Regulatory Compliance

Some dental professionals are facing a new set of challenges from wearing additional personal protective equipment as they adapt to providing care in the COVID-19 era. Here are some of the most common conditions to be aware of and tips to help alleviate the discomfort.

The Drug Enforcement Administration in a July 29 press release warns registered practitioners that scammers are posing as DEA employees in telephone calls in an attempt to defraud and extort victims. According to the DEA, the scammers are calling from spoofed DEA phone numbers.

The Americans with Disabilities Act and state disability rights laws require dental practices, as places of public accommodations, to make their services and facilities accessible to disabled individuals. This includes making a dental practice website accessible to those who are visually impaired. 

New California regulations, that go into effect July 1, prohibit pre-employment inquiries and job applications that may be used to screen out applicants based on their religious creed, disability, medical condition and age.

Most dental facilities that have not already installed an amalgam separator to comply with an Environmental Protection Agency rule must do so by July 14. The EPA rule, published in June 2017, requires dental facilities to collect all waste amalgam.

HIPAA fee limits do not apply to a patient’s request to transmit records to a third party or to a third-party’s request, with patient authorization, to receive patient health information, according to a notice released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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? 

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.

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.

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.

Surveillance cameras in dental offices are becoming more and more common. The driving force behind them is typically security, as cameras can aid in loss control, deter theft and discourage other criminal activity. But cameras are not without their drawbacks. Prior to hitting the record button, practice owners should be aware of the laws and regulations surrounding their use. While laws vary from state to state, there are some basic guidelines.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that revises language in the written informed consent form that dentists must provide to patients prior to administering general anesthesia and deep or moderate sedation. Although the new law does not impact the practice of dentistry, dentists should ensure that beginning Jan. 1, 2020, they are using a consent form that is compliant with the new law.