A Call to Cease and Desist ADA's Member Peer Review Program

Stats?...We Don't Need No Stink'in Stats!

Member Peer Review operates under the direction of the Council on Dental Benefits Program and since 2001 the Council has published a Methods and Outcomes Report every other year for the benefit of its members. The M & O reports are created from statistics provided by individual state Peer Review Committee activity with reporting apparently being elective, as not all have reported their activity on a regular basis. *See my blog post: Who Is Reviewing Peer Review?

 The ADA proudly touts the Peer Review program's unbiased dispute resolution process and its benefits to members. The ADA has repeatedly pronounced a resolution rate of approximately 50%  patient to doctor settlement success by citing their statistical analysis. *See my blog post: Who Is Reviewing Peer Review?


For the past several months I have been in contact with Krishna Aravamudhan, Sr. Manager, Office of Quality Assessment and Improvement, Division of Dental Practice about the availability of the 2009 and 2011 M & O reports. It was implied that the information was being collected and the M & O reports would be available soon. Recently I received the following notice:

Hello Dr. Batton:

As I mentioned to you in my previous email, the 2007 data is the most current. We have not gathered data for 2009 and 2011. The Council on Dental Benefit Programs recently reviewed the survey and has decided to discontinue collecting data for future years.

Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance

Thank you

Krishna

Krishna Aravamudhan, BDS, MS aravamudhank@ada.org
Sr. Manager, Office of Quality Assessment and Improvement
Division of Dental Practice
312.440.2772

I advised Ms. Aravamudhan that I would like to discuss this revelation with a dentist member of the Division of Dental Practice but I've not been contacted to date.

I find it most disconcerting that the ADA abruptly decides to no longer publish key data relevant to one of its most highly advertised benefits: Dispute Resolution, to its members. Furthermore it is suspicious that the Peer Review statistics will no longer be published following the questioning of the inherent bias and unethical method of administration of the program. And I have repeatedly asked the Council on Ethics, Benefits and Judicial Affairs to investigate member Peer Review's biased nature.

I now ask the American Dental Association to issue a cease and desist order on Peer Review actions until the allegation of bias and unethical methods of administration of member Peer Review are resolved.