STEP1: Use DENTALPLANS.COM Link Below To Use Coupon

DENTALPLANS.COM COUPON DISCOUNT – Use This Link

Inside the two-room space next door to Courtesy Metals in the 3700 block of South California Avenue, Rendon clandestinely ran a dentist’s office equipped with syringes, painkillers and dentures, according to Chicago police.

The makeshift dental office in the Brighton Park neighborhood, steps away from a metal scrapping machine called the “Bone Crusher,” was free of frills.

Instead of sitting in a traditional reclining dentist’s chair, patients sat in a leather office seat, according to police reports. The reports said that Rendon, 49, worked on teeth using something similar to a power tool usually used for polishing metal and that patients spit into a garbage can instead of a sink. Rendon told police he had a dental license he said he had earned in Mexico.

That seemed to be enough for his clientele, police said. Officers arriving to investigate an anonymous tip found five persons waiting to be treated. Rendon did not have the proper credentials to practice in the United States and no business license from the city.

Rendon was arrested Thursday and charged with misdemeanor providing medical service without a license, said police Cmdr. David Jarmusz said.

Repeated attempts to reach Rendon, who lives in the rented space, were unsuccessful Friday. The owner of Courtesy Metals, who did not want his name used, said he did not know what his renter was up to, saying the Mexican national only had friends visit.

Susan Hofer, a spokeswoman for the state department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which oversees the licensing of hundreds of professions, said unlicensed dentists pose a threat to consumers. Unlike an unlicensed home contractor, who might damage property, an unlicensed dentist might be dangerous to a patient’s health, she said.

The department has received 30 complaints concerning unlicensed dentistry in the past 16 months, she said.

Last week, a dentist and his assistant in downstate Macon County were criminally charged after he was accused of allowing his assistant to perform unauthorized dental work.

Today, the American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID, www.aaid.com), the leading professional society for dental-implant practitioners, advised consumers interested in implants that in-depth practitioner training and experience are critical for successful outcomes, and prospective patients should inquire about a dentist’s implant qualifications (see also <http://www.newsrx.com/library/topics/American-Academy-of-Implant-Dentistry.html> American Academy of Implant Dentistry).

“It can be a difficult decision to undergo surgery to insert dental implants to replace one or more missing teeth,” said AAID President Joel Rosenlicht, DMD. “Many practitioners, including general dentists, are well qualified to provide implant treatment, based on their extensive experience and in-depth training. However, beware of those who simply attend a weekend implant seminar.”

Rosenlicht further explained it is impossible for a dentist to become proficient at implant surgery over the course of a single weekend. “Regardless of whether a dentist is a specialist or a general practitioner, attending a weekend session isn’t enough. There is a higher level of risk with the procedure if the dentist hasn’t had extensive, specific training and experience in placing and restoring dental implants.”

He added that implant surgery is precise and very predictable, but it is an invasive procedure that requires excellent surgical skills. “In most cases, the surgery won’t be successful unless patients have sufficient bone mass in the jaw to secure the implant. So rigorous training and extensive experience are critical factors when judging if a patient would be a good candidate for implants.”

The relationship is a collaborative effort to help small business owners and teachers access much-needed discounts. While Office Depot’s Worklife Rewards(R) and Star Teacher programs allow small business owners and teachers, respectively, to save on the supplies they need most, DentalPlans.com’s discount dental plans allow individuals, families and groups to access quality dental care savings at participating dentists nationwide.

According to a recent Harris Interactive/Health Day poll, 51 percent of uninsured and 30 percent of insured Americans skipped necessary dental care visits during the last year due to financial burdens. With rising dental care costs, the discount dental plans from www.DentalPlans.com present affordable alternatives to dental insurance that help alleviate the burden of dental care bills.

Members of Office Depot’s Worklife Rewards(R) and Star Teacher programs can visit www.MyWorkLifeRewards.com/partners and www.MyStarTeacher.com/partners, and click on the DentalPlans.com logo.

