A new program paid for by Highmark will help reduce cavities in needy Allegheny County children by 33 percent, the Allegheny County Health Department announced today.

The program will provide preschool children enrolled in Head Start sites with fluoride varnish dental treatments every six months. Highmark gave the Health Department a $61,000 grant to pay for the program, in which a thin protective coating is painted on the teeth to strengthen and protect them from cavities.

“Many disadvantaged youth rarely, if ever, receive them and as a result have very high rates of untreated tooth decay,” Health Director Dr. Bruce Dixon said in a statement. The program compliments the department’s sealant program for needy second and sixth graders.

A 400-employee transportation company tried to find a way to keep its HMO costs from rising more than 6 percent.

Response: “Our principal move was to raise average monthly contributions. For employees with single coverage, we raised these from $90 to $95,” the firm’s controller told us. “For family coverage, we raised monthly contributions from $340 to $360. To help retain employee good will, we decided to maintain the copayment for visits to a physician at $18, which was viewed positively.”

Result: The company was able to keep its HMO costs down.

OUTSOURCE BENEFITS FUNCTIONS AND IMPLEMENT ELECTRONIC ENROLLMENT

Issue: A transportation/utilities/communication company sought ways to cut its health care costs.

Response: “The outsourcing of benefits functions (i.e. billing) and the implementation of an electronic enrollment tool and communications portal have been very successful in reducing the staffing hours required to administer a 700-person health benefit plan,” the firm’s HR/benefits manager told us. And “in an environment of growing health care costs, moving to a self-insured model and changing some plan design features (i.e. increasing deductibles and brand name prescription copays) have helped contain, maybe not reduced, costs from year to year,” she added.

Result: Staffing hours were cut, reducing HR expenditures; self-insurance helped keep health care costs steady.

LOWER TOTAL BENEFITS COSTS WITH CHANGES IN DENTAL PLAN COVERAGE

Issue: A 1 50-employee services firm in New York sought ways to lower total benefits costs by changing its dental plan coverage.

Response: “Our dental plan is a popular benefit with stable costs, rising just 2 percent in the most recent year. Here, we decided to maintain the monthly employee contribution for coverage – that is, $1 7 for individual coverage and $50 for family,” the company’s controller told us. “But we decided to increase our maximum annual benefit amount from $1 ,250 to $1 ,500. This preserves the strength of our coverage for routine dental visits.”

Result: “We continue to pay 1 00 percent for preventive care but require a 20 percent coinsurance payment for most restorative services” which has helped control costs.

On Monday night, after 6-year-old Mackenzie Guy lost her third tooth, she left a letter for the tooth fairy with a special request.

She would appreciate it if the fairy could leave behind her tooth so she could save it in her baby book, but she would still like the cash, her mother, Amber, said.

When Mackenzie awoke in her grandparents’ motor home Tuesday morning, she was delighted to see the tooth was left behind, along with $3 — two more than she gets from the tooth fairy at home.

Her delight faded Thursday morning when she learned thieves stole her tooth fairy booty.

When her mom went out to the family’s Ford Excursion to bring Mackenzie’s twin brother, Logan, to his school, she discovered someone had broken into the SUV. Gone were a GPS, costume jewelry and Mackenzie’s dental dough.

Guy said she was supposed to deposit the $3 in her daughter’s savings account Wednesday, but they never made it to the bank.

“Mackenzie is saving her money because she wants to buy a computer,” her mother said.

The money — four quarters and two dollar bills — was taped to a letter written by the tooth fairy to Mackenzie.

“Dear Mackenzie, You have one of the best teeth that I saw tonight. You have an A-plus tooth. Here’s the tooth back and the money,” Guy recalled it saying.

Mackenzie planned on keeping the letter for her special book, too, her mother said.

The tooth, sealed in a baggie, had been attached to the 8-by-11 sheet of paper. When the thieves rummaged through the SUV, they took the letter and money but left the bag with Mackenzie’s pearly white.

“She’s happy that at least she has the tooth,” Guy said.

When Mom broke the news to her daughter, she was taken aback by her reaction.

“It is OK,” the Oakstead Elementary first-grader told her. “It’s only $3.”

