Vendor sponsorship
If you would like to become a sponsor or partner with OCDS, please click below.
Upcoming Events
For the first half of 2021, all of our educational opportunities and events will be virtual and online.
News
COVID-19 Mandatory Policy Instructions for Employers and Sample Mandatory Vaccination Policy
Employers may choose to require employees to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine. According to both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), employers can implement a mandatory vaccination program for their employees as part of the employer’s health and safety program to combat COVID-19 in the workplace.
Customize the grey text in the template below according to your practice policy. A copy of the signed acknowledgment and accompanying documentation should be kept in the employee’s separate confidential personnel record.
Important Note: Effective Aug. 9, with compliance no later than Aug. 23, California issued an order requiring employers in health care settings, including dental practices, to verify the vaccine status of all workers and retain written records that workers are fully vaccinated.
All dental office staff who are not fully vaccinated or who cannot show proof of vaccination are subject to weekly COVID-19 testing and will be required to wear surgical masks, at minimum.
Unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated workers must also observe all other infection control requirements, including masking, and are not exempted from the testing requirement even if they have a medical contraindication to vaccination, since they are still potentially able to spread the illness. Previous history of COVID-19 from which the individual recovered more than 90 days earlier or a previous positive antibody test for COVID-19 do not waive this requirement for testing.
FAQs regarding State Public Health Order on Required Vaccination or Testing of Health Care workers
Below are some of the common questions CDA has received from members about the state’s public health order of July 26, 2021, requiring California health care workers to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or submit to regular testing.
This information will evolve as CDA continues to engage with the Newsom administration to obtain answers to your most pressing questions. CDA will continue to fight to ensure dental chairs remain open to patients and that new mandates issued during the pandemic still allow dental practices to remain sustainable.
CDA will update this page as more information becomes available.
12th Annual ASDA Golf Tournament
ASDA at WesternU is proud to present their 12th Annual Golf Tournament on Friday, August 27th at 4:00pm!
Players of ALL skill levels are invited to participate and compete for first place and forever have their names engraved in the ASDA golf tournament plaque! The tournament rules are beginner-friendly and include “fun holes” along the way for everyone to enjoy.
This is a great opportunity to bond with colleagues, pre-dentals, WesternU faculty, and students, as well as network with dental vendors all while you bring your “A” game to the golf course. Following the 9-hole golf tournament, dinner and drinks will be served along with an awards ceremony and raffle.
For an all-inclusive experience – player registration, dinner, and drinks, it will be $105. If you don’t feel like play a round of golf, anyone can join us for dinner, drinks and take part in the raffle for only $35!
Please note that August 16th is the deadline to sign-up!
12th Annual ASDA Golf Tournament
Date: August 27th, 2021
Location: Los Serranos Country Club, 15656 Yorba Ave, Chino Hills, CA 91709
Check-In: 3:00pm
Shotgun Start: 4:00 pm
Dinner: 6:45 pm
Event Registration and Payment: https://forms.gle/bo57tLKKQJ6PQvSa7
Sign-Up Deadline: August 16th
Payment Deadline: August 20th
White House urges businesses to protect against ransomware threats as disruptions across U.S. increase
Ransomware incidents are increasing in size and number across the United States, forcing shutdowns across varied industries in recent weeks, from a meat processing plant in the Midwest to a pipeline that carries gasoline and jet fuel and serves the Southeast.
The increase and severity of the attacks prompted the Biden administration on June 2 to issue an open letter to business leaders asking them to treat the threat of ransomware attacks with great urgency. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights on June 8 shared the White House alerts with specific recommendations from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to protect facilities and systems from malware attacks.
CISA also warned of a “critical VMware vulnerability” and asked businesses to patch the vulnerability as soon as it is detected. VMware is cloud computing software, and the vulnerability exists in the VMware VCenter Server and VMware Cloud Foundation.
Health care facilities are frequent target of malware attacks
Although service disruptions at large corporations that support national infrastructure tend to make the news headlines, small businesses, including dental practices, are not immune to malware attacks. Hospitals have become a frequent target, compromising protected health information and even patient safety. Chemotherapy treatments were delayed for patients at the University of Vermont Medical Center last November after the center lost access to medical records following a ransomware attack, for example.
California is reopening, but requirements will continue in dental offices. CDA answers dentists' top 8 questions.
CDA members are asking how the state’s reopening will apply to dental practices.
Here, CDA Practice Support answers members’ top questions about physical distancing, patient screening, the use of face coverings and other requirements that will continue in health care settings after June 15.
Cal/OSHA withdraws revisions to emergency standards; dental practices should continue to comply with standards that took effect November 2020
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board on June 9 voted to withdraw the revisions to its COVID-19 prevention emergency temporary standards that the board approved June 3 and sent to the Office of Administrative Law for approval.
Upon the OAL’s approval, several revisions would have taken effect June 15 to coincide with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to reopen much of California’s economy.
Now, with the California Department of Public Health announcing it will soon release new mask guidance, the standards board will review that new guidance, along with CDC guidance on masking, at its June 17 meeting and will likely propose new revisions to the emergency standards and submit those to the OAL for review (within 10 days).
