ADA News (Newspaper) - May 6, 1985, Chicago, Illinois PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY PAGE TEN PROGRAMS PAGE 14 American Dental Association Serious health concern FTC seeks to seat panel on smokeless Warning labels eyed among regulatory options Editors note This is the second in a series of articles examining various aspects of the smokeless tobacco See also the April 15ADA regulatory fate of smoke less tobacco in this country can be deter mined federally in three ways Congress can make the Federal Trade Commission FTC can sue or the FTC can invoke its rulemaking The which was petitioned more than a year ago to re quire a health hazard warning label on smokeless handed the ball to the US Surgeon Gener als office in when it asked for an expert panel to be set up to review the scien evidence available about the health ef of smokeless The surgeon generals office has not yet named that but action is expected in the near according to the Department of Health and Human In the the FTC is continuing in its according to Judith Wilkin of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Pro We have an active We are pursuing those aspects at which we are most expert while awaiting the surgeon generals she Because the matter is under she could not specify what avenues the FTC is After receiving the petition from the Pub lic Citizen Health Research Group of Wash in February the FTC had to determine whether a problem she We have determined it is a serious health concern and are waiting for the sur geon generals Wilkenfeld before taking any One of the options open to the FTC is to develop a trade regulation that would require warning labels on all packaging and ing of smokeless which is Continued on page 11 Inside Tax reform My View Letters Heckler speech Dentistry the law People American Dental Network Congressional predictions PAC talk 2 4 4 5 6 7 8 9 12 Public Affairs Conference legislators meet in capital Health benefits PACs discussed 400 state and na tional dental leaders and guests discussed and campaign financing issues this month at the 15th annual ADA Public Affairs Attending were ADA officers and trus state dental officers and executive and legislative and state political action committee PAC They heard from two two mem bers of the House of a Reagan administration cabinet a na syndicated columnist and an Ameri can Medical Association representative and attended a reception with other members of Some dentists scheduled separate visits with members of their congressional American Dental Association President John Bomba exhorted the dental leaders to join the fight against legislation to impose new taxes on employees for the value of health care benefits received from their employers and to encourage their patients to send letters to members of Congress about this We have a major opportunity to influ ence public Bomba said in a welcoming message to open the April 2223 Also participating in the meeting were Council on Legislation Chairman Jack who conducted a briefing on fed eral and Chairman Mario Catalano of the American Dental Political Action Other issues debated during the confer ence included ERISA dental campaign financing and and the Federal Trade I think we understand better now the political ADA Presidentelect Abraham Kobren said in a wrapup We know that government has a power ful influence on he have an influence on government and public pol Meeting in conjunction with the spring conference were the Councils on Legisla Dental Care and Federal Dental and the Board of An ADA briefing on legislation was held for representatives of national den tal Hearing explores mob tie to dental plan Investigators say administrator bilked union fund union dental plans link to labor racketeering was one of the stories to emerge during a 3day hearing conducted here April 2224 by the Presidents Commis sion on Organized Crime The held under President Rea gans charge to the commission to investi gate all facets of organized focused on how organized crime manipulates the collec tive bargaining and in the International Brother hood of Teamsters and the Laborers International Union of North Judge Irving commission who was not able to be at the hear prepared an introduction for the His remarks cited newer and more sophis techniques to exert control over unions and as ing testimony would union dental labor racketeering evoked images of relatively simple and direct extor tion imposed by threats of strikes or physical it is just as likely to appear in the form of benefit fund manipulation facili Continued on page three ADA Board to review microdisk proposal Report surveys outlines plan for system response to what ADA Council on Dental Practice secretary Ken Beacham termed overwhelming interest on the part of the ADA Board of Trustees is expected to review at its June meeting a proposal for the Association to develop its own microdisk identification sys The council has drafted a report that sur veys the potential microdisk market and examines products already The existing systems identified by the Associa tion provide permanent identification in the form of tiny information disks bonded to a molar with a clear composite Microdisk identification systems have re widespread coverage in the ADA NEWS and the general print and broadcast Since the first story appeared in the NEWS help prevent abduction of Oct the Association has received several hundred inquiries from den police and schools requesting further The working name of the Associations proposed new system is the American Den tal Identification Registry The re as outlined would develop a stan format for the microdisks and es Continued on page 14 Briefs ADA offices will be closed May in observance of the Memorial Day Offices will reopen and resume daily activities May The cost of dental services rose by in according to the Consumer Price For all a in crease was Physician services rose hospital room rates medical care food commodities and services Since March the cost of dental services rose physician services hospital room rates medical care food commodities services and all items The fifth revision of the Code on Den tal Procedures and Nomenclature was published in The Journal of the American Dental Association in but den may experience a slight delay in re reimbursement under the revised The ADA Council on Dental Care Programs advises that carriers and service plans will now accept the new code numbers and but that it will take several years to incorporate the changes into their computer In the the carriers will be trans lating the new numbers by Dentists may be among those receiving solicitation letters from the American Cancer Research Fund of Toms The American Cancer Society New Jersey said that this group has no connection whatsoever to the ACS and that no information is available as to who the group is or what it does with its money other than that it appears to be part of a data systems communication Besides asking for the so licitation letter may include a survey on diet or The New Jersey di vision has been receiving inquiries from around the country about the An Association survey is seeking data on what dental societies are doing to improve access to care for special population The mailed in April to component and constituent societies by the Council on Dental Health and Health Planning and the Bureau of Economic and Behavioral is the third such The survey will document the number of dental society programs that target patient groups such as the poor and working and residents of remote Programs such as emer gency referral services or basic dental health which are not designed for specialized will be excluded from this according to the Continued on page eight
