Government Affairs News and Updates

Report from the 2023 Regular Session of the Legislature

Organized Dentistry Successful in Lobbying Legislators

The 2023 regular session of the Louisiana Legislature adjourned sine die on Thursday, June 8. As usual, the last few hours of session brought concerns and negotiations as the two main budget bills, HB 1 (Budget) and HB 2 (Capital Outlay) were finalized. With about 15 minutes left in the session, leadership decided to move the budget bills. The HB 1 Conference Committee included a $100 million cut to the Department of Health (LDH). Several major instruments, each with many amendments, passed in the final 15 minutes of the session and most lobbyists and legislators had no opportunity to read these amendments.

Immediately after adjournment, Governor John Bel Edwards held a press conference and vowed to reverse the $100 million cut to LDH.

The LDA closely monitored over 35 bills of interest to dentists and dentistry throughout session.

Again, it is through the support of the LDA’s contact dentist network, along with the additional financial support from the ADA’s State Public Affairs grant, that the LDA was able to successfully support (or oppose as necessary) bills that would cause a great impact to the profession. Here are a few bills or funding requests of interest:

We have been successful at getting $16.7 million dollars into the State’s budget targeted to dental Medicaid rate increases. The funds were put into the Governor’s office initial budget and (at least until this point) have survived the session with no negative impacts. This would total an increase of over $50 million with the federal match that is directed to dental Medicaid. The LDA lobbying team worked diligently on this issue over the last few years, but it is because of the dedication and hard work of the Dental Access and Prevention Political Action Committee (DAP-PAC) and the DAP-PAC Treasurer Dr. Don Donaldson. Every dental Medicaid provider should see a substantial increase. We do not anticipate that the $100 million cut will impact dental, but we are watching the process carefully and will update providers as necessary.

The distribution of the increases has been determined and approved through LDH. It is pretty much evenly distributed across the board and represents an approximate 36% increase in rates. As many of you already know, this is a game changing amount for each dental Medicaid provider, and it should encourage more dentists to participate in the program. The increase will be effective July 1, but it will take a little time for computer programs, portals, etc. to be updated. It should be paid out retroactively back to July 1, 2023.

Additionally, the LDA spearheaded efforts to request $60,000 for Donated Dental Services Program (Dental Lifeline Network). Through DDS, dentists and dental laboratories across the state each volunteer to provide comprehensive treatment to one or two patients per year. Last year each patient received on average $3,717 in comprehensive care. Volunteer dentists treat DDS patients in their own dental offices, which allows them to use their own equipment and staff; dental labs also volunteer. Although there are 462 volunteer dentists and labs in the DDS program, most can’t be utilized because of the revenue shortfall. Assuming the funds are not vetoed from the budget, the $60,000 should go a long way to providing more services.

The LDA also lobbied for the LSU Health New Orleans School of Dentistry infrastructure modernization and ADA compliance project. This $48 million project now has the cash to initiate the planning phase, $4 million from State General Fund, $40 million in Priority 5 funds, and $4 million in fees and self-generated revenue.

Elections will be here before we know it and new legislators will be coming into office. It will be more important than ever to let the LDA know if you are a friend, relative or dentist of an elected official. We need contact dentists! It makes all the difference during the legislative session when we have contact dentists for each legislator on our committees.