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The issues between the dental profession and a nonprofit company in Alabama will come to an end.
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed a bill Thursday that will end the dispute involving the issues the leaders of the dental profession in the state had with the treatment the nonprofit organization was giving to low-income patients.
The new law states that the nonprofit company, Sarrell Dental, can provide the dental care they were giving but the company will now be regulated by the state’s dental commission. Sarrell Dental Centers and the dental community were at odds over whether or not what Sarrell was doing was legal. Sarrell was providing low-cost dental treatment to patients but wasn’t subject to any official dental regulations, which cost dentists patients and could have resulted in injuries to the patients.
Sarrell Dental Centers will now drop a state antitrust lawsuit against the Alabama Dental Association, according to company CEO Jeffrey Parker.
Both sides got what they wanted, because Sarrell Dental will continue to operate the way it does, and the Alabama Dental Association can oversee Sarrell Dental’s procedures and the course of treatment it provides to its patients.
Sarrell Dental is a company made up of 11 clinics and a mobile dental unit that treats mostly Medicaid patients.
The problems between the two sides began when the University of Alabama Birmingham, the state’s only dental school, withdrew students from the Sarrell Dental Centers’ clinics. It is not known how the relationship between the two entities will proceed.
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