“My heart sunk and broke at the same time,” Guy said.

Guy said when the family returned to their home in the Oakstead subdivision Wednesday night the children were asleep, so she got them inside and forgot to lock her passenger-side door.

“It’s Mom’s fault,” she said.

She said she also had a “false sense of security” in the gated community but has learned a valuable lesson, as has Mackenzie.

“It’s a new low for criminals,” Guy said. “I would’ve given the guy the $3 if he had knocked on my door. I would’ve given it to him. Unfortunately, criminals aren’t that nice.”

Mackenzie plans on writing a new letter to the tooth fairy in hopes of getting another $3 toward her mini-laptop computer.

She might soon get even more cash toward the computer. The tooth directly next to her new empty space in her mouth is loose, her mother said.

“The tooth fairy is going to be busy with trips to our house,” Guy said.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.

Credit: Tampa Tribune, Fla.

On Monday night, after 6-year-old Mackenzie Guy lost her third tooth, she left a letter for the Tooth Fairy with a special request.

She would appreciate it if the fairy could leave behind her tooth so she could save it in her baby book, her mother Amber Guy said, but she would still like the cash.

When Mackenzie awoke in her grandparents’ motor home Tuesday morning, she was delighted to not only see the tooth was left behind but so was $3 — two dollars more than she gets from the Tooth Fairy at home.

Her delight faded Thursday morning when she learned thieves stole her Tooth Fairy booty.

When her Mom went out to the family’s Ford Excursion to bring Mackenzie’s twin brother, Logan to his school, she discovered someone had broken into the SUV. Gone were a GPS, costume jewelry and Mackenzie’s dental dough.

Guy said she was supposed to deposit the $3 into her daughter’s savings account Wednesday but they never made it to the bank.

“Mackenzie is saving her money because she wants to buy a computer,” her mother explained.

The money — four quarters and two dollar bills — was taped to a letter written by the Tooth Fairy to Mackenzie.

“Dear Mackenzie, You have one of the best teeth that I saw tonight. You have an A-plus tooth. Here’s the tooth back and the money,” Guy recalled it saying.

Mackenzie planned on keeping the letter for her special book, too, her mother said.

The tooth sealed in a baggie had been attached to the 8-by-11 sheet of paper. When the thieves rummaged through the SUV, they took the letter and money but left the bag with Mackenzie’s pearly white.

“She’s happy that at least she has the tooth,” Guy said.

When Mom broke the news to her daughter, she was taken aback by her reaction.

“It is OK,” the Oakstead Elementary first-grader told her. “It’s only $3.”

“My heart sunk and broke at the same time,” Guy said.

Guy said when the family returned to their home in the Oakstead subdivision Wednesday night the children were asleep so she got them inside and forgot to lock her passenger-side door.

“It’s Mom’s fault,” she said.

She said she also had a “false sense of security” in the gated community but has learned a valuable lesson, as has Mackenzie.

“It’s a new low for criminals,” Guy said. “…I would’ve given the guy the $3 if he had knocked on my door. I would’ve given it to him. Unfortunately, criminals aren’t that nice.”

Mackenzie plans on writing a new letter to the Tooth Fairy in hopes of getting another $3 toward her mini laptop computer.

She might soon get even more cash toward the computer. The tooth directly next to her new empty space in her mouth is very loose, her mother said.

“The Tooth Fairy is going to be busy with trips to our house,” Guy said.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.

Credit: Tampa Tribune, Fla.

When Dr. Jonathan Crane prescribes a certain medication for athlete’s foot he also orders an expensive battery of liver tests. It’s a precaution, the dermatologist says, and is considered the standard of care. The tests are also completely unnecessary, Crane says, but he orders them anyway because the risk of a lawsuit makes it necessary.

It’s an example of “defensive medicine,” and a result of too many malpractice suits. So when people talk about changing health care they need to also consider tort reform, he said.

Thursday night, Crane opened up his office, Atlantic Dermatology in Wilmington, to several local politicians and an audience of a few dozen people to discuss possible health care changes.

