March 17, 2017 – Secrets of an OSHA inspection
Speaker: John Goins, OSHA Compliance Officer, Industrial Hygienist from the Rhode Island Office
Topic: Taking the mystery out of the OSHA inspection.
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is a federal agency that promotes safety and health in the workplace. They investigate workplace accidents, complaints of unsafe working conditions, conduct programmed inspections and provide educational outreach programs . Click HERE for complete report.
January 13, 2017 – Special Meeting – BC/BS of Rhode Island
Stephanie Santoro of BCBS of RI answered member’s questions and offered great advice at an impromptu meeting of the Dental Managers Society Ocean State Chapter.
December 9th – Open Forum – Minutes by Carmella Beroth
We started the meeting off by talking about how we can get more practices to attend. This was a hot topic and one that was address frequently throughout the meeting. The 3 in attendance really want to grow the group.
Suggestions were:
- Members who attend invite directly. All three members have said they have invited people, however it is harder for other practices to come due to scheduling issues.
- They are finding practices who are closed and OM does not want to come on the day off OR smaller practices do not have the staff to have someone come and leave the front desk.
- It was discussed that we possibly have a bi-monthly evening meeting on a Wednesday in addition to what we are currently doing.
- Steve Hickey suggested that each member write what they are getting out of the meetings and that would be helpful testimonials.
- Jamie thought that the brunch idea did attract people and couple possibly get more people to attend.
- ** On a side note, this may be a meeting that we have a speaker that will attract practices attendance. I.E. Have someone come in and discuss inspections. This was a topic of concern on Friday. Practices would like to know. How does the state decide there will be an inspection and if there are things that do not pass, how long do they have to “make it right”**
- Members discussed how the RI Dental Society does not do much for its members. However, looks like Steve’s wife, Dr Jennifer Torbett will be President of the society soon so we should be seeing some changes.
- Steve Hickey discussed how long dental offices need to keep records. 5 years for a patient over 18 or 3 years after a minor patient turns 18. He also discussed about making sure that outside workers i.e. lawn care, cleaning crew, should all sign an exclusion from workmen’s comp. So that the practice isn’t liable if they were to get hurt at their office.
- Members are looking for presenters on topics:
- Possible law suits brought against the practice. Steve T said he knows a RI Attorney that could possibly speak.
- X-Ray guidelines
- HSMAT and MSDS regulations
- And of course someone who can discuss insurance.
- Members are looking forward to seeing the information on the Affordable Care Acts Section 1557.
November 18, 2016 – Pam Demski Hart from Healthcare Accreditation Resources spoke about HIPAA, OSHA and BORID, what records you need to keep and for how long.
October 7, 2016 – Blake Cohen of Summit Dental Partners will presented “Co-Payment Calculations; How to calculate the correct co-payment every time!” Although we had a mix-up in room numbers, the members who attended were enthusiastic about the presentation!
Friday, September 9th – The Ocean State Chapter had two great speakers; Steve Hickey from Hickey and Associates opened a lot of eyes about insurance for the dental practice. Carmella Beroth, already well known to many DMS members, talked about the cost effectiveness of the different stages of collection and how waiting before starting the process can hinder success.
August 5, 2016 from 9:00am – 11:00am – Open Forum. Members had a chance to share their problems and solutions to the many facets dental admins face. Discussion included insurance challenges, the non-covered insurance law, creating a “Wiki” of insurance information and charging clients credit card processing fees.
An additional date was added – Friday, December 9th with the topic of Rhode Island Dental Regulations. Speaker TBA
Meeting was held at the NE Institute of Technology located at 1 New England Tech Blvd, in East Greenwich, RI.
