- Email: [email protected]
Benefits of ADA membership
SPECIAL ARTICLE
BeneJits of ADA membership Paula Perich* Chicago, Ill.
T
he ADA requested this opportunity to address a subject we consider of vital importancebenefits of ADA membership. I would like to examine the benefits of ADA membership from four different perspectives: 1. The individual you 2. The orthodontist you 3. The dentist you 4. The professional you
the personal histories makes each individual assist well worth the program. 6. Mercury testing program. More than 2000 members have participated in this program, which provides a l-year service by mail for $90. 7. Retirements plans. More than $600 million in participant contributions have been deposited into our tax-qualified retirement savings plan and our sponsored IRA.
THE INDIVIDUAL
THE DENTIST YOU
The ADA offers certain services to benefit you as an individual, a family member, and a consumer that have little to do with the professional you. The volume of activity in these areas tells us that you consider these services valuable. They are as follows: 1. Life insurance. In 1986, the more than 76,000 enrollees in the ADA group life insurance constituted a volume of $11 billion in coverage and enjoyed a premium credit of 47%. 2. ADA Gold Master Card. Members totaling 41,550 are card holders because of the high preferred credit line, reduced annual percentage interest rates, and auto rental insurance benefits. 3. Health assessments. Tens of thousands of members have been tested for all types of health concemsranging from podiatric health, to hepatitis screening, electrocardiography, and glaucoma testing-at absolutely no cost for the last 22 annual sessions. 4. Credit union. The National Credit Union Administration granted Alaska/USA Credit Union the right to enroll ADA members in their membership. Alaska/USA is the nation’s third largest federal credit union and offers low-cost, unsecured loans and personal financial services. 5. Help with alcohol or chemical abuse problems is available via the ADA 800 telephone number. The number of individuals receiving support in this area is smaller than other benefit areas (we are certain of more than 500 helped), but looking beyond the numbers to
1. Disability insurance. In 1986, more than $11.7 million in disability benefits were paid to participants in the ADA Income Protection Plan. 2. The ADA Library. In 1986, the ADA library, the largest dental library in the world, filled more than 11,000 requests for books, journals, and articles. For service, the member simply makes a call. 3. ADA seminars. Many thousands of members have attended one of the following ADA seminars on continuing education topics: l Marketing l Do’s and Don’ts of Associateships l Malpractice Risk Management l AIDS and Infectious Disease Control l Financial Planning If you have a study club looking for the presentation of a timely topic by a proven speaker, call David Schwab. He will customize a seminar to meet your needs; telephone (800)621-8099. 4. Public relations. Throughout the 198Os, dentistry has been ranked the third or fourth most respected institution/profession in the United States. The firstranked is clergy; second is the pharmaceutical profession; dentists and physicians have tied for third place. More than 100 media calls per month are handled by the public relations staff of the ADA, contributing to this high ranking. 5. Dental benejit programs. The Council on Dental Care Programs is the only unified voice in dentistry coping with the giant industry of third parties. Dental benefit programs must be dealt with from a position of strength, which no segment of the profession can represent alone.
*Assistant Executive Director, Division vices, American Dental Association.