“In today’s economy, everyone is looking to save. DentalPlans.com is committed to helping small businesses trim costs while still offering a competitive dental care option to their employees,” said Buddy Johnson, CEO of DentalPlans.com. “Our relationship with Office Depot will allow us to reach more small business owners and in turn, to help more individuals and families save at the dentist.”

To learn more about business opportunities with DentalPlans.com, please contact Jenn Stoll at JStoll@DentalPlans.com or 954-668-2122.

About DentalPlans.com

DentalPlans.com has been providing individuals, families, businesses and groups with affordable discount dental plans since 1999. As the top-ranked dental plan website and the leading online marketer of discount dental plans, DentalPlans.com is devoted to improving oral health by making quality dental care affordable and accessible to everyone across the nation. Get Dentalplans coupon here

But the children, selected through the school district by referral from nurses, will get additional treatment, said Aiken dentist Dr. Charlie Wyont, who has coordinated the Aiken County effort in the national program that provides the pro bono services.

Originally, dentists volunteering with the program went ahead and treated kids with cavities and other needs on the “Give Kids a Smile” day. But that time frame allowed only partial treatment, Wyont said. Last year, dental hygienists began a procedure of providing the children with a thorough cleaning, followed by screening from the dentists.

“Now the child gets a complete treatment in our offices,” said Wyont. “We aren’t seeing the same number of kids now. The first year, we had over 100 children, and it’s gone down each year. As this program has gone on, the dentists have visited schools for screenings, and nurses can also refer for abscesses or tooth decay. We’re getting feedback from the dentists that we’re seeing less problems in the schools. The system is working.”

ATC’s dental assisting program has hosted Give Kids a Smile since its start in Aiken County.

“I love having them here,” said the program director, Amy Johnson. “It’s a great learning experience for our kids and a good networking experience, too. It meets the needs of an underserved group of kids in the community. I wish we had the ability to do this more than once a year.”

Johnson’s students provided assistance as needed and observed the hygienists and dentists. A group of health science students from the Aiken County Career and Technology Center also coordinated games and other activities for children while they waited to see a hygienist and a dentist. One health science student, Elizabeth Hernandez, had a different assignment, serving as a translator for some of the kids. A native of California, Hernandez’s parents are from El Salvador.

“This has been great,” she said. “I look forward to doing it again. My hope of wanting to be a nurse has grown. So far the kids have been really excited. I think they felt more comfortable knowing I was there.”

This new agreement allows Delta SkyMiles members to earn miles when they join any discount dental plan from DentalPlans.com.

Active SkyMiles members will earn 1,500 miles for joining a family discount dental plan and 1,000 miles for joining an individual discount dental plan. DentalPlans.com is also offering SkyMiles members up to 2,000 miles when joining, for a limited time.

What:__ Third Quarter 2009 Earnings Conference Call

When:__ Friday, November 13, 2009 at 10:00 AM ET

Where:__ http://prnewswire.mediatown.com.br/player/?id=136

How:__ Live over the Internet — Simply log on to the web at the

address above.

Conference call dial-in phone numbers:

Toll-free from the U.S.: 1-888-700-0802;

Parties in Brazil: 55 (11) 4688-6361;

Parties in other countries: 1-786-924-6977

Contact: Medial Saude’s Investor Relations Area, +55-11-2112-4470, ri@medialsaude.com.br, or Daniela Ueda from FIRB – Financial Investor Relations for Medial Saude S.A., +55-11-3897-6857, daniela.ueda@firb.com

If you are unable to participate during the live webcast, the call will be archived at http://www.medialsaude.com.br. To access the replay, click on the Investor Relations section.

Medial is one of the largest conglomerates in the Brazilian supplementary healthcare industry, provides healthcare and dental plan coverage and operates an owned-delivery network of labs and hospitals. The Company had, by the end of June, over 1.9 million plan members, 10 hospitals, 48 healthcare clinics and 61 diagnostics units, in addition to a wide third-party healthcare network.

SOURCE Medial Saude S.A.

Credit: Medial Saude S.A.

