A Dentist s Guide to the Law: 228 Things Every Dentist Should Know (Guidelines for Practice Success)

Learn about laws that can affect your dental practice and strategies to help avoid costly and time-consuming legal challenges. A Dentist's Guide to the Law discusses legal issues that can arise concerning practice formation, marketing, employment, privacy and data security, disability access, contracts, antitrust, insurance, collections, reimbursement, patient treatment, and more! The user-friendly Q&A format provides easy access to information that can help you stay in compliance with applicable laws.

A Dentist's Guide to the Law addresses key questions such as:

• How do I dismiss a troublesome or threatening patient?
• Can I charge interest on overdue dental fees?
• What are some laws that affect my practice website?
• What can I do about a negative online review?
• What should I do if a law enforcement official asks for information about a patient?
• What does my payment processor mean by PCI compliant?
• Can a dental practice use surveillance videos?
• What are some legal considerations when selecting an electronic dental record?
• What are some risks of hiring someone who has been excluded from Medicare?
• When can a patient bring a service animal into my dental practice?
  

The ADA Division of Legal Affairs developed A Dentist's Guide to the Law in response to questions that members have asked over the years about laws that apply to dental practices. Updated to include information about recent legal developments, A Dentist's Guide to the Law includes information on topics such as the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, website accessibility, online ratings sites, and the Children s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: How to Use This Book

Chapter 2: Know the Law

Chapter 3: Lawsuits

Chapter 4: The ADA Legal Division

Establishing the Dental Practice

Chapter 5: Practice Formats: The Business/Legal Structure

Chapter 6: Dental Office Design

Chapter 7: Practice Marketing

Chapter 8: Practice Websites

Employment Law

Chapter 9: Introduction to Employment Law

Chapter 10: Office Manual and Policies

Chapter 11: Hiring

Chapter 12: Managing the Dental Team

Chapter 13: Termination

Compliance: OSHA, HIPAA, FACTA, COPPA, and the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (Open Payments)

Chapter 14: OSHA

Chapter 15: HIPAA, State Law and PCI DSS: Patient Information

Chapter 16: FACTA: Red Flags And Disposal Rules

Chapter 17: COPPA

Chapter 18: The Physician Payments Sunshine Act (Open Payments)

Business Considerations

Chapter 19: Contracts

Chapter 20: Common Dental Agreements

Chapter 21: Antitrust

Chapter 22: Tax Issues

Chapter 23: Insuring Your Practice

Payment, Collection, and Reimbursement

Chapter 24: Payment and Collections

Chapter 25: Insurers and Other Commercial Payers

The Patient

Chapter 26: The Dentist-Patient Relationship

Chapter 27: Diagnosis and Treatment

Chapter 28: Referrals

Chapter 29: Thorny Patient Treatment Issues

Chapter 30: Terminating the Relationship