Page 19 - Bulletin (full)Vol 30 No 1 - Jan. - April 2025 FINAL

NCDS | Classifieds (Cont.)

Office Space for Rent - Melville Dental Equipment for Sale

Route 110, Melville. Lovely 3 chair office, great All office equipment for sale, including Chair, Unit,
building and location. Available 3 days per week, Light, Cavitron, X-Ray machine, Apex Locators, PAN/
including alternate Saturdays. Dentrix, Dexis, CEPH machine, supplies, Compressor, and small
Scanner. Rent negotiable per number of hours/ instruments. Call (516) 754 2930 to inquire.
days per week. Call 516-901-6138

To place a Classified Ad, email us at office@nassaudental.org or call at 516-227-1112

What Every New and Well-Seasoned Dentist Should Know: ERISA (cont.)

funded health care plans. The ADA believes that this is wrong. For example, the ADA believes that state
laws regulating whether plans can or cannot limit what providers charge for non-covered services should
not trigger an ERISA preemption. Such laws should apply to all plans regardless of whether a plan is self-
funded. The ADA is currently lobbying congress for this in the DOC Access Act, the Dental and Optometric
Care Access Act (HR 1521), which would prohibit dental and vision plans from setting the fees network
doctors may charge for services not covered by the plan. If passed it would not affect plans regulated by
our state law, only those claiming an ERISA exemption. However, NYSDA is currently fighting in Albany
for a Non-Covered Services law in New York state, which would cover all commercial dental insurance
plans in New York. NYSDA’s bill is again moving through the state legislature and hopefully, Governor
Kathy Hochul will sign it this time. (Governor Hochul vetoed NYSDA’s 2024 bill and Governor Andrew
Cuomo vetoed a similar bill in 2017.)
Recently, the ADA filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in the United States Supreme Court asking it
to accept a review of a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit concerning
the so-called ERISA preemption of state statutes. The brief argues that the Supreme Court should take up
the case because the Tenth Circuit decision is directly at odds with the Supreme Court’s holding in
Rutledge vs. PCMA. The ADA agrees that the Rutledge decision appropriately limits the reach of the
federal ERISA statute’s preemption of state law.
Even more recently the ADA has given its support to the National Council on Insurance Legislator's
(NCOIL) proposed legislation to allow states to apply for a waiver from any ERISA preemption of their
state insurance laws.
As you can see, the ADA is working very hard on several fronts to protect us from the onerous results of
allowing the so-called ERISA preemption of state insurance laws to continue. If you have questions about
ERISA or anything else, please send them to me at editor@sddsny.org and I will get you your answers!

Dr. Alyson Buchalter is in general practice in Gravesend Brooklyn. She is Past President of the Second
District Dental Society and Current Editor of the SDDS Bulletin. Dr. Buchalter is also Past Chair of the
NYSDA Council on Dental Benefit Programs and currently a member of the ADA Council on Dental
Benefit Programs, the ADA’s ERISA Task force, and ADA’s Joint Subcommittee on Medicaid.
This article originally appeared in the Second District Dental Society’s Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 2025 issue and
is reprinted with permission.

Nassau County Dental Society ⬧ (516) 227-1112 | 19