On June 14, 2023, Dentistry in General (DIG) hosted a powerful discussion moderated by Bob Dee, DDS, the founder of this “dentists only” website. Participants included Raymond Cohlmia, DDS, the executive director of the American Dental Association (ADA); Marko Vujicic, PhD, the ADA chief economist; Mouhab Rizkallah, DDS, the author of Massachusetts Question #2 on dental insurance medical loss ratios (MLRs); and David Leader, DDS, an associate professor at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.
The fiery debate lasted nearly two hours and covered the ADA’s role in advocating for MLRs, the recent article co-authored by Vujicic on value-based dentistry (VBD) in the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) (June 2023), as well as a myriad of subjects concerning the dental insurance industry. The discussion also included Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs). Dentists and viewers witnessed a welcome change from the standard fare of a panel discussion, with all voices mostly speaking in lockstep.
In fact, at times the discourse became so rousing that the moderator, Dee, injected his perspectives into the dialogue. Although on all occasions, the arguments presented remained within professional decorum, the ADA leadership was clearly unprepared for the level of fervency and frustration generated by alleged abuses by the insurance industry.
Source: ADA Leadership Engages in Brutally Direct Discussion of the Insurance Industry / Dentistry Today