to be worthwhile.

The legislation funds the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, through Sept. 30, 2012.

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