NC dentists at odds over management company rules

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Proposed restrictions on companies that help North Carolina dentists administer their practices have caused several of the firms to spend time and money fighting them.

A trade association comprising about three-fourths of the state’s dentists has been pushing a bill that would regulate dental service organizations more closely. They say some organizations are crossing the line by essentially controlling dental practices when state law allows only dentists to own and operate them.

Some dentists who use such organizations and their patients held a news conference Tuesday at the Legislative Building in Raleigh in seeking to derail the measure.

Many of these organizations have given more than $1 million to a political organization that’s run a television ad to oppose the bills. The dental society aired its own commercial.

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