Understanding that positive staff morale and a pleasant patient experience are key to any successful dental practice, Keurig, a leader in gourmet coffee brewing both at home and at the office asks, could your practice use a perk up?

Enter today for the “Perk Up Your Practice” Contest! Just share in 200 words or less how your practice currently boosts staff morale and the patient experience and why you could benefit from a “perk up.” You can also submit up to two photos with your entry. The entry period is from now until March 31, 2010. The 10 finalists will be announced on April 5, and the DentistryIQ Community will have the chance to vote on the grand prize winner, who will be announced the week of May 3, 2010.

Enter your submissions by clicking here

Ten lucky finalists will receive the NEW Keurig B155 Commercial Brewing System for their practice. The Keurig B155 is specially designed for use in dental offices and includes a new one-of-a-kind, interactive touchscreen interface that allows users to walk through a variety of functions, and an easy to fill, removable water reservoir - our largest at 90 ounces – can make up to 18 cups of coffee before needing a refill. Now, you, your staff and your patients can enjoy fresh, gourmet coffee at the touch of a button.

In addition, the ten finalists will receive free registrations for the dentist and three guests for a 2010 Levin Group Total Practice Success™ Seminar of their choice.* The seminars are presented by Dr. Roger Levin, CEO and Chairman of Levin Group, the leading international dental consulting company with 25 years of experience.

Like all Keurig brewers, the B155 uses Keurig’s patented K-Cup® portion packs that eliminate the hassle of grinding beans, measuring coffee, handling filters and messy clean-up while brewing a gourmet cup of coffee or tea in less than one minute. With over 200 different coffee, tea and hot cocoa options to choose from, everyone in the office can find something they love! For more information on Keurig, visit www.keurig.com or the Keurig for Healthcare page on Facebook.

The DentistryIQ community will vote for the Grand Prize Winner, who in addition to receiving the NEW Keurig B155 Commercial Brewer for their practice will receive a one day in-office workshop from Levin Group. The 1Day New Patient Experience™ workshop is conducted at your practice by an experienced Levin Group Trainer and will show you how to roll out the “red carpet” for every new patient. Now your team can create and deliver the outstanding customer service your patients want at every visit. Your staff will also receive 6 CE credits from this training. For more information on Levin Group, visit http://www.levingroup.com.

* Travel, accommodations and other related expenses to and from the seminar are the dentist’s responsibility.

Health professionals petition FTC for relief from Red Flag Rules
In light of a recent federal court decision, four national organizations representing dentists, physicians and veterinarians recently called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to exclude health professionals from controversial new regulation intended to combat identity theft.

A letter sent to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz by leaders of the American Dental Association (ADA), American Medical Association (AMA), American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is the latest challenge to the so-called “red flags” rule. The FTC’s interpretation of the regulation imposes an unjustified, unfunded mandate on health professionals for detecting and responding to identity theft.

The organizations asked the FTC to make it clear that the rule will not apply to their members given the result of recent litigation brought by the American Bar Association against the FTC. In that case, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that lawyers should be excluded from the requirements imposed by the red flags rule.

The court decision follows wide criticism that the FTC’s overly broad interpretation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT) led the commission to create a rule that oversteps its authority. In response to these concerns, the FTC postponed the rule’s effective date to June 1, but it has never changed the position that the rule will apply to health professionals.

“Congress did not intend the original red flags legislation to apply to small businesses, but rather it was intended to encourage large businesses like banks, credit firms and national retailers to implement best practices to protect customers’ from identity theft,” said ADA President Ronald Tankersley, D.D.S.

In its ruling against the FTC, the court said that the application of this rule to attorneys “is both plainly erroneous and inconsistent with the purpose underlying enactment of the FACT Act.” The court also stated that the FTC “not only seeks to extend its regulatory power beyond that authorized by Congress,” but also “arbitrarily selects monthly invoice billing as the activity it seeks to regulate.”

“The court ruling sends a clear signal that the FTC needs to re-evaluate the broad application of the red flags rule,” said AMA President J. James Rohack, M.D. “Our four organizations firmly believe that applying the rule to health professionals, but not to lawyers, would be unfair.”

“Postponement of the rule’s effective date is inadequate,” said AOA President Larry A. Wickless, D.O. “Our four organizations need a commitment from the FTC that it will not apply the red flags rules to health professionals if it is not applied to lawyers.”

“The burdens of complying with this rule outweigh the benefits,” said AVMA President Larry R. Corry, D.V.M. “The FTC’s interpretation of the FACT Act should be redefined to exclude health professionals.”

For a copy of the joint letter to the FTC, please visit the AMA website at: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/399/ftc-letter-red-flags.pdf

Nobel Biocare finalizes settlement of litigation brought against Blue Sky Bio for patent infringement
Nobel Biocare has announced that the company has reached an agreement with Blue Sky Bio to settle their outstanding patent infringement litigation. Pursuant to this settlement, Nobel Biocare will dismiss its lawsuit and Blue Sky Bio will take a non-exclusive worldwide license to Nobel Biocare’s U.S. Patent No. 5,795,160 and U.S. Patent No. 6,733,291. In return, Nobel Biocare will receive royalty payments from Blue Sky Bio. The amount of those payments was not disclosed.