Aetna Inc. has advised 8,500 area customers that it will terminate two of its Medicare Advantage plans at the end of this year. Independence Blue Cross has given the same notices to 44,000 individual subscribers who depend on four plans it offers.

Other insurers in other markets are also making cuts.

Meanwhile, area offices for the aging are being swamped with calls as worried senior citizens try to figure out whether their plans are affected.

“People are calling in tears,” said Kim Andrews, director of a program with the Delaware County Office of Services for the Aging that helps the elderly sort out insurance options.

Both companies continue to offer other Medicare Advantage plans, and both also sell “Medigap” insurance, a supplement to Medicare.

“I’m upset, and so is my wife,” said retired banker Joe McGough, 77, of East Falls, who received a letter from Aetna earlier this month.

“We haven’t been that sick, and we’re not costing them hardly anything,” McGough said. “Maybe it has something to do with [President] Obama and all that health reform.”

Health economist Mark V. Pauly at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School had a similar assessment. “Maybe they are just trying to tidy up before the storm,” he said.

With Congress looking to Medicare savings to bankroll its plans for health reform, insurers around the country that sell Medicare Advantage plans are cutting back their offerings for 2010, saying federal reimbursements are too small.

Reimbursements for Medicare Advantage plans will be down 4 percent, the insurers said, even as medical costs for doctors and hospitals continue to increase.

“We had to take a hard look at our plans,” said Eric Cormier, general manager of Aetna’s Mid-Atlantic region and retiree markets.

Nationally, 24.2 percent of the 45.5 million people who qualify for Medicare use Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare is primarily federally funded health insurance, but its coverage has gaps.

Under Medicare Advantage programs, the government subcontracts with insurance companies to handle the paperwork, manage the care, fill in the gaps, and provide various extra services, such as drug and dental plans. The insurers also charge premiums and co-pays.

The federal government pays the insurers an average of 12 percent more than it would cost to fund plain-vanilla Medicare. Reimbursement varies by county, depending on costs.

Rural areas usually get more, and Medicare also provides reimbursements to hospitals handling caseloads of poor patients who cannot pay.

But policymakers in Washington have been looking at that extra reimbursement, seeing it as part of the way to fund increased coverage.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Senate Finance Committee bill sees $404 billion of the $829 billion 10-year price tag coming from savings in Medicare and two other programs. An earlier analysis suggested that Medicare changes would provide 10-year savings of $460.3 billion. Of that, $124.3 billion would come from changes to the Medicare Advantage plans.

In a House version of the bill, Medicare Advantage savings would amount to $172 billion over 10 years, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Pauly said Medicare Advantage plans were caught in an ideological shift. Democrats would like to see private insurers out of the Medicare business, he said. “Payments have been reduced, and they are on the chopping block going forward.”

Medicare, he said, “is both the model and the stalking horse for single-payer insurance.”

Despite the cuts, insurers want to stay in the senior-citizen market, especially in a state such as Pennsylvania, with its large elderly population.

“The demographics are there,” said Jason Feuerman, senior vice president and executive director of Bravo Health Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Bravo is a Maryland-based company that sells only Medicare Advantage plans, specializing in HMO coverage. It is expanding its local reach.

In the Philadelphia area, cuts by Independence Blue Cross affect just over a third of its 133,500 individual Medicare Advantage subscribers.

Aetna is eliminating plans covering 6,500 individuals in Philadelphia and its suburbs, or 19 percent, and 1,000 in nearby New Jersey counties, or about 12 percent.

Both insurers are eliminating plans that serve elderly subscribers poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Aetna’s plan serves 1,000; the Independence Blue Cross plan serves 19,000.

These are the main plans to be cut: Aetna’s Medicare Golden Premier PPO plan and Independence Blue Cross’ Keystone 65 Complete, Keystone 65 Value across the region, and Personal Choice PPO 65 for subscribers in Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties.

In Philadelphia and Bucks County, Independence Blue Cross’ Personal Choice PPO 65 plans will continue.

