In the last week, two significant bills that could have negatively impacted dentistry in Virginia were passed by for the year, effectively closing their current path to become law. In both instances, the VDA Government affairs team worked with other medical associations, members of the relevant committees and the bills’ authors to ensure that the legitimate concerns of dentists about the impact of the bills were addressed.
While stopping them this year was a success, dentists should remain wary of these proposals that could be reintroduced in future years in the General Assembly.
The VDA raised serious concerns that this would amount to a legislative mandate that would force the Virginia Board of Dentistry to accept the most lenient state’s standards for licensure, potentially putting patients at risk from dentists who don’t meet Virginia’s standards for dentists to safely and responsibly practice in the Commonwealth.
The VDA believes that further steps to increase licensure portability would be appropriately addressed through the authority already granted to the Virginia Board of Dentistry and not by legislation mandating that the Board accept potentially unqualified candidates for licensure.
This is a bill that has been proposed in past years, and risks increasing the cost of liability insurance – a cost that would be passed on to patients, with the greatest impact on patients who are paying out of pocket or struggle with the cost of dental care. Existing Virginia law includes a provision for a modest annual increase in the cap on recovery and we believe this policy strikes the proper balance in accountability without going too far to interfere with the ability of providers to care for their patients. The VDA testified against the bill in the Senate Committee on Judiciary, warning of its impact on cost and access to oral healthcare in Virginia, before the committee passed it by for the year.
The VDA Government Affairs team works year-round to ensure dentists have a seat at the table and speak with a unified voice when decisions are being made in Richmond.
Help protect the profession and your patients by making a contribution to the Virginia Dental Association Political Action Committee (VDA PAC).