News Articles

Dr. Andrew Soderstrom, CDA past president, career-long leader and CDA Cares co-founder passes

Andrew Soderstrom, DDS, CDA past president and a co-founder of CDA Cares, the CDA Foundation’s volunteer dental clinic, died Wednesday, April 29, following complications after a fall at his home in Modesto, California. He was 65.

May 6, 2020 |Membership, News Articles, Public Health

Speak Up! Open Communication Strengthens Employee Bonds

The art of communication is the language of leadership. In the dental office, open communication between practice owners and staff ensures an efficient workplace, reduces employee turnover, improve job satisfaction and helps mitigate potential employment-related claims.

May 1, 2020 |News Articles, Risk Management/TDIC

Navigating dental board C.E. audits and requirements with ease

Dental board licensees are required to maintain their continuing education certificates for up to three renewal periods. But if you’re a licensee and you receive a C.E. audit in the mail, what happens next? 

March 9, 2020 |Dental Practice & Licensing, Education and Events, News Articles

New HIPAA training resources from CDA developed specifically for dental practices

Any dental practice that is uncertain if is fully compliant with HIPAA and state privacy laws will benefit from four new HIPAA training resources available in the CDA Practice Support section of cda.org. Each resource is intended to train both the privacy officer and the security officer in a dental practice on their shared responsibilities.

March 2, 2020 |News Articles, Online Learning, Privacy/HIPAA, Regulatory Compliance

American Academy of Pediatrics primer supports dental-medical collaboration

Dentists now have a new resource they can use to work with their physician colleagues to improve oral health. The American Academy of Pediatrics developed an Oral Health Prevention Primer to help pediatricians and other medical professionals identify patients with oral health needs in their practice, collaborate with oral health allies and advocate to prevent dental disease.

February 26, 2020 |Advocacy, News Articles, Patient Care

California employers are cleared to use mandatory arbitration agreements — for now

Update: Employers in California may continue to use mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment following a decision issued Feb. 15, 2023, by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals 

February 25, 2020 |Employment Practices, Laws & Regulations, News Articles

Health care providers exempt from new state privacy law

The California Consumer Privacy Act, which took effect Jan. 1, aims to give California consumers greater control over their personal information by imposing certain obligations on entities covered by the law. Although health care providers such as dental practices are exempt from this new law, it is important to understand that some of the law’s provisions are similar to those required by HIPAA and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.

February 24, 2020 |News Articles, Privacy/HIPAA, Regulatory Compliance

Keeping office payments safe and secure

Countless protections are in place to safeguard our private financial data. In the dental office, data encryption, anti-virus software and firewalls are the go-to preventative measures, not to mention the classic lock-and-key methods for securing hardware and other items of value. Unfortunately, smart thieves can, and have, found ways to outwit many of the most advanced security systems.

February 20, 2020 |News Articles, Practice Management, Risk Management/TDIC

RDHAPs: A bridge between the patient and the dentist

Maria Ladd can cite many examples of good patient outcomes from her eight years and counting as a registered dental hygienist in alternative practice, but she has a couple of favorites. One involves a first-time patient, age 80, who resided in an assisted living center. The patient’s daughter had contacted Ladd to request a teeth cleaning on her mother’s behalf.

February 12, 2020 |News Articles, Patient Care, Practice Transitions

Classifying workers as independent contractors under law

Employers in California can now visit a single website to help them understand their requirements under a new law that further restricts their ability to classify their workers as independent contractors. Launched late last year by the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency, the website provides employer-specific resources and FAQ summarizing AB 5 and the ABC test and more.

February 4, 2020 |Early Career Dentists, Employment Practices, Hiring, Firing & Performance, Laws & Regulations, News Articles

Protective aprons required during dental radiography

Some hospitals in the U.S. have stopped the practice of covering patients’ reproductive organs during radiographic examinations, but CDA reminds dentists that current state regulation requires that protective aprons be used during dental radiography. The move by hospitals follows an April 2019 recommendation by the American College of Radiology and other medical groups, Kaiser Health News reported last month.

January 30, 2020 |Environment & Radiation, News Articles, Regulatory Compliance

New law increases dental plan transparency, protects dentist-patient relationship

CDA-sponsored legislation that further increases dental plan transparency became law on Jan. 1. AB 954 requires dental plans to be more transparent about the leasing of dental networks. The new law will reduce patient and dentist confusion caused by the increasing number of plans leasing their networks to other payers, many times unbeknownst to the enrollee or contracted dentist(s). The law took effect for contracts entered into on or after Jan. 1, 2020.

January 27, 2020 |Advocacy, Dental Benefit Plans, Dental Plan Reform, Legislation, News Articles
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