346
of Membership
and Marketing
Ser-
Volume 92 Number 4
Special article 347
6. Accreditation. The ADA Council on Dental Education and the Commission on Dental Accreditation provide specialty accreditation and review accreditation standards. 7. Publicattons. JADA is still the most widely read dental journal in the English language and the ADA News is the mo:st popular newspaper of its type in the United States. 8. Contract analysis. As of summer 1987, help is available from the ADA in the analysis of contracts proposed by third parties. THE ORTHODONTIST
YOU
Orthodontists are an important segment of the ADA membership. Specialists now constitute 20% of U.S. dentists; orthodontists comprise more than 5% of the ADA membership, numbering 8500. But you are strong beyond your numbers for you are generously represented in key lealdership bodies. Of the 21 ADA trustees and officers, three are orthodontists-14%. Of the 16 members of the Council on Dental Care Programs, three are orthodontists- 19%. We are taking a serious look at orthodontics as an important target market of our membership and we are learning some interesting facts. We separated orthodontic returns from the Membership Needs and Opinion Survey conducted in 1986. Here is what you told us. We asked how the ADA could assist you in marketing your practices. The only marketing services selected as “high” or “highest” priority by more than 50% of the responding orthodontists were the following: l In-office marketing ideas (61.2%) l Ideas for community marketing (56.1%) l Self-study materials in marketing (54.1%) So what.? If we know that about you, what are we doing about it‘? Plenty. As of April 1987, the ADA completed a 95-page marketing manual for orthodontic offices. This manual has been submitted to the AA0 for its stamp of approval and all indications are that it should be available to you this fall. The ADA has also developed a full-day Marketing Seminar for the Orthodontic Practice. This seminar was presented to nearly 1000 attendees during 1986/1987 in several parts of the country. It has been a very wellreceived seminar. We invite you to peruse our evaluations. If your sturdy club or constituent society would like more information as to how you can sponsor this seminar, call David Schwab at the previously listed number. You also indicated the ADA activities most important to you, the orthodontist. The following are the top five activities identified: 1. Professional liability legislative reforms (26.3%)
2. Licensure by credentials (9.6%) 3. Lobbying in Washington, D.C. (9.6%) 4. Continuing education (7.9%) 5. Accreditation of dental schools (5.0%) Nos. 4 and 5 have already been discussed. I will now address nos. 1 and 3. More than 30 state dental associations are actively involved in tort reform, working as part of statewide coalitions. And the Washington, D.C., office of the ADA also is heavily involved in professional liability legislative reform. There are currently four bills in the U.S. Senate and four in the House on this subject. Senate Bill 80, which would repeal the McCarran Ferguson Act, is one on which we have testified, but we are actively involved in monitoring all of these bills. To put it simply, our efforts can be summarized in five objectives. I. Insurance disclosures. We want mandatory disclosure by insurance companies on how they establish rates, how they place individuals in different categories, and how they decide who is insurable and who is not. 2. Pain and suffering. We want limits on how much can be awarded for pain and suffering over and above the awards granted for loss of income. 3. Incremental payments. We would like to see an allowance for incremental payments for awards in excess of $100,000. 4. Attorneys’fees. We seek limits on the percentage of the awards for attorneys’ contingency fees. 5. Investigation of insurance industry. We support S . 677, which mandates the Federal Trade Commission to study the liability insurance rate-making process. Another ADA asset in Washington is our Political Action Committee (PAC) in which the AA0 participates. We are actively opposing S. 2, Campaign Finance Reform, which would reduce participation by PACs in congressional elections. Of the 4000 PACs, our PAC is currently considered the 50th strongest in contributions at the federal level. So, we are involved in the activities rated by orthodontists as the most important. We are soliciting your input. We are listening actively to what you have to say and we are reshaping our programs to the extent we can on the basis of your input. THE PROFESSIONAL
YOU
Everything I have mentioned thus far constitutes a laundry-list approach to the benefits of ADA membership. It is a strong list, and a true one, but if I were making the choice as to whether to pay my dues-S400 to the AA0 and from $400 to $1300 to cover your local, state, and ADA dues-the “list” approach would not move me to write the check. I would be among the
348
Am. J. Orthod.
Perich
first in line to rejoin, but not because of anything we have discussed thus far. I would write that check because, if I were you, I would be a professional. And, as such, I would be indebted to those who went before me and made this profession what it is, and I would consider it an obligation to preserve it for those who would follow me. There are two quotations that would remind me to write that check. The first is anonymous, an old Japanese saying, “It is dangerous to leap a giant chasm in two bounds.” I believe we face a chasm--wide and deep and dangerous-and it is called fragmentation. The ADA Special Committee on Fragmentation of the Profession (chaired by an orthodontist) issued its final report to the Board of Trustees last April. Included in the key findings and conclusions were the following: If there is a single issuethat is creating fragmentation at the national level, it is probably the current economic situation that exists throughout the profession. The public questioning of the abilities of our colleagues, particularly specialistsversus generalists, is not only fragmentary but lowers the image of the profession in the eyes of the public. The greatest threat by far to the future of the profession is the blatant attempt by insurance companies to dictate types of treatment, cost of treatment, and methods of delivering treatment.
