Dentists fighting for their profession and their patients had a HUGE victory against dental insurance companies in 2022 in the state of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts measure establishes what is known as a medical loss ratio - a minimum percentage of premium dollars collected by an insurance company that must be spent on actual patient care and not on administrative costs such as salaries and marketing. The new measure that was signed into law on December 7, 2022, in Massachusetts requires the state's insurance carriers to spend at least 83% of premium dollars on patient care and also contains a key provision that does not allow carriers to raise premiums egregiously.

Why is this important to you as a patient? It's important because it requires dental insurance companies to use more of the insurance premiums you pay every month to be used directly toward your actual dental care! Introducing a medical loss ratio for dental insurance carriers means that dental insurance companies will not profit off of people paying for dental insurance benefits and not using them.

We, as dentists and dental specialists, hear from patients all the time that dental insurance is terrible and that they don't pay for hardly anything. Well, we have heard you and the dental professionals in the state of Massachusetts are leading the way to creating nationwide dental insurance reform to better serve our patients. Get excited! This is the first huge move in dental insurance reform in a very, very long time and has been way overdue. Expect the dentists in the state of Kansas to be fighting for our patients and our profession as well!

Here is a link to the American Dental Association website with more details about the victory in Massachusetts: https://www.ada.org/publications/ada-news/2022/november/massachusetts-question-2-ballot-measure-projected-to-win