We are petitioning the Indiana State Governor, Eric Holcomb, to allow dental offices to file insurance claims for personal protective equipment. Join us by signing the petition on this page.

Whereby, the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 continues to be a health threat especially for the dental professionals, hygienists, and assistant working in a dental office requiring additional materials, procedures, time and effort we are seeking the governor to mandate a PPE surcharge be paid by each insurance company doing business and profiting in Indiana. for each dental visit due to the aerosol generation and potential for cross contamination and infection in a ‘normal’ environment. Four of the five highest risks jobs for coronavirus infection are directly related to the dental service. The governor has duly mandated that precautions must be employed to safely reopen dental offices in caused unmeasurable economic hardship.

On behalf of the Indiana Academy of General Dentistry and the vast majority of dental professionals in the state we present this petition in good faith that you will realize the disparity and hardship that has been placed upon the operation of providing safe dental services to the people of Indiana. It is the ‘nonspecialized, non-limited’ practitioners such as these who are providing the lion’s share of dental visits, whether it be cleanings, emergency care, or restorative needs to maintain the health and wellbeing of their patients.

The dental profession of which I’m honored to be a part of during my career takes very seriously the well being of our patients. Not just oral needs, but also the safety to deliver care in todays’ potentially threatening environment of close proximity care. We met the needs of heightened asepsis needs during the HIV threat in the 80’s and I’m confident we can once again modify our routines to allow us to provide safe and effective dental/oral care as is needed for a healthy and productive work force vital to our economy. We also employ many Hoosiers who are expecting a safe work environment as they are returning to work.

We are identifying that it is not only PPE equipment needed to deliver safe care, but our methods of patient care, operatory preparation, aerosol containment, office ambient air filtration, surface decontamination, and water line decontamination to name a few are also being addressed and improved significantly.

To be concise, the dilemma is this:

1. The cost to every office to deliver safe care for patients and their employees has and is going up.

2. Additional fees per visit are justified for this needed safety.

3. Many Insurance companies have already said they won’t agree to pay additional fees for these needed steps.

4. Some insurance companies have made a nominal effort to mitigate the realized expenses to safely provide dental care.

5. Dentists have already lost significant income due to your ‘stay at home’ order on the scale of 8-12% and likely to be more with a slow down due to fear and anxiety of our patients.

6. Insurance companies have had a reprieveal of at least 8% ( one month’s shutdown of care) of their obligations in providing needed dental benefits.

Our petition is this:

1. It is fair, just, and appropriate for your office to ‘mandate’ that every insurance company doing business and profiting from the dental services being provided in the state to pay a $10-15/visit surcharge to cover:

a. the additional costs of PPE,
b. additional costs of increased visit time,
c. additional costs of operatory and clinic sanitization
d. increase in labor costs to keep our staff working in this heightened threat to our personal health as your government has identified.

2. This surcharge would be paid to the office directly and be above, not part of the annual dental benefits package so the patients true dental needs are not affected or diminished because of these costs.

3. This mandate would last for one years time after which a panel of dentists, your administration and the insurance company representatives would gather to review the need and costs going forward.