The chasm is there. We can attempt to leap across it in two bounds-a flexing of our individual muscles, “I’m not a joiner,” or a flexing of our specialty muscles, “I don’t need the ADA; they don’t always represent my views; I’m a specialist.” But the second bound is pretty academic when you are lying broken at the bottom, looking straight up. The second quote is excerpted from a speech made
Dentofac. Orthop. October 1987
by Walter Cronkite before the Commonwealth Club in 1984. I first saw it because Arthur Dugoni subsequently quoted it in a guest editorial in the JOURNAL.' I would like to include part of it here. More than a century ago Walt Whitman wrote a poem about this country that began, “I hear America singing.” It has been a long while since anyone claimed to hear America singing. There is a noise in the land, but it is made mainly by Americans blaming each other for the messwe are in. As the decibel level rises, our confidence in ourselvesand in our institutions falters. But what I want to say is-shut up for a minute. Listen carefully and quietly for a while. You can still make out America singing, although the sound may be a little faint. The tune is there and the spirit and the purpose are still there . . it has been a while since anyone has claimed to hear America singing, but they knew something that we seemedto have forgotten: to hear the music, you also have to sing along.’
Perhaps, dentistry’s song has been similarly diminished. We are confronted with real problems of significant magnitude. But we also have a song-a song of confidence, of excellence, of achievement. It was composed for a full orchestra and chorus, and is diminished when rendered by one voice alone. But when we get together to sing it, we can discuss the rough stanzas ahead of time and decide how it should be arranged. United we sing. REFERENCE
1. DugoniAA. Our profession-Let’s singalong[Guesteditorial]. AM .I ORTHOD 1985;88:353-4. Reprint
requests
to:
PaulaPerich AmericanDentalAssociation Divisionof Membershipand MarketingServices 211 E. ChicagoAve. Chicago,IL 60611
BeneJits of ADA membership Paula Perich* Chicago, Ill.
T
he ADA requested this opportunity to address a subject we consider of vital importancebenefits of ADA membership. I would like to examine the benefits of ADA membership from four different perspectives: 1. The individual you 2. The orthodontist you 3. The dentist you 4. The professional you
the personal histories makes each individual assist well worth the program. 6. Mercury testing program. More than 2000 members have participated in this program, which provides a l-year service by mail for $90. 7. Retirements plans. More than $600 million in participant contributions have been deposited into our tax-qualified retirement savings plan and our sponsored IRA.
THE INDIVIDUAL
THE DENTIST YOU
The ADA offers certain services to benefit you as an individual, a family member, and a consumer that have little to do with the professional you. The volume of activity in these areas tells us that you consider these services valuable. They are as follows: 1. Life insurance. In 1986, the more than 76,000 enrollees in the ADA group life insurance constituted a volume of $11 billion in coverage and enjoyed a premium credit of 47%. 2. ADA Gold Master Card. Members totaling 41,550 are card holders because of the high preferred credit line, reduced annual percentage interest rates, and auto rental insurance benefits. 3. Health assessments. Tens of thousands of members have been tested for all types of health concemsranging from podiatric health, to hepatitis screening, electrocardiography, and glaucoma testing-at absolutely no cost for the last 22 annual sessions. 4. Credit union. The National Credit Union Administration granted Alaska/USA Credit Union the right to enroll ADA members in their membership. Alaska/USA is the nation’s third largest federal credit union and offers low-cost, unsecured loans and personal financial services. 5. Help with alcohol or chemical abuse problems is available via the ADA 800 telephone number. The number of individuals receiving support in this area is smaller than other benefit areas (we are certain of more than 500 helped), but looking beyond the numbers to
1. Disability insurance. In 1986, more than $11.7 million in disability benefits were paid to participants in the ADA Income Protection Plan. 2. The ADA Library. In 1986, the ADA library, the largest dental library in the world, filled more than 11,000 requests for books, journals, and articles. For service, the member simply makes a call. 3. ADA seminars. Many thousands of members have attended one of the following ADA seminars on continuing education topics: l Marketing l Do’s and Don’ts of Associateships l Malpractice Risk Management l AIDS and Infectious Disease Control l Financial Planning If you have a study club looking for the presentation of a timely topic by a proven speaker, call David Schwab. He will customize a seminar to meet your needs; telephone (800)621-8099. 4. Public relations. Throughout the 198Os, dentistry has been ranked the third or fourth most respected institution/profession in the United States. The firstranked is clergy; second is the pharmaceutical profession; dentists and physicians have tied for third place. More than 100 media calls per month are handled by the public relations staff of the ADA, contributing to this high ranking. 5. Dental benejit programs. The Council on Dental Care Programs is the only unified voice in dentistry coping with the giant industry of third parties. Dental benefit programs must be dealt with from a position of strength, which no segment of the profession can represent alone.