No new regulations will take effect June 15. The soonest any new regulations could take effect is the end of June. Until new emergency temporary standards are approved, dental practices should continue to comply with the ETS that took effect November 2020. CDA will keep members informed about updated Cal/OSHA regulations.
Electronic prescribing for controlled and uncontrolled substances becomes mandatory in California in January 2022
Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, dentists and other prescribers in California must issue electronic-data prescriptions for both controlled and noncontrolled substances with very few exceptions. Paper prescriptions will no longer be allowed by state law, as CDA previously reported.
All pharmacies across the state, too, must be capable of accepting those prescriptions and are required to immediately notify prescribers if the electronic transmission fails or is incomplete.
Delta Dental indefinitely postpones scheduled fee cuts for 2,200 specialist dentists in California
Delta Dental of California’s proposed reductions to the “maximum allowable fees” for approximately 2,200 endodontists, periodontists and oral surgeons in California will not take effect July 1, as previously scheduled. Instead, Delta Dental has decided to indefinitely postpone the previously announced fee reductions.
CDA has been urging Delta Dental to reevaluate the proposed fee reductions since Delta Dental first announced them last February, not only due to the pandemic but also because CDA believed that the reductions were based on invalid and insufficient data and would violate Delta Dental’s duties under its contracts with providers.
HOW YOU CAN POTENTIALLY RECEIVE FULL FORGIVENESS OF YOUR ROUND ONE PPP LOAN AND OBTAIN UP TO A $5,000 EMPLOYEE RETENTION TAX CREDIT FOR EACH OF YOUR EMPLOYEES FOR 2020
As most of you know on Sunday, December 27, 2020 the President signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA). This was a $900 Billion economic stimulus package and the new law has several provisions primarily dealing with the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that directly (and very positively) affects dentists.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 (“CARES Act”) created the PPP as well as the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC). If you qualify for the ERTC, the credit is a maximum of 50% of qualifying wages up to a total of $10,000 per employee for 2020, so the maximum credit would be $5,000 per qualifying employee.
The Dental Board of California will convert to an online-only renewal process
As part of this transition, licensees/permit holders will no longer receive the current renewal notice by mail. Licensees/permit holders will instead be mailed a renewal reminder postcard approximately 90 days prior to their expiration date for each license or permit they hold.
To aid licensees/permit holders in this transition, the Board recommends that licensees/permit holders that are not currently registered on the BreEZe system set up their account now to avoid any technological or account issues when renewing a license or permit near the expiration date.
For information on setting up a BreEZe account and renewing online, please visit the BreEZe webpage at www.BreEZe.ca.gov.
In addition to renewing online, licensees can apply for a new permit and make changes to their information, such as updating a mailing address or requesting a duplicate license.
Until the transition, licensees can continue to renew online or by mail. If there are any additional questions or concerns, please contact the Board by phone at (916) 263-2300, or by email at dentalboard@dca.ca.gov.
Reporting Symptoms or Positive COVID-19 Test Results
Give dental team members responsible for patient and employee COVID-19 screening the knowledge and tools they need to comply with regulatory requirements and reduce the spread of the disease.
CDA COVID-19 Vaccine Information Toolkit
This toolkit was created to help dentists and the dental team understand currently available information about the COVID-19 vaccine, its distribution landscape and the process for vaccine administration as a licensed dentist. Additionally, this toolkit provides best practices and resources for dentist employers who have questions about the vaccine and their staff.
What practice owners need to know now that FFCRA is voluntary
As of Jan. 1, employers may voluntarily provide emergency paid sick leave or emergency paid FMLA leave under FFCRA. If an employer chooses to voluntarily offer leave, it must be used for the same purposes and subject to the same conditions as originally outlined in FFCRA.
Revised training requirements simplify process for dentists to administer COVID-19 vaccine
The changes are a result of CDA’s advocacy work with state agencies to streamline the training process and reduce duplicative trainings to make it easier for dentists to become eligible to administer the vaccine as the state faces a shortage of vaccinators.
New law extends COVID tax relief to support businesses impacted by COVID-19
The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 modifies and extends the Employee Retention Credit, allowing employers to claim a refundable tax credit against the employer share of Social Security tax until June 30.
benefits of membership
Advocacy
OCDS Board Members and Delegates advocate with CDA on state issues that can affect oral health, your patients and your practice.
Patient Referrals
Patient referrals can be done on our website www.ocds.org or by calling our office at 714-634-8944.
Social Events
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all in-person and social events have been cancelled. We look forward to bringing you in-person events again, such as Angels games, Oktoberfest and our Hospitality Suite at CDA Presents, just to name a few!
Continuing Educational Opportunities
For the first half of 2021, all of our educational opportunities and events will be virtual and online.
Employment Job Bank
OCDS members can post jobs and search for applicants all from our website! Please contact our office for additional information.
Classifieds
OCDS members can post items, practices, etc. for sale.
Continuing Education
OCDS offers two kinds of Continuing Education (CE) opportunities for our members – in-person and online.
OCDS also offers free online CE through Viva Learning. This online forum has hundreds of CE courses, live webinars and product trainings and cover a wide range of clinical topics. Online CE is also available to your staff members that become an ADHP component member for just $50 a year. To become an ADHP member, please click the button below.
