Your Georgia Delegation has been hard at work for the past several months reviewing resolutions and participating in meetings and conference calls to prioritize the issues for the 2018 ADA Annual Sessions and House of Delegates Meeting October 19-22 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The Fifth District held their first caucus meeting in Birmingham, AL October 4-6, 2018. At the meeting, the Georgia delegation along with the delegations from Alabama and Mississippi prepared for the upcoming ADA HOD by reviewing and debating the first two sets of reports and resolutions. The Fifth District also discussed strategy and talking points for their own resolution regarding the creation of a new CDT code to establish a uniform way to collect and quantify the value of donated dental treatment provided by dentists nationwide. Preparations continued in Hawaii through multiple caucus meetings, council/commission hearings, town hall sessions, reference committee hearings and discussions with ADA leadership. In all, your delegation studied and deliberated on ninety resolutions submitted by the ADA Board of Trustees and various councils, commissions and trustee districts.

Thank you to our Georgia Delegation reporting chairs who led Georgia reference committee discussions: Dr. Chris Adkins on Budget, Business, Membership and Administrative Matters; Dr. Robin Reich on Dental Benefits, Practice and Related Matters; Dr. Annette Rainge on Dental Education, Science and Related Matters; and Dr. Sidney Tourial on Legislative, Health, Governance and Related Matters. Thank you also to Dr. James Lopez for his service on the ADA Standing Committee on Credentials, Rules and Order.

The first meeting of the ADA House of Delegates was held on Friday, October 19. The meeting was presided over by ADA Speaker of the House, Dr. Glenn Hall. The HOD was addressed by ADA President, Dr. Joe Crowley and ADA Executive Director, Dr. Kathy O’Laughlin. ADA Treasurer, Dr. Ron Lemmo, gave a Treasurer’s Report on the financial status of the organization and Dr. Gerald Bird gave a report from the Board of Trustees. The HOD heard remarks from the four PE Candidates, Dr. Rickland Asai from Oregon, Dr. Chad Gehani from New York, Dr. Ron Lemmo from Ohio and Dr. Lindsey Robinson from California. The HOD also heard remarks from two Second Vice President Candidates and five candidates for Treasurer. The PE Candidates addressed the Fifth District during their caucus meeting on Friday, October 5, and the group heard from the Second Vice President and Treasurer candidates on Sunday, October 21. Friday’s session closed with presentations from Dr. Gerald Bird, ADPAC Chair, and Mr. Craig Busey, ADA General Counsel, who announced his retirement from ADA.

Additionally, the House approved Nominations to Councils and Commissions including Georgia representatives Dr. Amber Lawson on Council on Communications, Dr. Donna Thomas-Moses on Council on Dental Education and Licensure (CDEL), and Dr. Kevin Frazier on Council on Scientific Affairs. Dr. David Bradberry will continue his service on Council on Advocacy for Access, Prevention and Dr. Chris Hasty will continue on Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA). This meeting marks the end of Dr. Robin Reich’s term as Chair of the Council on Communications and Dr. Mann’s term on Council on Members Insurance and Retirement Programs (CMIRP). GDA would like to thank all of our Georgia representatives serving on ADA Councils and Commissions for your work on behalf of our member dentists.

The second and third meetings of the House were held on Monday, October 23. During the second House of Delegates meeting, Dr. Chad P. Gehani from New York was elected to the office of ADA President-Elect, Dr. Craig Herre from Kansas was elected to the position of ADA Second Vice President and Dr. Ted Sherwin from Virginia was elected as ADA Treasurer. The House debated and voted on multiple resolutions, and many Fifth District members gave comments on the House floor in support of our positions.

At the start of the third meeting of the House, outgoing ADA President, Dr. Joe Crowley installed the ADA Treasurer, Second Vice President and the new members of the ADA Board of Trustees. Dr. Jeffrey Cole from Delaware was sworn into office as the 155^th president of the American Dental Association. Dr. Cole addressed the House, discussing his vision for the profession and the ADA. Dr. Gerald Bird, ADPAC Chair, gave a summary of donations to ADPAC given at the Annual Sessions and thanked districts with 100% participation, including the Fifth District.

During their three sessions, the House of Delegates reviewed and acted on ninety resolutions. Some of the key issues debated and decisions made by the House of Delegates included the following:

• HOD approved a resolution to fund House Initiative Resolution 67H-2016: Utilization of Dental Services for ADA members (Find-A-Dentist/busyness initiative) from reserves for 2019 in lieu of the originally proposed $58 member assessment (res. 36RC).
• HOD directed the ADA President to appoint an adhoc committee with relevant experience to review and update Resolution 5H-2006 which identifies strategies to address oral health issues of vulnerable elders. The adhoc committee will identify an implementation plan and timeline to address elder care including Medicare and present a progress report to the 2019 HOD (res. 33RC).
• The HOD approved the ADA’s interim policy on Opioid Prescribing. The policy outlines best practices for continuing education and dosage/duration in addition to support for improving state prescription drug monitoring programs (res. 19).
• The 5^th District decided to withdraw their resolution Urging for the Creation of a New CDT Code to Establish a Uniform Method of Quantifying the Value of Donated Dental Treatment and for Data Collection Purpose (res. 80). The 5^th District will instead pursue this code through the Code Maintenance Committee.
• HOD approved a comprehensive policy on dental licensure developed by the Council on Dental Education and Licensure (CDEL). The intent of the policy is to combine and succinctly reflect many ADA policies about dental licensure into one comprehensive statement (res. 26).
• HOD approved a policy statement on Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination for the prevention of infection with HPV types associated with Oropharyngeal Cancer as developed by the Council on Scientific Affairs (CSA) and further refined by the reference committee on Dental Education, Science and related matters. The HOD also approved an amendment to the policy adding support of dentist administration of the vaccine (res. 53RC).
• HOD considered a resolution for the Council on Dental Education and Licensure to explore, with other appropriate communities of interest, the feasibility of requesting the development of an accreditation process and accreditation standards for advanced education programs in geriatric dentistry by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (res. 83). The HOD referred the resolution to the appropriate agency for consideration.
• HOD reviewed a request by CDEL to rescind the policy: “Use of the Term Specialty”. The 5^th District advocated to retain the term “specialty” in new ADA policy language, and the HOD voted for this matter be referred to the appropriate agency for further study (res. 21).
• HOD adopted revised Election Commission and Campaign Rules as recommended by the ADA Election Commission (24RC). The reference committee on Legislative, Health, Governance and related matters requested that the appropriate agency study options for campaign travel and report back to the 2019 House. After much debate and several amendments, the House agreed to the study (res. 89RC).
• HOD approved the creation of a task force to develop a broad-reaching strategy for state-based dental benefits advocacy to minimize interference of dental benefit carriers into the doctor-patient relationship. The task force will report its strategy recommendations to the 2019 HOD (res. 32S-1).
• HOD approved the 2019 ADA dues at $554 (res. 35). The dues increase was needed to bring the ADA’s 2019 operating budget to breakeven. The HOD also approved the budget via res. 34.

The ADA House of Delegates meeting was adjourned by Georgia’s own Dr. Tom Jagor on Monday afternoon, October 23.

Thank you again to our Georgia Delegation for all of your hard work on behalf of our members and our profession.