*Assistant Executive Director, Division vices, American Dental Association.
346
of Membership
and Marketing
Ser-
Volume 92 Number 4
Special article 347
6. Accreditation. The ADA Council on Dental Education and the Commission on Dental Accreditation provide specialty accreditation and review accreditation standards. 7. Publicattons. JADA is still the most widely read dental journal in the English language and the ADA News is the mo:st popular newspaper of its type in the United States. 8. Contract analysis. As of summer 1987, help is available from the ADA in the analysis of contracts proposed by third parties. THE ORTHODONTIST
YOU
Orthodontists are an important segment of the ADA membership. Specialists now constitute 20% of U.S. dentists; orthodontists comprise more than 5% of the ADA membership, numbering 8500. But you are strong beyond your numbers for you are generously represented in key lealdership bodies. Of the 21 ADA trustees and officers, three are orthodontists-14%. Of the 16 members of the Council on Dental Care Programs, three are orthodontists- 19%. We are taking a serious look at orthodontics as an important target market of our membership and we are learning some interesting facts. We separated orthodontic returns from the Membership Needs and Opinion Survey conducted in 1986. Here is what you told us. We asked how the ADA could assist you in marketing your practices. The only marketing services selected as “high” or “highest” priority by more than 50% of the responding orthodontists were the following: l In-office marketing ideas (61.2%) l Ideas for community marketing (56.1%) l Self-study materials in marketing (54.1%) So what.? If we know that about you, what are we doing about it‘? Plenty. As of April 1987, the ADA completed a 95-page marketing manual for orthodontic offices. This manual has been submitted to the AA0 for its stamp of approval and all indications are that it should be available to you this fall. The ADA has also developed a full-day Marketing Seminar for the Orthodontic Practice. This seminar was presented to nearly 1000 attendees during 1986/1987 in several parts of the country. It has been a very wellreceived seminar. We invite you to peruse our evaluations. If your sturdy club or constituent society would like more information as to how you can sponsor this seminar, call David Schwab at the previously listed number. You also indicated the ADA activities most important to you, the orthodontist. The following are the top five activities identified: 1. Professional liability legislative reforms (26.3%)
2. Licensure by credentials (9.6%) 3. Lobbying in Washington, D.C. (9.6%) 4. Continuing education (7.9%) 5. Accreditation of dental schools (5.0%) Nos. 4 and 5 have already been discussed. I will now address nos. 1 and 3. More than 30 state dental associations are actively involved in tort reform, working as part of statewide coalitions. And the Washington, D.C., office of the ADA also is heavily involved in professional liability legislative reform. There are currently four bills in the U.S. Senate and four in the House on this subject. Senate Bill 80, which would repeal the McCarran Ferguson Act, is one on which we have testified, but we are actively involved in monitoring all of these bills. To put it simply, our efforts can be summarized in five objectives. I. Insurance disclosures. We want mandatory disclosure by insurance companies on how they establish rates, how they place individuals in different categories, and how they decide who is insurable and who is not. 2. Pain and suffering. We want limits on how much can be awarded for pain and suffering over and above the awards granted for loss of income. 3. Incremental payments. We would like to see an allowance for incremental payments for awards in excess of $100,000. 4. Attorneys’fees. We seek limits on the percentage of the awards for attorneys’ contingency fees. 5. Investigation of insurance industry. We support S . 677, which mandates the Federal Trade Commission to study the liability insurance rate-making process. Another ADA asset in Washington is our Political Action Committee (PAC) in which the AA0 participates. We are actively opposing S. 2, Campaign Finance Reform, which would reduce participation by PACs in congressional elections. Of the 4000 PACs, our PAC is currently considered the 50th strongest in contributions at the federal level. So, we are involved in the activities rated by orthodontists as the most important. We are soliciting your input. We are listening actively to what you have to say and we are reshaping our programs to the extent we can on the basis of your input. THE PROFESSIONAL
YOU
Everything I have mentioned thus far constitutes a laundry-list approach to the benefits of ADA membership. It is a strong list, and a true one, but if I were making the choice as to whether to pay my dues-S400 to the AA0 and from $400 to $1300 to cover your local, state, and ADA dues-the “list” approach would not move me to write the check. I would be among the
348
Am. J. Orthod.
