McAllen dentist Dr. Jose “Joey” Cazares has been elected by members of the Texas Dental Association’s House of Delegates to be the 2016-2017 President-Elect of the Association, and will automatically ascend to the Presidency in 2017-2018. Dr. Cazares will be the first president of the TDA to be elected from the Rio Grande Valley District Dental Society.
Dr. Cazares is well-known in the RGV and has carved out an illustrious career since graduating from the Baylor College of Dentistry in 1985. He is a past president of the RGV District Dental Society, RGV Academy of General Dentistry, Dentists Who Care, Inc. (a local charity funded by area dentists) and the Texas Academy of General Dentistry. At the national level, he currently serves as a member of the Academy of General Dentistry’s Legislative and Governmental Affairs Council and has been an ADA delegate for several years.
Dr. Cazares’ involvement in the TDA at the state level began in 1997 as a member of the TDA House of Delegates and served on the TDA Board of Directors from 2005 to 2008. He has been a member of TDA’s Committee on Access to Medicaid/Chip (CAMC) since its inception at that time.
He told TDMR, “The TDA has been around for over a hundred years and I am the first dentist from the RGV Dental Society to become president-elect of the association. It is quite a significant recognition.”
“Personally, it was a big honor for me to be nominated in the way I was nominated by Dr. Rene Rosas from El Paso. He was the first Hispanic dentist to become President of the Texas Dental Association, elected in 1983, and the one who did the formal nomination for me this past May. He is over 80 years old now and has been a role model and mentor to me for quite a few years. It was a special treat to have him do that for me.”
“As far as Medicaid is concerned, I have been a Medicaid provider ever since I returned home to McAllen from dental school. I’ve been involved in all the issues pertaining to dental access to care since I graduated, and more recently with Medicaid providers who strive to provide quality, ethical care to the patients that deserve that care.”
Dr. Cazares has been a strong advocate of due process rights for Medicaid providers and testified in favor of both HB 1536 and SB 1803 in the last legislative session and will continue to support due process rights for fair treatment of honest and ethical Medicaid providers.
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