Congress Asks GAO to Study Consolidation of Dental Benefits

Members of Congress want to study the impact of consolidation and vertical integration of dental health benefits on health care providers.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has asked the Government Accountability Office to study “consolidation and vertical integration in dental and vision benefit industries,” according to ADA News.

The request by Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash) and Subcommittee of Health Chair Brett Gutherie (R-Ky) comes after advocacy efforts by the American Dental Association (ADA) related to dental insurance reform.

The ADA has been urging Congress to advance the Dental & Optometric Care (DOC) Access Act (S. 1424/H.R. 1385), which, according to the association, “would prohibit dental and vision plans from setting the fees network doctors may charge for services not covered by insurers, from providing unreasonably minimal compensation for services rendered, and from firing doctors into participating in contracts of excel of 2 years.”

Rodgers and Gutherie have asked the GAO study to evaluate what impact consolidation and vertical integration would have on consumers and health care providers.