Perich
first in line to rejoin, but not because of anything we have discussed thus far. I would write that check because, if I were you, I would be a professional. And, as such, I would be indebted to those who went before me and made this profession what it is, and I would consider it an obligation to preserve it for those who would follow me. There are two quotations that would remind me to write that check. The first is anonymous, an old Japanese saying, “It is dangerous to leap a giant chasm in two bounds.” I believe we face a chasm--wide and deep and dangerous-and it is called fragmentation. The ADA Special Committee on Fragmentation of the Profession (chaired by an orthodontist) issued its final report to the Board of Trustees last April. Included in the key findings and conclusions were the following: If there is a single issuethat is creating fragmentation at the national level, it is probably the current economic situation that exists throughout the profession. The public questioning of the abilities of our colleagues, particularly specialistsversus generalists, is not only fragmentary but lowers the image of the profession in the eyes of the public. The greatest threat by far to the future of the profession is the blatant attempt by insurance companies to dictate types of treatment, cost of treatment, and methods of delivering treatment.
The chasm is there. We can attempt to leap across it in two bounds-a flexing of our individual muscles, “I’m not a joiner,” or a flexing of our specialty muscles, “I don’t need the ADA; they don’t always represent my views; I’m a specialist.” But the second bound is pretty academic when you are lying broken at the bottom, looking straight up. The second quote is excerpted from a speech made
Dentofac. Orthop. October 1987
by Walter Cronkite before the Commonwealth Club in 1984. I first saw it because Arthur Dugoni subsequently quoted it in a guest editorial in the JOURNAL.' I would like to include part of it here. More than a century ago Walt Whitman wrote a poem about this country that began, “I hear America singing.” It has been a long while since anyone claimed to hear America singing. There is a noise in the land, but it is made mainly by Americans blaming each other for the messwe are in. As the decibel level rises, our confidence in ourselvesand in our institutions falters. But what I want to say is-shut up for a minute. Listen carefully and quietly for a while. You can still make out America singing, although the sound may be a little faint. The tune is there and the spirit and the purpose are still there . . it has been a while since anyone has claimed to hear America singing, but they knew something that we seemedto have forgotten: to hear the music, you also have to sing along.’
Perhaps, dentistry’s song has been similarly diminished. We are confronted with real problems of significant magnitude. But we also have a song-a song of confidence, of excellence, of achievement. It was composed for a full orchestra and chorus, and is diminished when rendered by one voice alone. But when we get together to sing it, we can discuss the rough stanzas ahead of time and decide how it should be arranged. United we sing. REFERENCE
1. DugoniAA. Our profession-Let’s singalong[Guesteditorial]. AM .I ORTHOD 1985;88:353-4. Reprint
requests
to:
PaulaPerich AmericanDentalAssociation Divisionof Membershipand MarketingServices 211 E. ChicagoAve. Chicago,IL 60611