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

Credit: The Philadelphia Inquirer

Elizabeth Risberg, 415-972-8423

erisberg@delta.org

Delta Dental of California today announced the appointment of Benjamin Lowry as director of Southern California sales.

Lowry brings more than 15 years of experience in sales, employee benefits and consulting, including eight years with VSP, where he was responsible for sales and account management in Southern California. Prior to that, Lowry was a sales consultant for Automatic Data Processing and a systems consultant for Hewitt Associates. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Iowa and has completed graduate coursework at Pepperdine University.

As Delta Dental’s regional sales director, Lowry will supervise sales account executives in the company’s Cerritos and San Diego sales offices.

Delta Dental of California, Pennsylvania and its affiliated companies within its holding company system, along with Delta Dental of New York, are all part of the Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA), based in Oak Brook, Ill. DDPA consists of 39 Delta Dental member companies licensed in all 50 states. The association collectively covers nearly 52 million of the 173 million people nationwide with private dental insurance, making it by far the largest national system of dental plans.

“We want to create opportunities for children to be healthy, and we hope the end result is that it’ll set children up for success so that when they start school, they’re better prepared to succeed,” said Rebecca Clancy, executive director of Smart Start, one of 21 local agencies receiving funding from the Finney County United Way’s annual campaign, which has a goal of raising $550,000 this year. “We don’t want to reinvent the wheel — we try to be involved in what’s going on in the community already, to bridge gaps in services that might not be getting enough funding.”

The director of the local children’s agency said Smart Start’s dollars are designed to be flexible to cater to the needs of a particular community.

The local children’s agency aims to ensure that Kansas children are healthy and prepared to succeed in school and does so by providing flexible funding to communities and organizations that maintain programs and projects that focus on early childhood health and education for children from birth to age 5.

Clancy said her agency’s receipt of funds is not only pumped back directly into local programs but also allows the educational organization that serves 12 other neighboring counties from its Garden City office to demonstrate local fiscal support so that it can acquire larger state funds.

“(The United Way’s support) helps us secure bigger grant dollars that we bring to southwest Kansas,” Clancy said. “Of course, each year these dollars are up for debate as the state government sees other shortfalls, so we work really hard to preserve those dollars so we can invest in our children here, build secure homes and have them go to school, so they can contribute to the local economy.”

Though Smart Start serves organizations in neighboring counties including Grant, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearny, Lane, Morton, Scott, Seward, Stanton, Stevens and Wichita, local United Way dollars are used only for programs within Finney County, Clancy said.

The agency, which is fiscally sponsored by the Russell Child Development Center, hasn’t yet identified where about $2,000 — about 2 percent of its operating budget — in United Way funding will go this year, but in past years, financial support has been directed to Lifetime Smiles, a dental program for kids operated through United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries, and Wee Readers, a story time program at the Finney County Public Library.

Clancy said she appreciates the United Way’s help to meet the special challenges the regional agency faces in this part of the state.

“We serve a larger part of the state than some of the other Smart Starts in Kansas, and many of our citizens have to overcome transportation barriers, so we’re very mobile, and we work really hard to overcome that,” Clancy said. “We also work to be helpful to non-English speaking residents, because we do have a higher population of people who don’t speak English or speak multiple other languages. We work really hard to translate materials and bridge language barriers to help families get what they need.”

Other organizations receiving United Way funding include the following partner agencies: United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Finney and Kearny Counties, Community Day Care, Emmaus House, Spirit of the Plains CASA, Russell Child Development Center, Garden City Area Chapter of the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Miles of Smiles, Kansas Children’s Service League Head Start, United Cerebral Palsy of Kansas, Catholic Social Service, Family Crisis Services Inc., Meals on Wheels, Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association, Garden City Family YMCA, The Garden City Recreation Commission Playground Program, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Santa Fe Trail Council Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland.

Smart Start

Contact: Rebecca Clancy, director

Address: 714 Ballinger St.

Phone: 275-1510

Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Web site: http://www.smartstartswks.org

Credit: The Garden City Telegram, Kan.