New Hanover County Commissioner Jason Thompson, state Rep. Daniel McComas,, R-Wilmington, and Will Breazeale, a Republican who plans to run as for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 attended.

The point, Crane said, was to discuss alternatives to current health care reforms and also encourage people to go online and study the proposed reforms.

“We don’t need to go in and wreck everything,” McComas said. “This is too complicated a problem, we need to take it step by step.”

Thompson said New Hanover County spends millions of dollars each year on health care. They pay for everything from transportation costs for taking Medicaid patients to doctors’ offices, and dental care for uninsured children, he said.

On the national level, Breazeale proposed a Fair Health plan in which health insurance companies would compete for government contracts to cover the uninsured. The costs would be through a sales tax on people without insurance.

Crane said tort reform and changes to the Food and Drug Administration are needed to drive down medical and drug costs.

Several doctors who attended said they worry some changes aren’t part of current proposals.

Dr. Victor Abraham, a urologist, said giving tax breaks to doctors who treat the uninsured might be a good start.

Dr. Hormoze A. Goudarzi, a local surgeon who favors a basic Medicare-type plan for everyone, said politicians need to sit down with insurance companies and come up with ideas.

“This is everybody’s problem,” he said. “This system will collapse unless we do something about it.”

Birner Dental Management Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:BDMS), operators of PERFECT TEETH dental practices announced its regular quarterly dividend. The Company’s board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 17 cents per share of common stock. The dividend is payable October 9, 2009, to shareholders of record September 25, 2009.

Birner Dental Management Services, Inc. acquires, develops, and manages geographically dense dental practice networks in select markets in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. The Company currently manages 61 dental offices, of which 35 were acquired and 26 were de novo developments. The Company operates its dental offices under the PERFECT TEETH name.

Keywords: Birner Dental Management Services, Inc., Birner Dental Management Services, Inc., Common Stock, Finance, Investing, Investment, Stock Market, Birner Dental Management Services Inc., Common Stock, Finance, Investing, Investment, Stock Market

This article was prepared by Investment Weekly News editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2009, Investment Weekly News via VerticalNews.com.

A Duluth dentist had a blood-alcohol content 3 1/2 times the legal limit to drive when he plowed into a Minnesota State Patrol trooper parked in an Interstate 35 median last month.

That information was contained in a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Carlton County District Court charging Timothy Robert Langguth, 61, with criminal vehicular operation of a motor vehicle resulting in substantial bodily harm and a second count of criminal vehicular operation of a motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol concentration of .08 or greater, resulting in substantial bodily harm.

Langguth’s blood-alcohol content was .28, according to the complaint.

Trooper Erick Sjodin, 31, graduated from the State Patrol Academy in April and was working only his ninth shift alone when police say Langguth drove his 1998 Subaru Legacy into Sjodin’s 2006 Chevrolet Impala squad car on the passenger side about 12:25 a.m. Aug. 22 in the median of Interstate 35 near the Moorhead overpass in Cloquet.

Both vehicles were total losses. Sjodin, the married father of three children between 1 and 4 years old, sustained injuries to his abdomen, right kidney, right lung, internal bleeding and contusions to his right leg. Langguth was initially in critical condition but is recovering from his injuries. He has been discharged from the hospital.

Carlton County Attorney Thom Pertler was thinking of Sjodin and state troopers like him Monday when he filed the charges.

“We presume and expect that state troopers are out there to protect us on the road and in our communities,” Pertler said. “This gives us reason to realize they are out there putting their lives on the line every day. I commend them for their efforts. We have to be thankful for what they do and give them credit. Trooper Erick Sjodin could have lost his life. We have to think about that.”

Sjodin and his patrol partner, Matt Respet, were responding to a call of a motorist who reported that Langguth’s vehicle passed him and then weaved around on the highway. Sjodin pulled into a freeway turnaround and waited.

“A car came over the hill and all of a sudden his lights just shined right in my eyes and it didn’t make any sense,” Sjodin said. “I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw that. … Before I knew it, he was already into my car.”

The rookie trooper described the collision as “crunching and exploding glass.” He said he knew he would be all right when Respet showed up and took charge of the crash scene. He was transported to Cloquet Memorial Hospital to be treated.

“It’s not a good technical term to use, but it was an explosive collision,” he said. “It just felt like everything was blowing up around me.”

Sjodin said God and his seat belt saved him. “Aside from the fact that I think God preserved my life and Mr. Langguth’s life, I think the seat belt played a role,” he said.

“The only thing intact was the driver’s seat. Everything around it was completely destroyed.”

He said he doesn’t like being in the public eye, but if this accident makes others think about the possible consequences of drinking and driving he can find some consolation in that.

Sjodin said he is a Christian and he’s forgiven Langguth.

“I’ve heard nothing but good things about the guy,” Sjodin said of Langguth. “Everybody says he is a great guy and they are surprised that it happened. I just hope that he can get through all of it and everything will be all right for him and his family.”

Langguth had a drunken-driving conviction in 1998. He couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday night.

“On behalf of the family, we love him, he made a mistake, and we’re going to support him through it,” said his daughter, Stacy Langguth, of Duluth.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to the state trooper and his family,” said Langguth’s wife, Maureen. “They’re definitely in our hearts and minds.”

Sjodin said he has a doctor’s appointment Tuesday and hopes to get word that he can return to work by the end of the month.

“The most important thing for people to know is that drinking and driving will change lives,” he said. “It will kill people and destroy families. I want people to be aware of those dangers.”

A Central City dentist accepted a plea agreement in a Medicaid fraud case, Attorney General Jack Conway and his Office of Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Control announced Tuesday.

Dr. Timothy Underwood, 58, was sentenced in Franklin Circuit Court on Sept. 11 for presenting false claims to the Kentucky Medical Assistance Program.

He was indicted on charges that he defrauded the Kentucky Medicaid Program in December 2006.

Underwood will receive a 12-month sentence that will be conditionally discharged on the condition that he pay more than $7,000 in restitution to the Kentucky Medicaid Program and $3,500 in investigative costs to the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General, according to a press release from Conway’s office.

The defendant has also agreed to never again be a provider in the Kentucky Medicaid Program.

From March 8, 1998, through March 31, 2003, Underwood submitted duplicate bills to the Kentucky Medicaid Program giving the perception that procedures were performed by two dentists, while they were actually performed by just one dentist, the press release states.

The business-to-business toilet company’s technical Web site could wring a yawn even from a scatologist.

But the YouTube video about its self-cleaning toilet simply bowls over many people. (Type “cws toilets” into Google and the “Swedish self-cleaning toilet” video link tops the page.)

Or check out the Web site www.willitblend.com and see how Blendtec zanily promotes its line of blenders and whirs immense interest in its products. (Blended items have included an iPhone, light bulbs and a Barbie.)

The Boston dentist whose practice was lost in the fog of big city phone book advertising launched a blog and then published an e-book titled “Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex.”

In three years, her annual revenues jumped from about $150,000 to more than $1 million. Actor Ben Affleck came in for treatment of a chipped tooth.

David Meerman Scott, considered an expert about how social networking can benefit businesses large and small, cited these success stories and more during a Wednesday morning talk at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center.

“Every one of you can do this,” Scott told an audience whose numbers included owners or operators of small businesses.

“You can achieve a similar kind of success for your business,” he said.

Scott began his presentation with questions for the crowd.

In the previous one to two months, he asked, how many had researched a product or service in response to direct mail advertising? About 5 percent raised their hands. How about print ads in phone books? Twenty percent. Mainstream media? Fifty percent.

And how about the Internet? One hundred percent.

Business marketing will never be the same, he said. Political campaigning either.

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, influential bloggers and the like elected Barack Obama president, Scott insisted.

It wasn’t politics, he said. It was marketing.

Scott said he had spoken to an audience of about 350 men in Saudi Arabia and asked them to name Obama’s one-word campaign message. He said nearly everybody immediately responded, “Change.”

Scott said many companies are wary of using social media for fear they will “lose track of their message” or risk someone writing something negative about their product or service.

But it’s time to move past those fears, he said, and embrace new marketing opportunities that in some cases cost a company next to nothing.

Stop making excuses, he said.